Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi!
Welcome to Introduction to Spanish.
My name is Alisha and I'm joined by...
Hi everyone! I'm Lia.
In this lesson, we'll focus on teaching you the most useful Spanish words and phrases for absolute beginners!
Make sure you're repeating the words out loud after I say the examples!
Are you ready? Let's get started!
Expressing Thanks and Forgiveness
The best phrase to learn when studying a new language is one that expresses gratitude and appreciation. If you had to learn only a single phrase, this would be it!
We taught you this phrase in the first lesson of this series. Do you remember what it was?
"Muchas gracias," and it means "thank you very much"
Muchas gracias
Keep repeating after Lia until you get it!
Muchas gracias
Your turn!
Muchas gracias
Muchas gracias
OK. One last time...
Muchas gracias
A phrase you would often hear in response to muchas gracias or "thank you very much" is De nada.
De nada, it literally means "of nothing," but it's used to say "You're welcome."
De nada
Your turn!
De nada
OK. One last time...
De nada
Both "Muchas gracias" and "De nada" are expressions often used by Spanish speakers.
The next phrase we'll teach you, is perhaps the second most useful phrase of all. It's used to apologize or to excuse yourself.
Perdone
Perdone - “sorry / excuse me”
OK. Your turn.
Perdone
Perdone
One last time...
Perdone
Perdone is the formal way to apologize or excuse yourself. To say it in a more casual way, it's "Perdona."
Perdona
Your turn!
Perdona
Perdona
One last time.
Perdona
Now you can say "thank you very much," "excuse me," and "I'm sorry" in Spanish. Let's move on.
Where is...?
Asking where something is, is an incredibly important and useful phrase to learn. You're going to need this when asking where the bathroom, the train station, or where the hotel is.
To do so, say...
¿Donde está? “Where is...?” then add the location...
cuarto de baño - “bathroom”
¿Donde está el cuarto de baño?
¿Donde está el cuarto de baño? “Where is the bathroom?”
Repeat after Lia.
¿Donde está el cuarto de baño?
Remember, if you want to be a bit more polite, you could add "Excuse Me." before the question.
Perdone, ¿donde está el cuarto de baño?
“Excuse me, where is the bathroom?”
One last time...
Perdone, ¿donde está el cuarto de baño?
For a hotel, it'd be...
Perdone, ¿donde hay un hotel?
“Excuse me, where is a hotel?”
Perdone, ¿donde hay un hotel?
Have you noticed how the sentences vary slightly? If the thing you're looking for isn't specific, "a hotel," we would use the articles un, unos, una, or unas. On the other hand, if it's specific, "the hotel," then we would use el, la, los, or las instead.
Perdone, ¿donde hay un hotel? - “Excuse me, where is a hotel?”
Perdone, ¿donde está el hotel? - “Excuse me, where is the hotel?”
And remember to thank the person if they were helpful.
"Muchas gracias"
In this final lesson, you learned how to say "thank you," "excuse me," "I'm sorry," and to ask where something is in Spanish.
And in this series, we introduced you to the basics of Spanish pronunciation, grammar, writing, and more.
Let's conclude with some parting advice from Lia, and listen to some of her tips on how to learn Spanish from a native Spanish perspective.
Parting Advice - Insider Knowledge
Every day, I see a lot of learners struggling with Spanish verbs. My advice is to start with the simple form of the verb and then learn all the tenses. Only move onto compound verbs when you've mastered the simple form.
By far, the biggest mistake that I see learners make is using the incorrect intonation. Intonation is very important in Spanish. The intonation is determined by stress, which in a lot of cases, is actually marked by the accent marker.
We go into great detail about this aspect of Spanish in our Ultimate Guide to Spanish Pronunciation video series. We'll link that at the end of the video.
Get comfortable with stress patterns and accents in Spanish, and you'll avoid making this mistake.
My last piece of advice, is to watch contemporary videos, such as our videos here at SpanishPod101. This will ensure that you're learning real, applicable Spanish in the fastest and most effective way.
You've reached the end of this course “Introduction to Spanish,” but it's only the beginning of your journey to Spanish fluency! Where do you go from here? Try our Innovative Spanish Culture series where we teach you beginner vocab and even more useful phrases! Or check out any of our other video series. We have many different categories for you to choose from.
Good luck as you continue learning Spanish, and I'll see you in another video! Bye!
Bye~!

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