Picking Up Comon Spanish Phrases Properly
Common Spanish phrases found in Spanish phrase books can be helpful and many people get them before embarking on vacation to Mexico or Spain. However, many times, a number of people discover that phrase books limit you to a fixed way of saying something, and life isn’t like that at all.
Being able to say, “Can you tell me if this is the 10.15 or the 10.30 train leaving for Barcelona?” is all very well. But when you are in Bolivia and it’s a bus leaving at midnight you are hoping to catch to some insignificant village you can’t even pronounce, it isn’t very helpful. You need to know more than just easy Spanish words, or at least you need to be able to adapt the Spanish phrases you know.
It is good to start by learning the useful Spanish phrases. Learn how to greet people by saying “good day” (buenas días), “good afternoon” (buenas tardes), and “good evening” (buenas noches). You can always just say “hola” (hello) if you’re not sure which greeting to use.
You can naturally progress from there to a relatively more complicated greeting: “¿Cómo estás?” which means, “how are you?” However, that’s a rather formal and stilted. Actually, most people just say, “que tal?” If someone says that to you, answer them, “bien, ¿y tu?” (I’m well, and you?). They will be impressed with your command of their language, trust me!
In keeping with the frequently used Spanish phrase books, you need to also know how to ask for something when you are in a Spanish café or restaurant. As in most English speaking countries, native Spanish speakers have a variety of courses for their meals. The first is the, “primero plato,” the second is the “segundo plato,” and the third is the “tercero plato.”
You may want to have a glass of water (un vaso de agua) with your meal, or a coffee (un café). If you want your coffee to have milk, then it should be, “un café con leche.” A glass of red wine (un vaso de vino tinto), or white wine (un vaso de vino blanco) may also go down well. Perhaps you want a whole bottle of wine (una botella de vino). And now you can ask for one that’s either red or white too.
You may have noticed that in all those Spanish words I didn’t mention “please” once. Because we say “please as a form of courtesy in English, we assume that everyone else does it too. In fact, we typically can’t understand why anyone would want to be so rude as to not say “please” when asking for a favor.
It simply is not part of the Spanish culture. On the contarary, they think it is rude if you do say, “please” all the time. For instance, if you were to tell a Spanish barman, “un vaso de vino tinto, pro favor,” he would very likely get a little insulted.
Visualize a person standing at the bar in an English speaking country waiting for quite some time to get served. Finally, he speaks to the barman with an impatient voice, “a glass of red wine, PLEASE.” The “please” at the end is said in a rather sarcastic way, and that’s pretty much how it comes over when you add “please” in Spanish. Avoid saying it and you’ll keep yourslef out of needless trouble.