Hello Again, Traveller!
Welcome back! Last time we tuned your ear to Spanish sounds and stress. Today we put that to work on the first words you'll say to anyone: hello, please, thank you and sorry.
Here's something useful to know. In Spain and Latin America, you don't walk into a small shop, a bar or a lift and say nothing. You greet people first, every time. Get that right and doors open. So let's start there.
Greetings for Every Time of Day
What's the easiest greeting? Hola, which means hi or hello. Remember from Level 1 that the h is silent, so it sounds like OH-la. It works with anyone, at any hour.
Want to sound a little more polished? Use a time-of-day greeting:
- Buenos días: good morning
- Buenas tardes: good afternoon, and early evening too
- Buenas noches: good evening and good night
So when do you switch? The rule of thumb is about lunch. Say buenos días until lunchtime. In Spain lunch is late, so you'll often hear it until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. In much of Latin America the switch tends to come a bit earlier, around midday.
After lunch it's buenas tardes for as long as it's light outside. Once it's dark, you move to buenas noches. On a Spanish summer evening that can be very late!
Here's a nice detail. Buenas noches works for both hello and goodbye. You can say it walking into a restaurant at 10 pm and again on your way out.
In a hurry? Locals often shorten all three to a cheerful ¡Buenas! It's friendly and casual, and it's perfect for a quick hello to a shopkeeper.
Saying Goodbye
Adiós means goodbye. But listen in Spain and you'll hear hasta luego (see you later) all the time, even to a taxi driver they'll never meet again. Nobody takes it literally. It's just a warm way to leave.
So when you leave a café, a smile and ¡hasta luego! fits right in.
The Magic Words
Now for the words that will carry you through every day of your trip.
Por favor means please. Tack it onto anything: Un café, por favor.
Gracias means thank you. Extra grateful? Say muchas gracias.
And when someone thanks you? Reply de nada, which means you're welcome. Literally it's of nothing, like saying oh, it was nothing.
Next come the excuse me words. Spanish has a few, and each has its own job:
- Perdón: sorry or excuse me. Use it when you bump into someone, or to get attention in a casual way.
- Disculpe: a polite excuse me for strangers. It's ideal for stopping someone to ask a question.
- Con permiso: excuse me, may I get past? Use it when you need to squeeze by on a crowded bus.
Think of it like a toolkit. Perdón fixes small mistakes, disculpe starts a polite conversation, and con permiso gets you through a doorway.
Tú or Usted? Choosing Your You
This is the big one. English has one word for you. Spanish has two:
- Tú is friendly and informal. Use it with friends, children and people your own age in relaxed settings.
- Usted is polite and respectful. Use it with older people, officials and strangers in formal settings.
You'll hear the difference in small phrases. A friend gets ¿Qué tal? (how's it going?). An older stranger gets ¿Cómo está usted? (how are you?).
So how do you choose with a stranger? Try these three situations.
A hotel receptionist? Start with usted. It's polite and professional, and you can't go wrong.
A fellow traveller your age in a hostel? Use tú. Usted would sound oddly stiff.
An older lady you stop in the street to ask the way? Definitely usted, and open with disculpe.
What if you're not sure? Here's the golden rule: start with usted and follow their lead. If they switch to tú, you can too. Spanish even has a verb for this, tutear, which means to call someone tú.
Spain vs Latin America
In Spain, people use tú very freely, even with strangers, and keep usted for quite formal moments. Much of Latin America uses usted more often. In parts of Colombia, people even use it with close friends and family!
One more difference. When you're talking to a group, Latin America uses ustedes for everyone, friends or strangers. In Spain you'll also hear vosotros for a friendly group. Don't worry about using it yet. Just recognise it when you hear it.
A Short Dialogue
You arrive at your hotel in the evening:
You: Buenas noches. Receptionist: Buenas noches. ¿Cómo está usted? You: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y usted? Receptionist: Bien, gracias. (Later, you ask for the Wi-Fi password and they write it down.) You: Muchas gracias. Receptionist: De nada. ¡Hasta luego!
Did you notice? You greeted first, used usted and said thank you. That's perfect.
Pronunciation Tip
Remember the stress rules from Level 1? Words ending in a consonant other than n or s stress the last syllable. So it's us-TED, not US-ted. And the accent marks show you the stress: per-DÓN, DÍ-as. Make the stressed syllable land firmly.
Your Practice Task
Today, say each of these out loud, as if you were really there: walking into a bakery at 10 am, thanking a waiter, squeezing past someone on a bus and stopping an older man to ask a question. Which greeting, magic word and you did you pick?
Key Takeaways
- Greet before anything else: buenos días until lunch, buenas tardes while it's light, buenas noches after dark.
- Buenas noches is both hello and goodbye. Hasta luego is the everyday goodbye in Spain.
- Por favor, gracias and de nada go everywhere.
- Perdón is for small mistakes, disculpe is for politely stopping someone and con permiso is for getting past.
- When unsure, use usted and switch to tú if the other person does.