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Introductions Explained (text lesson)

Bienvenidos, welcome to Day 4 of the Rocket Spanish 6 Day course!  

This lesson will show you how the questions and responses that you learned in the previouslesson are written down. Ultimately, being reliant on written Spanish (as opposed to the spoken

sounds) can slow you down when it comes to conversing naturally. That ‟s why I designed my

course to teach you spoken language first, with the written language as a backup.

Questions for Clarification

Many people need to visualize a word in their heads before they can accurately repeat and

remember it. That‟s why they often want to know:

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 ¿Cómo se escribe?  How‟s it written?

If you‟re going to understand the answer, though, you‟ll need to be familiar with the Spanish

alphabet … which could be tricky at this stage in your learning! So it might just be easier for 

now to ask,

Repite, por favor.  Repeat, please.

Or, you may need to ask,

Más despacio, por favor.  More slowly, please.

Most people will be happy to clarify what they said for you, so never feel embarrassed about

asking!

Introductions

Here‟s the conversation that you learned last lesson. A friend has just introduced me and Amy,

telling her, “Te presento a mi amigo, Mauricio.” I like to introduce you to my friend, Mauricio. Irespond,

Mauricio: Encantado.

Amy:  El gusto es mío. Mauricio: ¿Cómo te llamas?

Amy:  Me llamo Amy. 

Mauricio: ¿De dónde eres?Amy:  Soy de los Estados Unidos. Mauricio: Hablas español muy bien.

Amy:  Solo un poco. Estoy aprendiendo. 

This conversation is full of great questions that you‟re sure to encounter if you do any travelingto a Spanish-speaking country. Here is the conversation a second time, except in English.

Mauricio: Delighted.

Amy:  The pleasure is mine. 

Mauricio: What‟s your name? Amy:  My name is Amy. Mauricio: Where are you from?

Amy:  I am from the United States. Mauricio: You speak Spanish very well.

Amy:  Only a little. I am learning. 

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 What Do You Say after Hello?

If you‟re going to memorize one word to use during introductions, encantado is a good one to

pick. It‟s fast, easy, and sounds a lot like its English equivalent, “enchanted,” to boot!

If you‟re going to use encantado properly, you need to learn one rather awkward aspect of Spanish grammar. In Spanish, everything —from a man to a woman … from a pen to a cup of 

coffee … from light to lightning— has a gender! In other words, the words for these things are

either masculine or feminine.

Take a look at these examples.

niño  boy masculine

niña  girl feminine

perro  dog masculine

vaca  cow femininelibro  book masculine

mesa  table feminine

 Note that in these examples, the words that end in „o‟ are masculine, while the words that end in

„a‟ are feminine. This is a good general rule to remember at this stage in your learning.

But words for things aren‟t the only words with a gender. Describing words (or adjectives) have

to reflect the gender of the thing they describe. That means that if you want to say, “I‟m

delighted to meet you,” the word delighted in Spanish will be different according to whether 

you‟re a man or a woman. 

If you‟re a man, say  Encantado. If you‟re a woman, say  Encantada. 

If you‟re feeling a bit more confident, try the following: 

El gusto es mío.  The pleasure is mine.

What‟s Your Name? 

There are several ways to ask someone‟s name is Spanish. The simplest is

¿Cómo te llamas?  What‟s your name? 

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Many beginning students make the mistake of thinking that this is a direct translation of the

question in English. It‟s not! This question actually means:

¿Cómo te llamas?  How do you call yourself?

This sort of thing happens in Spanish a lot. To convey the English meaning of a question, you‟llhave to express it in a way that will seem unnatural at first. (Some people think of it as the

difference between modern English and Shakespearean English!) But don‟t worry … with

 practice, the Spanish way of saying something will soon become so natural that you won‟t beable to remember a time when it seemed strange.

Do you remember the explanation in the second part of this course about formal and informalmodes of address, such as ¿Cómo estás? versus ¿Cómo está usted? Well, the same difference

applies to the question for asking someone‟s name. 

¿Cómo te llamas?  Informal, used with peers, very casual and friendly

¿Cómo se llama? Formal, used with people to whom you want to show

respect and politeness

To answer this question, you will say,

Me llamo…  My name is… 

(or, more literally, “I call myself…”) 

Looking back at the conversation you learned earlier, here‟s what it will look like.  

Mauricio: ¿Cómo te llamas?

Amy: Me llamo Amy.

Where are You From?

Now, things are starting to get even more difficult. Remember how I said that in Spanish, words

have to be juggled around a bit? The question, “Where are you from?” is one of those cases. In

Spanish, you‟ll actually ask:

From where are you? ¿De dónde eres? 

The word “de” means from, while “dónde” means where. If you can memorize this question,

you‟ll also be able to ask two other enormously useful questions.

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 ¿Dónde?  Where?

¿De dónde?  From where?

For example, someone may tell you, “Look at that bird!” You can respond, “¿Dónde?” Where?

Eres is a rather strange word. It comes from one of the two “to be” verbs in Spanish, ser. The

other “to be” verb is estar. You‟ve seen estar already: remember the question, ¿Cómo estás?

How are you? You will learn more about the differences between ser and estar as you study

Spanish further. For now, just note that there is more than one way to say “you are.” 

The question, “Where are you from?” can be asked in two different ways: one formal, one

informal.

¿De dónde eres?  Informal, friendly, casual

¿De dónde es usted?  Formal, respectful, polite

Your answer will start…

Soy de…  I‟m from…

If you‟re traveling abroad, your answer will probably look something like this: 

Soy de los Estados Unidos.  I‟m from the United States 

Soy de Inglaterra.  I‟m from England.

Soy de Australia.  I‟m from Australia. 

If someone closer to home is asking you the question, they probably want to know what city or

state you‟re from. You can say something like… 

Soy de Nueva York.  I‟m from New York. 

Soy de Chicago.  I‟m from Chicago. 

Soy de California.  I‟m from California. 

How Much Spanish do You Know?

In this ideal situation, you‟ll be speaking Spanish so well by this point that your Spanish-

speaking conversation partner will think you‟re fluent. Hopefully, you‟ll hear this comment:

Informal: Hablas español muy bien. Formal: Usted habla español muy bien. 

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You speak Spanish very well.

Of course you do! … Don‟t you? 

If you don‟t think you speak Spanish very well, or if you want to make sure that the persondoesn‟t assume that you know more than you do, you can use one of these useful phrases: 

Estoy aprendiendo.  I‟m learning. 

Solo hablo un poco.  I only speak a little.

No sé mucho. I don‟t know much. 

Hablo mejor ingles.  I speak English better.

If, on the other hand, your conversation partner doesn‟t tell you that you speak Spanish very

well —in fact, you may find that you simply can‟t understand what your conversation partner is

saying — here are a few useful phrases to have on hand.

No entiendo.  I don‟t understand. (*see note below*) 

Lo siento.  I‟m sorry. 

No hablo español.  I don‟t speak Spanish. 

No hablo español muy bien.  I don‟t speak Spanish very well. 

¿Hablas ingles?  Do you speak English? (casual)

You may have already learned or heard one way to say that you don‟t understand in Spanish.

Many people think that it is correct to say, “No comprendo.” This sentence is grammatically

correct, but it is not commonly used for this context. Would you say in English, “I don‟tcomprehend”? If so, by all means go ahead and use “no comprendo.” If not, stick to, “No

entiendo.” 

By the way, did you notice that the word for Spanish is español? It is very similar to the wordfor the country of Spain, which is España. The word for English is ingles.

Español  Spanish (España, Spain)

Ingles  English ( Inglaterra, England)

Well, that‟s it for today‟s lesson. In your next email, you‟ll receive the final audio lesson for thiscourse. You‟ll learn how to introduce yourself to someone in Spanish, how to say where you‟re

from, and how to explain just how much Spanish you know.

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Hasta luego

Mauricio Evlampieff Rocket Spanish 

P.S. Don't forget to check out my special bonus offer only available for 6 Day Coursesubscribers: 

http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/6day_special.php  

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