Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Today, we’ll cover greetings you’ll hear when you enter a business establishment.
GRAMMAR POINT
In Spanish, the polite greetings you’ll hear when entering a place of business, other ones, we have already covered and are applicable to the time of the day.
That is Buenos días.
Buenos días. (in the morning)
Buenas tardes.
Buenas tardes. (in the afternoon)
And Buenas noches.
Buenas noches. (in the evening)
Generally, after this greeting, you will hear, ¿Qué desea?
¿Qué desea? which literally means “What do you wish?” or “What do you want?”
It’s translated as “How may I help you? / What can I do for you?”
Let's break it down by syllable: ¿Qué de-se-a?
Now, let's hear it once again, ¿Qué desea?
The first word qué means “what.”
qué
qué
This is followed by desea, which in Spanish is “Do you wish?”
desea
Let’s break it down by syllable: de-se-a.
And once again, desea.
We’ll look at how to answer this question at a later point.
Generally, at the farmer’s stores, the clerks might say ¿Puedo ayudarle en algo?
¿Puedo ayudarle en algo? which means “May I help you?”
Let's break it down by syllable: ¿Pue-do a-yu-dar-le en al-go?
And now, let's hear it once again, ¿Puedo ayudarle en algo?
The first word, puedo, means “may I.”
Let’s break it down and hear it one more time: pue-do.
And puedo.
This is followed by ayudarle, which in Spanish is “help you.”
ayudarle
a-yu-dar-le
One more time, ayudarle.
Then we have en, which means “in.”
en
Finally, we have algo, which in Spanish is “something” or “anything.”
Let’s hear it again, algo.
Break it down by syllable: al-go.
And once again, algo.
When entering a business establishment, you can also hear bienvenido, which means “welcome.”
bienvenido
Let’s break it down by syllable: bien-ve-ni-do.
Once again, bien-ve-ni-do.
Bienvenido is the masculine singular and used in accordance with the gender of the party, in this case, a male. But depending on how many people are in your party and the gender of the people in the party, the greeting will change. You may hear bienvenida for feminine singular, bienvenidas for feminine plural, or bienvenidos for masculine plural. In the case there are men and women in the party, you will hear it.
Finally, as we’ve already seen with question marks, exclamation marks in Spanish are placed not only at the end of a sentence, but also at the beginning of a sentence.

Outro

Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for saying it aloud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish.
Okay, here we go!
(formal) “What do you want?” - ¿Qué desea?
¿Qué desea?
¿Qué desea?
“May I help you? / Can I help you?” - ¿Puedo ayudarle en algo?
¿Puedo ayudarle en algo?
¿Puedo ayudarle en algo?
(informal) “What do you want?” - ¿Qué quieres?
¿Qué quieres?
¿Qué quieres?
“Welcome.” - Bienvenidos.
Bienvenidos.
Bienvenidos.

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