Learn Spanish Basics ¡Pronto! (The 4-Week "No-Study" Plan)

Hola y bienvenidos, meaning hello and welcome. My name is Tara Bradley-Williams and I'll be teaching this course to help you better communicate with the Spanish speakers in your life. As a bit of a background, I've spent many years as a middle and high school Spanish teacher. Most recently, I have served as our district's English Language Learner Coordinator, working with the elementary through high school ELL students and their families. I have also been teaching occupational online Spanish courses, such as Spanish for Teachers and Spanish for Healthcare, for over 10 years through a variety of formats and I'm excited to now be using this video format. This course will not cover everything you'd ever like to say, of course, but it will cover the basics to provide you with a foundation. I know that taking a Spanish class online can be very intimidating. In fact, any language class can be intimidating, whether it's in the classroom or online. This Spanish course focuses on building your vocabulary, so do you need to know verb conjugation and complicated grammar rules? Nope, we're going to stick to words and phrases and leave the complicated grammar rules to another course. What I am trying to accomplish in this course is communication, not Spanish perfection. Most likely, the Spanish speakers you'll come into contact with know a bit of English, and with your bit of Spanish, then communication should take place. So one last thing about me. You may have guessed by my name that I'm not a native Spanish speaker, so I will not sound like a native speaker when I give my language tips at the end of the video. I'll be honest that this bothered me for years, but then I finally came to the conclusion that, hey, you know what, I'm pretty fluent. Isn't that good enough? I can always communicate. So that is what I want you to learn as well. If you're learning as an adult, you won't sound like a native Spanish speaker. I'll show you what this looks like, but even though you'll have an accent speaking Spanish, don't worry, the native speakers will still understand. You won't hear me speak Spanish much in this course because all the Spanish words in the vocabulary list have been recorded by native speakers. In wrapping up this first video, I am thrilled that you are here, and I thank you for reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community. I work with this community every day, and I cannot tell you how thankful they are for people like you who know just a few words to make them feel more welcome as they themselves struggle to improve their English. So once again, thank you, or should I say, gracias. In this course, you will be able to see how each word and phrase sounds phonetically. However, as Spanish pronunciation is relatively easy, we also encourage you to take a few moments to learn the sounds of Spanish vowels and consonants. Once you learn these basic sounds and a few rules, you will be able to pronounce any Spanish word. Spanish pronunciation is actually very easy once you get the hang of it. The secret is learning the five vowel sounds and pronouncing them the same way each time you see the vowel. The letter a, a, like yacht. The letter e, e, like cake. The letter i, i, like see. The letter o, o, like open. The letter u, u, like spoon. Now, practice these familiar Spanish words. Remember to clearly pronounce each vowel distinctly. The majority of the Spanish consonants sound the same in Spanish as in English. Here are some of the ones that may cause confusion. The letter c has two sounds like in English. First, it has a k sound as in the c in cat. For example, coco, carro, colorado, caliente. The second sound is an s sound when it's followed by an e or an i, like the c in celery. For example, celia, cine, cinco, centro. The letter g also has two sounds. The first is a g sound like the g in the word go. For example, guacamole, gracias, grande, gordo. The second is an h sound when followed by the letter e or i, like the h in hello. General, gente, gimnasio, gigante. The letter h has no sound. Don't pronounce it. For example, hola, hoy, hasta, hospital. Other letters. The letter j has an h sound like in the word hat. For example, puño, japon, jefe, joven. The double l or elle makes a y or a soft j sound like in the word yes. For example, llamo, llave, lluvia, llorar. The nye or an n with a tilde makes an ny sound like in the word canyon. For example, mañana, señora, España, piña colada. The qu combination makes a k sound like in the word king. For example, tequila, que tal, queso, poquito. The letter v makes a soft b sound like in the word boy. For example, vino, vista, viva, victor. The letter z makes an s sound like in the word set. For example, Venezuela, Lopez, cerveza, Gonzales. Finally, here are some Spanish pronunciation tips to help you. Try to roll your r's for words with double r's or words that begin with the letter r. For example, carro, perro, rojo, rápido, ferrocarril. As an alternative, use a soft d sound. If there's an accent mark, say that section of the word with more emphasis. For example, Maria, capitán, romántico. If there is no accent mark on a word and it ends in a consonant, say the last part of the word with more emphasis. For example, español and dolor. If a word ends in a vowel, a, e, i, o, u, say the second to last part of the word with more emphasis. For example, amigo, taco, la cucaracha, enchilada. Greetings are one of the most essential phrases you can learn in any language. Let's start out learning some new vocabulary. Hola, hola, ¿cómo se llama? ¿Cómo se llama? Me llamo, me llamo, buenos días, buenos días, buenas tardes, buenas tardes, buenas noches, buenas noches. Pause on this slide to study the Spanish and how you can pronounce it phonetically. When you're ready, play the video again to get answers to some common questions and learn about the Spanish naming system. So here's a question. I thought that me llamo was pronounced me yamo. Why do I hear the native speaker on this course saying me yamo? As in English, people from different countries and regions pronounce words and letters slightly differently. One common difference is the way Spanish speakers pronounce the double L sound. Many Spanish speakers do indeed say the double L sound with more of a Y sound, while many others pronounce the double L sound with more of a J sound. The native speaker in this course uses the J sound when pronouncing the double L, as in me llamo or cómo se llama. Both pronunciations are perfectly correct, so choose whichever is most comfortable for you. So here's another question. What's the difference between cómo se llama usted, cómo te llamas, and cómo se llama? Cómo se llama and cómo se llama usted mean the exact same thing. Usted simply is the formal way of saying you in Spanish. You do not need to say it, but often people do just to clarify who they're talking to. Cómo te llamas is used more informally. Throughout this course, you're going to learn the more formal or respectful way of saying words as to not offend anybody. Many people from Latin America and Spain use a different naming system than the traditional U.S. system, which is your first name, middle name, and last name, such as Joseph James Smith. In many Latin American countries and in Spain, they use the first name, their father's last name, and then their mother's last name, such as Juan Martínez Gómez. So let's look at this example of Juan Martínez Gómez. His first name is Juan. The next name is Martínez, which is his father's last name. The next name is Gómez, which is his mother's last name. Sometimes Spanish speakers like to shorten these names a little bit more, and they would just use Juan Martínez for their first name and their father's last name. For our second example, we have Ana Hernández López. Her first name is Ana. Her father's last name is Hernández, and her mother's last name is López. This would be Ana's name her entire life, even if she got married in many Spanish-speaking countries. Now let's say that Ana and Juan meet and get married, and they have a child named Lupe. Both of their father's last names will carry down to form their child's last name. So Juan Martínez Gómez and Ana Hernández López have Lupe, and they name Lupe, Lupe Martínez Hernández. So let's try this with your name. What's your first name? What is your father's last name? Now what is your mother's maiden name? If you were born in a Spanish-speaking country, what would your name be? The more conversational phrases you know, the easier it will be to communicate and to get to know the Spanish speakers in your life. Let's get started learning some new words. ¿De dónde es? ¿De dónde es? Soy de México. Soy de México. Mucho gusto. Mucho gusto. Adiós. Adiós. Hasta luego. Hasta luego. Hasta la vista. Hasta la vista. Pause on this slide to practice your pronunciation. When you're ready, click play to learn more about some of these phrases. Here are some more language tips. Mucho gusto, used as nice to meet you, literally means with much pleasure. Adiós, hasta luego, and hasta la vista are all different ways to say basically the same thing, which is goodbye. Greetings are crucial in communicating with Spanish speakers. Learning a few more greetings and small talk phrases will go a long way in communication. ¿Cómo está? ¿Cómo está? ¿Qué tal? ¿Qué tal? Muy bien. Muy bien. Bien. Bien. Así, así. Así, así. Mal. Mal. Muy mal. Muy mal. ¿Qué pasa? ¿Qué pasa? Todo bien. Todo bien. Nada. Nada. Pause on this slide to practice your pronunciation. When you're ready to move on, click on play to learn about the differences between cómo está, qué tal, and qué pasa, as well as some cultural tips when greeting Spanish speakers. Cómo está and qué tal both mean how are you. Qué tal is used in more informal settings. Qué pasa, meaning what's up, is also used in more informal settings. In some Spanish-speaking countries, such as Spain, meeting and greeting is much more informal than in the United States. Here are some tips. When meeting and greeting people for the first time, be prepared to shake hands, but do not be surprised if you're greeted with a kiss on each cheek. This is also known as dos besos, or literally two kisses. Just follow the other person's lead and you'll have no problem. While this is common between men and women, and between women and women, two men may just give a quick embrace or a backslap. Always preface a telephone call or meeting with a polite greeting, such as buenos días or buenas tardes. These are always good choices. Note that buenos días is used until about 2 p.m. or so, and buenas tardes is used from then until the sun sets. In the survival words unit, you will learn the phrases to help you get by in everyday situations, such as asking how to say something, saying you don't understand, and asking a Spanish speaker to repeat what was just said. Pause on this slide to see how these words are written and practice pronouncing the words phonetically. When you're ready, press play to see some language tips. So here are some language tips for you. See the words inglés and español? Do you see the words English and Spanish within these words? They both mean I don't understand. So whichever one is easier for you to remember, that's one you should go with. Both un poco and un poquito pretty much mean the same thing. It means a little, but poquito, whenever you have an ito or an ita at the end of a word, it makes it even smaller. So if you feel like you know a little bit of Spanish, you can say un poco. If you know very, very little Spanish, then you'd say un poquito. In this section, we're going to present the question words. Don't worry if you're not able to get them all now, as you will see them over and over again throughout the course. Pause here to study the question words. Many of them are similar, so try to really examine them closely to see how they are different from one another. Here are some tips to remember some of the question words. First of all, question words always have an accent. And now what about cuanto versus cuando? How do you know the difference? Try looking at the ending of cuanto, which has a to at the end, and think about counting how many toes your baby has. Why do questions have an upside down question mark in Spanish at the beginning of a sentence? So that we know right from the beginning, if it is a question, and we can change our voice inflection appropriately. For example, Tiene un gato. He has a cat. That's a statement. Tiene un gato? Does he have a cat? Now we have a question. Why are numbers so important? Once you know your numbers, you will wonder how you ever got along without knowing them in Spanish. The ways of using numbers in conversation is limitless. Pause here to practice your pronunciation of the numbers. Press play when you're ready for some language tips. Here are some language tips. Cero sounds and looks like zero. Uno, well obviously, is like the card game uno. And finally cuatro. It kind of looks like quarter. Here's something else that you may run across. In many Spanish speaking countries, the comma and period are used the opposite way in numbers than how we normally use them here in the United States. For example, 5.34, $5.34, is written as five comma three four. And the number 20,356, it is written in many Spanish speaking countries as 20.356. You have already learned numbers zero through nine. Let's continue with numbers and go all the way to 1,000. 10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 13, 13, 14, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 17, 17, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20, 20, 30, 30, 40, 40, 50, 50, 60, 60, 70, 70, 80, 80, 90, 90, 100, 100, 100, 1000, 1000. Pause on this slide to see how the numbers are spelled and practice your pronunciation. Here's a language tip. For numbers 16 through 19, simply say diez and the number, such as for 16, dieciseis. Note that while either spelling is fine, the second spelling is most common. Take a moment to really study this slide to notice how similar the roots are. See if you can focus on seeing the patterns. For numbers above 20, simply say the root, such as 20 or veinte in Spanish, and the single digit number. Pause here to study the slide. If the number is 100 on the dot, the Spanish word is cien. If the number is over 100, such as 101 or 135, it would be ciento. Why would you need to know how to say the time for your job? Well, you need it for scheduling and appointments. But don't forget about the very simple and common phrase you hear several times a day. What time is it? ¿Qué hora es? ¿Qué hora es? Son las tres. ¿A qué hora? ¿A qué hora? A las tres. A las tres. Mediodía. Mediodía. Medianoche. Medianoche. De la mañana. De la mañana. De la tarde. De la tarde. De la noche. De la noche. Pause here to practice your pronunciation and see the spelling of the various words related to time. ¿Qué hora es? means what time is it. For times in the one o'clock hour, use es la una or es la una y veinte. For all other times, such as three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock, ten o'clock, use son. So, son las tres would be three o'clock. Son las cuatro diez would be four ten. To say what time it is, you simply say the hour then add the minutes. For example, eight fifteen. Son las ocho y quince. You could also say, son las ocho y cuarto. For ten thirty, you could say, son las diez y treinta. You could also say, son las diez y media. If you want to express a time after the half an hour, you would say the upcoming hour minus the minutes. For example, for twelve forty five, you would say, es la una menos quince. It is one o'clock minus fifteen minutes. For three fifty three, you would first say the hour above, so you would say, son las cuatro menos siete. It is four o'clock minus seven minutes. Here's some more useful vocabulary. Pause here to study these expressions. Press play when you're ready to move on. Many Spanish speaking countries use a 24 hour clock for travel times and appointments to avoid confusion. For example, thirteen hundred would be one o'clock. Eighteen thirty would be six thirty. All you need to do is subtract twelve from the time to find the p.m. time. Note that to say at what time, you use a que hora. To answer that question, use a las. For example, a que hora es el concierto? What time is the concert? Your answer would be a las ocho, at eight o'clock. If you've spent some time around Spanish speakers and Latinos, you may notice that their sense of time may be different than your sense of time. Take a few moments to review this reading to become aware of this potential cultural difference. Months of the year are important to know not only for scheduling and making appointments, but also just to learn a little bit more about the Spanish speakers in your life, such as their birthdays, holidays, and vacations. Let's look now and see the similarities between English and Spanish months. Enero. Enero. Febrero. Febrero. Marzo. Marzo. Abril. Abril. Mayo. Mayo. Junio. Junio. Julio. Julio. Agosto. Agosto. Septiembre. Septiembre. Octubre. Octubre. Noviembre. Noviembre. Diciembre. Diciembre. Invierno. Invierno. Primavera. Primavera. Verano. Verano. Otoño. Otoño. Pause here to see the spellings of Spanish months and seasons. Make sure that you're practicing and pronouncing each of these words aloud. Did you notice that the Spanish months are very similar to the English months? Here's an exception. January pronounced Enero. Note that the Spanish days are the week and the months are not capitalized. Have you ever eaten pasta primavera? How would you describe it? Light and refreshing? That's how you can remember spring or primavera. Light and refreshing. Are you traveling to a Spanish-speaking country soon? Remember that much of Latin America is in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, their seasons are opposite to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.