How to express happiness in Spanish

Hello everyone and welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! :)

I was requested to make lessons on how to express emotions, and I thought it would be best to make it as a series, since emotions are many and in one post would be very long and I like to keep things simple so everything is easier to understand.

Today I start with how to express that you are happy.

Let's begin :)

First words for happiness:

Feliz (feh-lees) - Happy

*The strength of pronunciation is in the last syllable.

Felicidad (Feh-lee-see-dad) - Happiness

Alegría (ah-leh-gree-ah) - Happiness, joy

Alegre (ah-leh-greh) - Happy, cheerful, lively

Contento(a) (kohn-ten-toh(ah))- Happy, pleased

Now I will give you phrases to express your happiness:

1- First the super simple estoy feliz.

estoy means 'I am', so this phrase means 'I'm happy'. To say that others are happy, the verb estoy changes:

Estás feliz - You are happy

Está feliz - She/he is happy

Están felices (plural) They are happy

*You can add 'muy', 'tan', 'bien', and 'súper':

Estoy tan feliz - I'm so happy!

Estoy muy feliz - I'm very happy!

Estoy bien feliz - I'm very happy

Estoy súper feliz - I'm super happy

*You can add these words to contento(a), and alegre, too.

2- Me hace feliz - It makes me happy

*Hacer translates to 'do'.

You can also say- Me pone feliz - it makes me happy, Like 'eso me pone feliz' (that makes me happy).

*Poner - translates to 'put', so literally this translates to 'It puts me happy', but the way it is used in everyday Spanish the expression translates to 'it makes me happy'.

3- Me contenta - It pleases me, or, it makes me happy

*I really don't hear this too often, unless the person had been previously sad or down, and somebody cheers them up.

*You can also say 'me pone contento' (if you identify as male) or 'Me pone contenta' (If you identify as female). This translates to 'it makes me happy' (literally 'it puts me happy').

*Me contenta, even if it sounds and looks exactly as the the example above that a girl would use, is a different word when connected to me; it's for everyone to use. It's a form of the verb 'contentar', meaning 'it makes me happy'.

*You can also say estoy contento (if male; if female: contenta) to say 'I'm happy'.

4- Me alegra - it makes me happy

*This one I usually hear it here as a reply to good news. Like me alegra escuchar eso - I'm happy to hear that.

*You can say estoy alegre for 'I'm happy', as well.

*You can use 'tanto' and 'mucho':

¡Me alegra tanto escuchar eso! - It makes me so happy to hear that!

Me alegra mucho ver que todo está bien - It makes me very happy to see that everything is okay.

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This is for now. There will be many more lessons to come about expressing feelings and emotion. I hope you can understand well, and if you have any doubt, just contact me on my Twitter or Facebook, or my Tumblr too and I'll answer.

I hope you find this lesson useful :)

Thank you for reading! Until next time!