How to Exchange Pleasantries in Spanish

Spanish is widely spoken throughout the world. Spanish is the fastest growing language worldwide. Over 330,000,000 million people speak Spanish as a first language and in over twenty countries as the national language. If you are traveling to a Spanish speaking country, you want to be polite and learn how to exchange greetings and pleasantries with the people you meet.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Start your conversation by saying "Hola," (pronounced oh-la) which means hello. You may also greet a person by referring to the time of day. "Buenos dias" means good morning. "Buenas tardes" means good afternoon or good evening. "Buenas noches" means goodnight.

2. Inquire as to how someone is doing by asking, "Como estas?" If you are asked this question and you are feeling fine, the answer is, "bien" or "estoy bien," which is the complete sentence, "I am fine." For a more informal inquiry, use "que hay" (what's up or what's new) or "que pasa" (how's it going). If you are asked "como te llamas" (what is your name), respond "me llamo (name)."

3. Shake someone's hand and say "mucho gusto." This means "it is nice to meet you." As an alternative, if someone greets you first by saying, "encantado" (how do you do or pleased to meet you), respond by saying "igualmente," which means likewise.

4. When you need to get by someone or leave a group of people, say "con permiso." Say "perdon" for pardon me. To apologize, say "lo siento," which means I am sorry.

5. You want to be polite at all times. One way to show courtesy is to always use simple pleasantries like please and thank you. Use "por favor" to say please. "Gracias" means thank you. A proper response to "gracias" is "de nada" or you are welcome.

6. At the end of a conversation, say good-bye by saying "adios." If you plan on seeing someone again soon, say "hasta pronto." If you plan on seeing them tomorrow, say "hasta manana." For a casual good-bye, say "hasta luego," which means see you later or "nos vemos" for the breezy equivalent of "see you."

Tips & Warnings

• The double L combination, for example in me llamo, is pronounced with a y sound (ya-mo). Pronounce an e like a long a sound. Que is therefore pronounced as "kay." De is pronounced as "day." Manana does not rhyme with banana, but is pronounced as "mahn-yahn-a."
• Don't worry that you may not be pronouncing all of the words correctly. The people you are talking to will be pleased with your effort and are not looking for perfection.