Instruction

More than one in four Californians speaks Spanish at home (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey). You hear it on the bus, at the market, on the radio and in the school office. The first Spanish anyone uses in those places is a greeting, so that is where this course begins.

Greetings carry the time of day. English speakers can say hi at any hour. Spanish speakers usually mark the time:

• Buenos días: good morning, from waking up until about noon.
• Buenas tardes: good afternoon, from noon until it gets dark.
• Buenas noches: good evening or good night, after dark. It works both when you arrive and when you leave.
• Hola: hi, at any time. The h is always silent, so it sounds like OH-lah.

Notice buenos días but buenas tardes. The word for good changes its ending to match the noun: día is a masculine word, and tarde and noche are feminine. You do not need the full rule yet; it comes back in Unit 2.

Greetings carry the relationship. Spanish has two words for you. Use tú with a friend, a classmate, a younger person or a family member. Use usted with an adult you do not know well, a teacher, an older neighbor or anyone you want to show respect to. The question changes with it:

• To a friend: Hola, Marco. ¿Cómo estás?
• To your friend’s grandmother: Buenas tardes, señora. ¿Cómo está usted?

In many families in California, children use usted with grandparents, and some even with their parents. In other families everyone uses tú. Neither is wrong; listen to how people speak to each other and follow their lead. If you are not sure, start with usted. People will tell you when to switch: Háblame de tú means “Use tú with me.”

Answering. ¿Qué tal? and ¿Cómo estás? both ask how you are. Answer with bien (well), muy bien (very well), más o menos (so-so) or mal (bad), and ask back: Bien, gracias. ¿Y tú? With usted, the return question is ¿Y usted?

Leaving. Adiós (goodbye), hasta luego (see you later), hasta mañana (see you tomorrow) and nos vemos (see you) are all common.

Also said. Among friends in Mexico and in much of California you will hear ¿Qué onda? (what’s up?). In Central America and the Caribbean you may hear ¿Qué hubo? or ¿Qué pasó? used the same way, and many people shorten any afternoon or evening greeting to just ¡Buenas! These are informal; save them for friends.

Culture: the greeting itself. In many Latin American communities, people greet everyone in a room when they arrive, not just the person they came to see, and they say goodbye to everyone when they leave. Friends and family often greet with a light kiss on the right cheek or a hug; adults meeting in a formal setting shake hands. Walking into a room without greeting anyone can come across as cold. Compare this with how people greet each other at your school: what do students do, and what do adults do?

Formative check

Work through these before moving on. They are not graded — they tell you, and your teacher, whether the standard below has landed yet.