Conversational Spanish Semana 1: Introductions

inter2ling 26/01/2017

Welcome to all the new Inter2lingis students in Beginners Spanish at Flowerfield.

We had our first class on Tuesday and for many of you was the first contact with the language.  The following table will help you to summarize our first lesson. In order to make the most of it, follow the following steps:

1 We saw there were two words for “you”: “tú” and “usted”, one is used when we want to be formal, and the other when we are in an informal situation, which is which?

2 Copy the table and write beside each row, what question you are asking.

3 Try to write the equivalent words in English.

4 When you are asking in English are the words in the same order than when you do it in Spanish?

5 If there is something there you don’t understand , contact me.

question

words

action words you answers

1 ¿Qué tal

estás 

está

?

usted?

muy bien/bien/mal/regular/fatal

 

2 ¿Cómo

estás 

está

te llamas

se llama

?

usted?

?

usted?

muy bien/bien/mal/regular/fatal

(yo) me llamo Peter

 

3 ¿De dónde

 

eres

es

?

usted?

(yo) soy + nationality (soy nordirlandés)

(yo) soy de + location (soy de Portstewart)

4 ¿Dónde

vives

vive

 

?

usted?

 

(yo) vivo en + location (vivo en Belfast)

 

Soluciones

1 We saw there were two words for “you”: “tú” and “usted”, one is used when we want to be formal, and the other when we are in an informal situation, which is which?

tú: informal

usted: formal

2 Copy the table and write beside each row, what questio¿n you are asking.

asking and saying how we are : ¿Qué tal estás/está?  Muy bien/fatal…

2  asking and saying how we are : ¿Cómo estás/está?  (yo estoy) muy bien/fatal…

asking and saying our name : ¿Cómo te llamas?  Me llamo….

3  asking and saying where we are from:  ¿De dónde eres/ es usted?  (yo) soy de….

4   asking and saying where we live:  ¿Dónde vives/vive usted? (yo) vivo en….

3 Try to write the equivalent words in English.

¿Qué tal estás tú? /¿Qué tal está usted?  How well are you? muy bien/bien/mal/regular/fatal very well/ fine/ bad/ so and so/ awful

¿Cómo estás tú? /¿Cómo está usted? How are you?

¿Cómo te llamas tú? /¿Cómo se llama usted? How do you call yourself? (yo) me llamo…  I call myself…

3  ¿De dónde eres tú? /¿De dónde es usted? Where are you from? (yo) soy nordirlandés…  I am Northernirish (yo) soy de Portstewart…  I am from Portstewart

4  ¿Dónde vives tú? /¿Dónde vive usted? Where do you live? (yo) vivo en …  I live in…

4 When you are asking in English are the words in the same order than when you do it in Spanish?

Not always: ¿Cómo te llamas tú/usted? word by word in English would beHow yourself do you call?

¿De dónde eres/es tú/usted? word by word in English would beFrom where are you ?

There is as well a different order of the words in questions as in English we are using “do+ pronoun+ verb” and in Spanish the order of the sentence is not altered.

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