Lesson 1 — ¿Cómo te llamas?

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Dialoguel

Raúl: ¡Hola! Me llamo Raúl. ¿Cómo te llamas?

Sofía: Hola, Raúl. Me llamo Sofía. ¿Cómo se escribe Raúl?

Raúl: Se escribe R-A-Ú-L. ¿Qué tal?

Sofía: Bien. ¿Y tú?

Raúl: Fenomenal, gracias.

Sofía: ¡Qué fantástico! Adiós, Raúl.

Raúl: ¡Hasta luego!

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Hello!

English	Español	Listen
Hello	¡Hola!	Listen
Good morning! or Good day!	¡Buenos días!	Listen
Good evening!	¡Buenas tardes!	Listen
Good night!	¡Buenas noches!	Listen
See you later!	¡Hasta luego!	Listen
Goodbye	Adiós	Listen

Notes:

1. Hasta means "until"; luego means "then". In the same vein, hasta mañana means "see you tomorrow".

2."Note the upside-down exclamation (¡) and question marks (¿); you will learn more about them in lesson three.

Examples:

English	Español	Listen
Good morning, class!	¡Buenos días, clase!
Hello, how are you today?	Hola, ¿Qué tal hoy?
see you soon!	Adiós, ¡hasta luego!

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What's your name?

To ask for someone else's name in Spanish, use Cómo, then one of the phrases in the table below ¿Cómo te llamas? is "What's your name?" In Spanish, to say your name, you use the reflexive verb llamarse, which means literally to call oneselfMe llamo Robert is "My name is Robert."

English	Español	Listen
I am called	Me llamo
You (familiar, singular) called	Te llamas
He/She/You (formal, singular) is/are called	Se llama
We are called	Nos llamamos
You (familiar, plural) are called	Os llamáis
They/You (formal, plural) are called	Se llaman

Notes:

Os llamáis is only used in Spain. In most other Spanish-speaking countries, Se llaman is used in both familiar and formal situations.

Examples

English	Español	Listen
My name is Chris	Mi llamo Chris
They're called Peter and Robert.	Se llaman Peter y Robert
What's your name?	¿Cómo te llamas?'
What's his/her name	¿Cómo se llama?

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How are you?

English	Español	Listen
How are you?	¿Cómo estás?
What's up?	¿Qué tal?	Listen
Great!	Fantástic@
Very well	Muy Bien
Well	Bien
Bad	Mal
Really bad	Fatal
And you?	¿Y tú?
Thank you	Gracias	Listen
Happy	Contento
Sad	Triste
Lonely	Solitario
Scared	Asustado
OK	¡Muy bien!
Bored	Aburrido
Tired	Cansado

; Note For some of the words above, there are two options. The one ending in "o" is for males, and the one ending in "a" is for females. It's all to do with agreement, which is covered in future chapters.

; Examples

• Roberto: Hola, Rosa. ¿Qué tal?
• : Hello, Rose. How are you?
• Rosa: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú, Roberto?
• : Very well, thanks. And you, Robert?
• Roberto: Bien también. ¡Hasta luego!
• : I'm good too. See you later!

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How are you?

Inglés	Español
How are you?	¿Qué tal? (listen)
	¿Cómo estás?
Great!	Fantástico
	Fantástica
Very well	Muy bien
Well	Bien
Bad	Mal
Really bad	Fatal
And you?	¿Y tú?
Thank you	Gracias (listen)

; Note For some of the words above, there are two options. The one ending in "o" is for males, and the one ending in "a" is for females. It's all to do with agreement, which is covered in future chapters.

; Examples

• Roberto: Hola, Rosa. ¿Qué tal?
• : Hello, Rose. How are you?
• Rosa: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú, Roberto?
• : Very well, thanks. And you, Robert?
• Roberto: Bien también. ¡Hasta luego!
• : I'm good too. See you later!

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The Spanish alphabet

Here is the normal Spanish alphabet. However, words aren't alphabetized by it. Please read the notes and sections below. (Blue letters are a part of the normal English alphabet).

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
a	b	c	ch	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	ll	m	n	ñ	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z
Notes about Ñ
N and Ñ are considered two different letters. They are alphabetized as separate letters, so Ñ always comes after N, regardless of where it appears in the word. Ex: muñeca comes after municipal.
Notes about CH and LL
CH and LL used to be considered as distinct letters of the alphabet, but in 1994, the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) declared that although CH and LL are distinct letters, they are treated as digraphs for collation purposes. Accordingly, words beginning with CH and LL are now alphabetized under C and L, respectively.
Notes about K and W
K and W are part of the alphabet but are mostly seen in foreign derived words and names, such as karate and whiskey. For instance, kilo is commonly used to refer to a kilogram.

Although the above will help you understand, proper pronunciation of Spanish consonants is a bit more complicated:

Most of the consonants are pronounced as they are in American English with these exceptions:

• b like the English b at the start of a word and after m or n, (IPA: /b/). Elsewhere, especially between vowels, it is softer, often like a blend between English v and b.
• c before a, o, u and other consonants, like English k (IPA: /k/)
• c before i and e like English th in “think” (in Latin America is like English s) (European IPA: /θ/; Latin American IPA: /s/)
• ch like ch in “cheese” (IPA: /tʃ)
• d between vowels (even if it starts a word following a word ending in a vowel) or at the end of a word, like English d in dental (IPA: /d/)
• g before e or i like the Scottish pronunciation of ch in “loch” (IPA: /x/)
• g before a or o like g in “get” (IPA: /g/)
• h is always silent (except in the digraph ch)
• j like the h in hotel, or like the Scottish pronunciation of ch in "loch" (IPA: /h/ or /x/)
• ll is pronounced like English y in “yes” (IPA: /ʎ/)
• ñ like nio in “onion” (or gn in French cognac) (IPA: /ɲ/)
• q like the English k; occurs only before ue or ui (IPA: /k/)
• r at the beginning of a word or when doubled (rr), it is pronounced as a full trill (IPA: /r/), elsewhere it is a single-tap trill (IPA: /ɾ/)
• v is pronounced like b, there is no distinction whatsoever between B and V. (IPA: /b/)
• z like the English th (in Latin America, like English s) (European IPA: /θ/; Latin American IPA: /s/)

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How do you spell that?

Inglés	Español
How is it spelled?	¿Cómo se escribe?
It is spelled	Se escribe
B as in Barcelona	B de Barcelona

; Examples

• Roberto: Buenos días. Me llamo Roberto. ¿Cómo te llamas?
• : Good day. My name is Robert. What's your name?
• Benjamín: Hola. Me llamo Benjamín. ¿Cómo se escribe Roberto?
• : Hello. I'm Benjamin. How do you spell Robert?
• Roberto: Se escribe R (de Rioja); O (de Orangutan); B (de Barcelona); E (de España); R (de Rioja); T (de Tigre); O (de Orangutan).
• : It's spelt R (as in Rioja); O (as in Orangutan); B (as in Barcelona); E (as in Spain); R (as in Rioja); T (as in Tiger); O (as in Orangutan).
• Benjamín: Muchas gracias. ¡Adiós, Roberto!
• : Many thanks. Goodbye, Robert.

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Summary

In this lesson, you have learned:

1. How to greet people (Hola; buenos días; adiós).

2. How to introduce yourself (Me llamo Rosa).

3. How to introduce others (Se llama Roberto).

4. How to say how you are (Fenomenal; fatal; bien).

5. How to spell your name (Se escribe P-E-T-E-R).

6. How to ask others about any of the above (¿Cómo te llamas?; ¿Cómo estás?; ¿Cómo se escribe?).