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Lesson Transcript

Basic Mexican Spanish Greetings
In this lesson, we’ll cover basic greetings for the appropriate time of the day. As there are quite a few to cover, let's jump right in.
We’re going to start with the most useful one first.
In Mexico, you can say “buen día” to greet someone during the whole day - it doesn't matter what time. Literally it means “good day”, and it implies that you are wishing the person a good day.
Buen día
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Bu-en dí-a.
Once more:
Buen día.
The first word, buen, means “good.”
(slow) Bu-en.
Buen.
The second word, día, means “day”.
(slow) Dí-a.
Día.
Literally, it means “Good day”.
Let’s break it down again:
(slow) Bu-en dí-a.
Buen día.
If you want to be more specific and greet someone according to the time of the day, you can use the following expressions -
"Good morning" is Buenos días.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Bu-e-nos dí-as.
Once more:
Buenos días.
Buenos also means "good". It’s the plural form of buen
The second word, días, literally means “days”. But in Spanish, it implies morning.
(slow) dí-as.
Días.
All together it’s-
Buenos días.
In Spanish, "Good afternoon" is Buenas tardes.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Bu-e-nas tar-des.
Once more:
Buenas tardes.
Buenas also means "good." Again, this is a grammatical gender and number change.
The second word, tardes, means “afternoon”
(slow) Tar-des.
Tardes.
All together this is:
(slow) Bu-e-nas tar-des.
Buenas tardes.
“Good night” is Buenas noches.
This expression is both to greet and to say goodbye to someone at the end of the day.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Bu-e-nas no-ches.
Once more:
Buenas noches.
The second word, noches means “night.”
(slow) No-ches.
Noches.
Once again, that’s:
(slow) Bu-e-nas no-ches.
Buenas noches.
In Mexico, you can use this phrase before going to sleep, by adding que descanses. That would be Buenas noches, que descanses, which literally means “Good night, that you rest”. It implies that you are wishing the person to have a good rest during the night.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Bu-e-nas no-ches, que des-can-ses.
Once more:
Buenas noches, que descanses.
It is translated as “Good night, have a good rest.”
All of these expressions can be used in informal and formal situations as well. However, with friends, feel free to use the classic expression Hola! Which is the most common way of saying “Hello” in Spanish.
Hola!
(slow) Ho-la!
Hola!
Use this word with your friends and with young people.
To close out today's lessons, we’d like you to practice what you have just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so !buena suerte! which means “Good luck!” in Spanish.
“Good day.”
(3 sec) Buen día.
(slow) Bu-en dí-a.
Buen día.
“Good morning.”
(3 sec) Buenos días.
(slow) Bu-e-nos dí-as.
Buenos días.
“Good afternoon.”
(3 sec) Buenas tardes.
(slow) Bu-e-nas tar-des.
Buenas tardes.
“Good night.”
(3 sec) Buenas noches.
(slow) Bu-e-nas no-ches.
Buenas noches.
“Good night, have a good rest.”
(3 sec) Buenas noches, que descanses.
(slow) Bu-e-nas no-ches, que des-can-ses.
Buenas noches, que descanses.
“Hello!”
(3 sec) Hola!
(slow) ho-la!
Hola!
Alright! That's going to do it for this lesson. Hasta luego.

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