Spanish Language Blog

As you will probably remember, we started talking about Greetings in Spanish last week. Today is the day to check how to say goodbye in different situations.

Speaking

Adiós (good bye)
Chao (bye)
Hasta luego (see you later, but not in a literal sense)
Hasta mañana (see you tomorrow)
Hasta pronto (see you soon)
Hasta la próxima (until next time)
Hasta el viernes (see you on Friday)
Hasta ahora (see you in a minute)
Hasta la vista (until we see each other again)
Nos vemos (see you)

Writing

1. Formal letters

Le/Les saludo atentamente,
Atentamente/Muy atentamente,
Reciba un cordial saludo de (once a relationship has been established)  (Yours faithfully/sincerely,)

En espera de su respuesta, le/les saludo atentamente    (I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully,)

2. Less formal letters

Un cordial saludo,  (Yours truly,)

You have to keep in mind that not all greetings are verbal, so you can say “hello” or “goodbye” simply by waving your hand with the palm facing out, with a a wink of the eye or a simple smile and eye contact. It is also frequent to shake a friend’s hand or give him/her a hug depending on how close your relationship is. And remember that we Spanish (and also French people) kiss each other on both cheeks, so don´t panic when you come to Spain hehe!

I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday! Today we are going to have a quick review on how saying “Hello” in Spanish.

There are different ways of greeting each other, depending on the context and how close is our relationship with the addressee. In Spain it is very common to kiss people on both cheeks when you meet them, even if it is for the first time. Women will kiss other women and men, and men will kiss women and close male friends or family members.

“Buenos días” or “Buenas tardes” are very common greetings in Spanish, they are a good way to show respect, even when you are not having a conversation with the other person.

Speaking

1. Greeting a Friend

Hola (Hello)
¿Qué tal? (Hello, how are things?)
¿Cómo estás? (Hello, how are you?)
¿Qué haces?  What are you doing?
¿Qué hay? (hello, what’s up?)
¿Cómo te va? How’s it going?

Buenos días (good morning)
Buenas tardes (good afternoon)
Buenas noches (good evening/good night)
Buenas / muy buenas  (a shortened version of the above three greetings, suitable anytime more informal, suitable anytime)

Bien, gracias. / Muy bien. (Well, thanks. / Very well.)
Como siempre.  (As always.)
Más o menos. Okay, so-so.
Mal.  Bad.
Todo bien.  All good, great.
Nada.  Nothing.
¿Y tú? (And you? A common follow-up question.)

2. The Formal Verbal Greeting

In formal situations, with strangers, more senior persons, we use “usted” instead of “tú”, and third person pronouns and verbs to show respect.
¿Cómo está usted?
¿Cómo le va?
¿Qué hace?

3. Meeting someone for the first time

Mucho gusto. (Nice to meet you, often said while shaking hands and as an alternative to saying “encantado” if the other person says it first)
Encantado. / Encantado de conocerle. (How do you do. / Pleased to meet you)

Writing

1. Formal letters

Estimado señor/señora (Dear Sir / Madam)
Distinguido señor/ señora (Dear Sir / Madam)

NOTE: in Spanish we use a colon instead of a comma after name.
2. Less formal letters

Estimado amigo / José (Dear friend, Jose)

3. Informal letters

Querido amigo / José (Dear friend, Jose)

We will leave the “Goodbye” greetings for a next post. I hope you find it useful!

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estáis?

Today we are going to practice the Spanish verb To Like El verbo Gustar. This is one of those essential Spanish verbs that you will find yourself using all the time. It is also a little tricky to use and for that reason it is a good idea to practice with it as much as possible.

Answers to all tasks involved in this lesson will be given at the end of the post and you can also follow a link with this post to watch the original theory video lesson on the same topic.

To go back and watch the original video lesson please follow this link:

The Spanish verb To Like El verbo Gustar

1. With Gustar we don´t use “yo, tú, él, ella ..”. The persons we use are slightly different. Let´s see if you remember:

What do we use rather than “yo”?
What do we use rather than “nosotros”?
What do we use rather than “tú”?
What do we use rather than “ellos”?
What do we use rather than “usted”?
What do we use rather than “vosotros”?

2. Let´s see now if you know how to conjugate the verb Gustar. I will say a person and I would like you to say the right form of the verb. For example: If I say “a ti” you will have to say “te gusta”:

A nosotros
A ellos
A mí
A vosotros
A ella
A ustedes
A ti
A usted

3. Now, please translate the following sentences using Gustar from Spanish to English:

Me gusta la cerveza.
A mi hermana no le gusta el pescado.
A Manuel y a Carlos les gusta jugar al fútbol
No nos gustan las patatas fritas.

4. Now more sentences using Gustar and this time I would like you to translate from English to Spanish:

I don´t like going to the beach.
Ana likes fruit.
We don´t like dogs.
Do you like eating in a restaurant? (one person / friendly)

5. Next, we will practice describing how much someone likes something. Please translate the following sentences from Spanish to English:

Me gusta mucho comprar ropa.
No nos gusta nada ver la televisión.
A mi primo no le gusta demasiado leer.
A mis amigos les gusta bastante el vino tinto.

6. Now from English to Spanish:

We quite like chocolate.
My daughter really likes milk.
I don´t like going to the cinema at all.
My brothers don´t like studying that much.

This is all for today´s beginner Spanish practice lesson.

I recommend you make sure that you are confident using the verb Gustar as we use it a lot in everyday conversation. Also, its structure is used with various other very common verbs, such as Interesar (To interest). So if you want to say that something interests you, you will say “me interesa”.

Have a lovely week and see you next time with more Spanish practice.

¡Adiós!

I hope you are enjoying my weekly interactive Spanish lessons. Follow this link for many more great resources to help you learn and practice Spanish.

Answers:

1.
A mí
A nosotros
A ti
A ellos
A usted
A vosotros

2.
Nos gusta
Les gusta
Me gusta
Os gusta
Le gusta
Les gusta
Te gusta
Le gusta

3.
I like beer.
My sister doesn´t like fish.
Manuel and Carlos like football.
We don´t like chips.

4.
No me gusta ir a la playa.
A Ana le gusta la fruta.
No nos gustan los perros.
¿Te gusta comer en un restaurante?

5.
I like buying clothes a lot
We don´t like watching TV at all
My cousin doesn´t like reading that much
My friends quite like red wine.

6.
Nos gusta bastante el chocolate.
A mi hija le gusta muchísimo la leche.
No me gusta nada ir al cine.
A mis hermanos no les gusta demasiado estudiar.