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Unit 1 · A1 · Unit guide

First steps

The key rules of this unit in two minutes. Tap the speaker to hear each example.

1

Greetings by time of day

“Hola” works all day. Use “buenos días” until lunch (in Spain that’s around 2 pm), “buenas tardes” until it gets dark, and “buenas noches” in the evening, both to say hello and goodbye.

• buenos díasgood morning
• buenas tardesgood afternoon
• buenas nochesgood evening

2

Questions start upside down

Spanish marks questions and exclamations at the start too, with ¿ and ¡. That way you know how to read the sentence before you get to the end.

• ¿Qué tal?How are you?
• ¡Hola!Hello!

3

“Me llamo” and “soy de”

“Me llamo” literally means “I call myself”. Where you’re from uses “soy de”, “I am from”.

• Me llamo Ana.My name is Ana.
• Soy de Alemania.I’m from Germany.

4

You “have” your age

In Spanish you don’t “are” 30, you “have” 30 years: tengo treinta años.

• Tengo ocho años.I’m eight years old.
• ¿Cuántos años tienes?How old are you?

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