Question words

Hola! Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish.

Today I'll teach you how to ask questions in Spanish. I include, as usual, a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on Spanish pronunciation, just follow the link titled 'Spanish Pronunciation' above the picture, or click here. (Sorry, the links are not available for now while I rebuild the blog. Sorry about that.)

¿Qué? - (keh) What?

¿Quién? - (kee-ehn) Who?

¿Cuál? - (koo-ahl) Which?

¿Cuándo? - (koo-ahn-doh) When?

¿Cómo? - (koh-moh) How?

¿Dónde? - (don-deh) Where?

¿Por qué? - (pohr keh) Why?

¿Cuánto? - (koo-ahn-toh) How much?

As you can see, in Spanish we have two question marks; one at the beginning of the question, and one at the end.

Each of these question words is only a question word when accentuated, so make sure you write the accent. Por qué has several variations: porqué, por que, and porque, but we'll take a look at those in another lesson.

Some useful examples of questions using the question words:

1 - ¿Qué es? - What is it?

2 - ¿Qué es eso? - What is that?

3 - ¿Qué es lo que dice ahí? - What does it say there?

4 - ¿Cuál autobús puedo tomar para llegar al hotel? - Which bus can I take to get to the hotel?

5 - ¿Cuál es? - Which is it?

6 - ¿A qué hora sale el tren? - At what time does the train leave?

7 - ¿A qué hora sale el autobús? - At what time does the bus leave?

8 - ¿A qué hora sale el vuelo? - At what time does the flight leave?

9 - ¿A qué hora sale el avión? - At what time does the plane leave?

10 - ¿Qué día es? - What day is it?

11 - ¿Qué precio tiene? - What is the price?

12 - ¿Qué vas a ordenar? - What are you going to order?

13 - ¿Quién es? - Who is it?

14 - ¿Quién es la persona a cargo? - Who is the person in charge?

15 - ¿Quién es el guía? - Who is the guide?

16 - ¿Cuándo sale el tren? - When does the train leave?

17 - ¿Cuándo sale el autobús? - When does the bus leave?

18 - ¿Cuándo sale el vuelo? - When does the flight leave?

19 - ¿Cuándo sale el avión? - When does the plane leave?

20 - ¿Cuándo es la entrevista? - When is the interview?

21 - ¿Cómo es? - How is it?

22 - ¿Cómo es ese plato? ¿Es picante? - How is that dish? Is is spicy?

23 - ¿Cómo? ¿Me puede repetir? - What? Can you repeat that?

24 - ¿Dónde está el baño? - Where is the bathroom?

25 - ¿Dónde está el restaurante? - Where is the restaurant?

26 - ¿Dónde es el hotel? - Where is the hotel?

27 - ¿Por qué se retrasó el vuelo? - Why was the flight delayed?

28 - ¿Cuánto tiempo falta? - How much time left?

29 - ¿Cuánto vale? - How much does it cost?

30 - ¿Cuánto cuesta? - How much is it worth?

31 - ¿Cuánto dinero? - How much money?

32 - ¿Cuánto tiempo tomará? - How much time will it take?

33 - ¿Cuánto se tarda? - How much time does it take?

Vocabulary here:

1 - Es - Is, to be

2 - Eso, Ese - That

3 - Dice - Says (a form of the verb 'decir', which means, 'to say')

4 - Ahí - There

5 - Autobús - Bus

6 - Puedo - Can I; I can (a form of the verb 'poder', which means 'can; be able to')

7 - Tomar - To take; to drink

8 - Llegar - To arrive

9 - Hotel - Hotel

10 - Para - For; to

11 - Hora - Hour; time

12 - Sale - Leaves, to leave (a form of the verb 'salir', which means 'to leave)

13 - Tren - Train

14 - Vuelo - Flight

15 - Avión - Plane, Airplane

16 - Plato - Plate, dish

17 - Picante - Spicy

18 - Puede - Can you

19 - Repetir - To repeat

20 - Está - Is, to be (in a place)

21 - Baño - Bathroom

22 - Restaurante - Restaurant

23 - Retrasó - Delayed (a past form of the verb 'retrasar' which means 'to delay')

24 - Tiempo - Time

25 - Falta - to be missing

26 - Vale, Cuesta - To cost, to be worth

27 - Dinero - Money

28 - Tarda - To take (time)

29 - Cargo - charge

30 - Entrevista - Interview

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This is it for today, I hope you find this lesson useful and easy to understand. :)

Share if you like my lessons, and if your have any questions or doubts, you can contact me on my Twitter Page, or my Facebook Page.

I hope you have a nice day!

How to tell the time in Spanish, lesson 2

Hello everyone and welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish!

Today we continue with the time; one never thinks about it that much, but there's a lot to say on the topic of time, isn't there?

Let's get started! First, how do you ask for the time? I'll give you four ways to ask:

1. ¿Qué hora es? - What time is it? (or What hour is it?)

2. ¿Me puede decir la hora? - Can you tell me the time? (Or 'Can you tell me the hour?')

3. ¿Me puede dar la hora? - Can you give me the time? (Or 'Can you give me the hour?')

4. ¿Tiene la hora? - Do you have the time? (Or 'Do you have the hour?')

The vocabulary here:

¿Qué? - (keh) What?

Decir - (deh-seer) to tell; to say

(La) Hora - (la ho-rah) (the) hour; time

Dar - (dar) to give

Tiene - (tee-eh-neh) a form of the verb 'tener' which means 'to have'. Tiene translates to 'has' or 'have' when referring to another person.

Now I'll explain each one and where you should use it. The first one ¿Qué hora es? is the most common, but it's used when asking a person you know, or when asking yourself the time. Use it in casual settings.

¿Me puede decir la hora? Is more formal, and you use it when you need to ask the time to a person you don't know. You can add the word permiso or disculpe, which both translate to 'excuse me', in order to approach a person you don't know with more respect and humbleness. It becomes Permiso, ¿Me puede decir la hora? / Disculpe, ¿Me puede decir la hora? - Excuse me, can you tell me the time?

¿Me puede dar la hora? Is a variation of the above example. In this case you're asking the person to give you the time, so it's assumed the person has a clock. As in the above example, you can add either the word permiso or disculpe. 

Lastly, ¿Tiene la hora? Is asking if the other person has the time. They will reply whether or not they can tell you the time, and if they can, they will also proceed to tell you the time. This one can be used in any setting, but saying 'tiene' makes it more formal; to make it casual, say 'tienes'. Like in the above examples, you can also add permiso or disculpe for humbleness. Disculpe, ¿Tiene la hora? / Permiso, ¿Tiene la hora?

Now, there are a few ways to say the hour. In the previous lesson I showed you how to say the hour at different times of day (and night). You learned how to say 'son las ocho de la mañana, for example. But there are more ways to say the hour, like for example 'it's a quarter to ten' or 'half past one' or 'It's six o'clock'. Here's how you do it:

(If you haven't read the lessons on how to say the numbers, I recommend you check them out first in order to understand this part of the lesson better: Lesson 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. You should also check out the previous lesson on how to say the time.)

To say the hour 'o'clock', add 'en punto' to the hour:

9:00 - Las nueve en punto

6:00 - Las seis en punto

You can also just say the hour, and leave it there. Like for example 9:00 - Las nueve.

To say the minutes, simple add 'y' and the minutes, to the hour:

8:05 - Las ocho y cinco

8:10 - Las ocho y diez

5:26 - Las cinco y veintiséis

For the quarter of the hour, add 'y cuarto':

7:15 - las siete y cuarto

Of course, you can also say 'las siete y quince'.

For thirty minutes past the hour, say 'y media':

5:30 - Las cinco y media

You can also say 'las cinco y treinta'.

To say it's a quarter to the hour, there are two ways to say it:

Falta un cuarto para las diez - It's a quarter to ten

Son las diez menos cuarto - It's a quarter to ten (literally, 'It's ten minus a quarter')

Now you should be able to tell the time. You can add the time of day to the hour, to be more descriptive, like for example, 'son las ocho y cuarto de la noche'.

Practice saying the hour now, and read the following. I'll give you the answers below:

9:15

6:25

8:00

10:30

11:00

12:02

4:05

3:10

5:45

An additional note about time. In Spanish, we also add 'am' and 'pm' to the morning and afternoon hours, as in English.

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This is it, I hope you have enjoyed this lesson, and that you found it useful! I hope the information is not too much for one post, and that you can understand; making things simple for you is what I'm all about here, so don't doubt in contacting me if you have any doubt. You can contact me on my Facebook Page or my Twitter page. Also, you can leave a comment.

Until next time!

*Answers:

Las nueve y cuarto / Las nueve y quince

Las seis y veinticinco

Las ocho en punto

Las diez y media / Las diez y treinta

Las once en punto / Las once

Las doce y dos

Las cuatro y cinco

Las tres y diez

Las cinco y cuarenta y cinco / Las seis menos cuarto

How to tell the time in Spanish, Lesson 1

Hola! And Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish. Today we'll take a look at the clock, and learn how to say the hours and different times of day. This is the first lesson on the subject of time.

First of all, the word for clock in Spanish:

Reloj (Reh-lohh) - clock; watch

Now, I'll teach you how to say the different parts of day and night. As always, I've provided a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on how to pronounce Spanish, click here. (*Sorry, this link isn't working for the time being, while I rebuild my blog here.)

La mañana (lah mah-ñah-nah) The morning

El mediodía (ehl-meh-dee-oh-dee-ah) Midday; noon

La tarde (lah tar-deh) The afternoon

La noche (lah-noh-cheh) The night

La medianoche (lah meh-dee-ah-noh-cheh) Midnight

La madrugada (lah mah-droo-gah-dah) Dawn; sunrise

Next, to tell the time, here's how you say it: La (hour) de (time of day).

For every hour you have to say 'las' before, with the exception of one (1) in the clock, midday, and midnight; for these, it's 'la', since they're singular. 'Las' is the plural form of 'la'.

Let's take a good look on how to say it for every time of day, so that you can understand better:

To understand this part of the lesson, you should know how to say the numbers in Spanish. If you haven't read the lessons on numbers, I have five lessons for you here: Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4, and Lesson 5 (*Update: Sorry, my links are not working for now

To say the hours of morning, simply add 'de la mañana' to the hour. The little word 'de' indicates possession, therefore, this translates to 'of the morning'.

Las ocho de la mañana - eight in the morning

Las seis de la mañana - six in the morning

To say 'It's ___ in the morning', include the word 'Son':

Son las siete de la mañana - It's seven in the morning.

For one (1) in the morning it's a little different, since one is singular:

Es la una de la mañana - It's one in the morning.

The word 'es' is the singular form of 'Son', which is plural. They are forms of the verb 'ser', the verb 'to be'.

For midday, simply say 'el mediodía:

You can also say it like this:

Es mediodía - (It's midday) (Midday also uses 'es', since it's a singular word)

Es el mediodía - It's (the) midday

Son las doce del día - It's midday (literally: It's twelve in the day) (In this case you use 'son' because you're adding the number twelve)

As you can see, for this hour, instead of 'de' you say 'del'; the meaning it's the same; 'del' is a variation of 'de', a contraction of 'de el' and it's used instead of saying 'de el', which is incorrect.

For the afternoon, simply add 'de la tarde':

La una de la tarde - one in the afternoon

Es la una de la tarde - It's one in the afternoon

Las dos de la tarde - two in the afternoon

Son las dos de la tarde - It's two in the afternoon

Las cinco de la tarde - Five in the afternoon

Son las cinco de la tarde - It's five in the afternoon

For the night, just add 'de la noche':

Las nueve de la noche - Nine in the night

Son las nueve de la noche - It's nine in the night

Las diez de la noche - Ten in the night

Son las diez de la noche - It's ten in the night

For midnight, it's just like midday. Simply say 'La medianoche', or one of the following:

Es medianoche - It's midnight

Es la medianoche - It's (the) midnight

Son las doce de la noche - It's twelve in the night

Finally, la madrugada. It's a way to refer to the hours after midnight until dawn. Basically the hours from one in the morning until four in the morning. Sometimes I've heard it up until six in the morning. To use it, simply add 'de la madrugada', to the hour:

La una de la madrugada - One on the morning

Las tres de la madrugada - Three in the morning

Son las cuatro de la madrugada - it's four in the morning

You can use both madrugada and mañana for these hours.

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Of course, there is more to say regarding the hours, but this is it for today! There's already a lot of information here, and my goal with this Blog is too keep things simple. I will make a follow up lesson, where I'll teach you how to ask for the time, and some other details about the time in Spanish.

I hope you found this lesson useful and easy to understand. If you have any doubt, don't hesitate in contacting me on my Twitter page or my Facebook page. You can also ask me in the comments, if you like.

Until next time!

The days of the week in Spanish

Hola! And bienvenido a Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! Today I have for you another simple little lesson: How to say the days of the week and how to write the date.

Let's start with the days of the week. In Spanish, the names of the days are nor capitalized, unless you want to start a sentence with them.

As always, I've written a pronunciation guide in parenthesis:

domingo (doh-mean-goh) Sunday

lunes (loo-nes) Monday

martes (mar-tehs) Tuesday

miércoles (mee-er-coh-les) Wednesday

jueves (hoo-eh-ves) Thursday

viernes (vee-er-nes) Friday

sábado (sah-bah-doh) Saturday

Now for the date. Last lesson, you learned how to say the names of the month in Spanish. If you haven't read the previous lesson, you can read it here. (*update: my links are not working while I rebuild the blog here, sorry about that. >,<)

In Spanish, we write the date with the day first, followed by the month, and ending in the year.

For example:

4 de agosto de 2014

The word 'de' in this case indicates possession, and translates to 'of'. It's August's fourth day; it's 2014's moth of August.

Say today's date and write it in Spanish to practice. Say and write also tomorrow's date, and yesterday's.

If you also want to write the day of the week with the date, it's written at the start, like this: viernes 20 de marzo de 2015, but it's not common to do this.

La Real Academia Española (the Royal Spanish Academy) recommends writing it with the day, followed by the month, and ending in the year as shown above, but it's also accepted written in reverse for scientific papers that will be published internationally, starting with the year, followed by the month, and ending with the day; I believe this is to prevent confusion.

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This is it for today. I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson! Remember practice your pronunciation; go tell today's date to your friends and family!

Until next time!

The months of the year in Spanish

Hello! And Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish. Today we have a short and fun lesson, in which you'll learn how to say the months of the year in Spanish!

Unlike English, in Spanish the names of the months are not capitalized. Unless you're just starting a sentence with the name of the month, the month is written in lower-case letters.

Let's get to it. As always, I wrote a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on Spanish pronunciation, click here. (*Update: The Spanish pronunciation page I created is not available for now. I had to delete the old website, so I am remaking everything in this blog. Sorry about that!)

enero (eh-neh-roh) January

febrero (feh-breh-roh) February

marzo (mar-soh) March

abril (ah-breel) April

mayo (mah-joh) May

junio (hoo-nyo) June

julio (hoo-lee-oh) July

agosto (ah-gos-toh) August

septiembre (sep-tee-em-breh) September

octubre (oc-too-breh) October

noviembre (noh-vee-em-breh) November

diciembre (dee-see-em-breh) December

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Surely you must have notice a resemblance to English. This is a nice advantage you have to learn Spanish when you are a native English speaker: there are words in Spanish that resemble English! Some are even the same; we do have a lot of anglicisms (words borrowed from English).

This is it for today! As always, I hope you found this lesson useful, and fun! Next time, as a follow-up to this lesson, I'll teach you how to write the date in Spanish and the days of the week. Another short beginner lesson.

Until next time!

Responding to gratitude in Spanish

Hello! And welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! Today I want to tell you about responding to gratitude in Spanish.

If you've read the previous lesson on expressing gratitude then you must already know some ways to express your gratitude, but when a person thanks you, how do you respond?

I'll show you some expressions you can use to respond to someone's gratitude.

As usual, I've written a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on Spanish pronunciation, you can check out the page I created for it. (*Update: I will remake this page soon. I had to delete the old website, and so this page doesn't exist anymore for the time being.)

To see the previous lesson on how to express gratitude, click here.

Let's get right to it!

- De nada - (deh nah-dah) You're welcome

This is the most common, and most simple way to reply. 'De nada.' Equivalent to the English 'You're welcome.' Used in any setting, both casual and formal.

- No tienes que agradecérmelo - (Noh tee-eh-nes keh ah-grah-deh-ser-meh-loh) You don't have to thank me

A variation can be 'No me lo agradezcas' which translates to 'Don't thank me.'

- Para eso estoy - (pah-rah-eh-soh ehs-toy) That's what I'm here for

A more casual variation for this, and I hear it often here in Puerto Rico, can be 'Para eso estamos' which translates to 'That's what we're here for.' I think this variation is used more by the men here, though.

- Gracias a ti - (grah-see-ahs ah tee) Thank you 

When you want to return the gratitude, this is the one to use. Just like in English you would return the thank you and stress the word 'you'.

- A la orden - (Ah lah ore-den) At your service (literally translates to 'at your order')

A variation is 'Estoy a tus órdenes' I'm at your service. (Literally it translates to 'I'm at your orders'.) You'll hear it more often when you have, for example, thanked an employee in a store for doing you a favor. They're doing their job, so they'll reply 'A la orden' or 'Estoy a tus órdenes'. You'll also hear it like this 'A tus órdenes.' This one is also in the same line as 'Para eso estoy' and 'Para eso estamos.'

- No lo menciones - (Noh loh men-see-oh-nes) Don't mention it

This reply isn't too common. A variation of this one is 'Ni lo menciones', which translates to 'Don't even mention it.' Use it when you need to stress it. I would say 'no lo menciones' is the one you will hear the less.

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This is it for today! You have six expressions now that you can use when you want to reply to someone's expression of gratitude. I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson, and as always, that you found it useful. If you have any doubt or curiosity that you want to clear, I'm here for you. You can contact me on my Twitter page or my Facebook Page. Don't be shy!

Until next time!