Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to greet someone, introduce yourself, and ask/answer basic questions about names and wellbeing in Spanish.

Lesson Explanation

Common greetings:

Hola — Hello
Buenos días — Good morning
Buenas tardes — Good afternoon
Buenas noches — Good evening / Good night
Adiós — Goodbye
Hasta luego — See you later

To introduce yourself, use the verb ser (to be) in its “yo” (I) form, soy:

Me llamo Ana. — My name is Ana. (literally "I call myself Ana")
Soy Ana. — I am Ana.
¿Cómo te llamas? — What is your name? (informal)
¿Cómo se llama usted? — What is your name? (formal)

Notice the two versions of “what is your name” above use te versus se — this reflects Spanish’s genuinely important formal/informal distinction (tú vs. usted), which will be covered in full detail in Part 6, Lesson 5. For now, simply recognize that Spanish has two levels of politeness that English does not distinguish.

Asking how someone is doing:

¿Cómo estás? — How are you? (informal)
¿Cómo está usted? — How are you? (formal)
Estoy bien, gracias. — I am well, thank you.
¿Y tú? — And you?

Notice these use a different verb, estar, rather than ser used earlier. Both mean “to be” in English, but Spanish genuinely distinguishes between them — this crucial distinction is introduced in the very next lesson.

Practice Questions