Your Chapter 1 task is to introduce yourself and get to know someone else by asking basic personal questions. 

Meet Gabby, as she greets you, shares her name, where she is from, how old she is, her birthday and her contact information. She will also ask you questions to get to know you better.

In Chapter 1, you will be able to introduce yourself as Gabby does and ask personal questions to get to know someone else.

I. Los saludos (Greetings)

¡Hola! 🙂 Greetings in Spanish vary by region, culture and context or setting.  Greetings among Latinos often include a hug and kiss on the cheek. Have you ever greeted someone from Latin America or Spain? What was the greeting like? Was it different from how you greet friends, family or someone you met for the first time in your culture?

Watch as Nas Daily Español shares his experience greeting people from Spain and Latin America.

Did you know that in Spain and Latinx countries, informal greetings are generally used for family, friends or someone that is your age or younger, and formal greetings demonstrate a level of respect and are reserved for professional settings or when greeting someone older than you?  

A common greeting in Spanish used in both informal and formal settings is ¡Hola! (Hello!).

What did you learn about your classmates and their experience with the Spanish language?

You just greeted your classmates in Spanish with Hola. In your native language, how do you greet your friends and family? Does it differ from how you greet someone in a professional setting?

BaseLang shares some common greetings used in both informal and formal settings in Spanish.

Watch as Inhispaniainvideos uses some of these greetings in her video.

Gabby made a list of common informal and formal greetings she uses in conversation. Listen as she pronounces them for you in Slide 1.

¡Muy bien! 🙂

Now that you know how to greet someone, it is time to share more personal information about yourself such as your name, where you’re from or where you live and what you study or do for a living.

Watch as Dani introduces himself to you.

*Dani is from Brazil. Make note that in Brazil, Portuguese is the national language. However, Dani travels to Argentina quite often and also speaks Spanish.

Dani starts his video with a greeting and states his name. Did you know there are 3 ways to say your name in Spanish?

Listen as Letty shares her name with you in each way.

After stating your name, you can also share where you are from, where you live and what you study or do for a living.

Listen as Letty shares more information about herself.

Tell Letty where you are from, where you live and what you study.  Include your city and state.

Example- Soy de ______.  Vivo en ______.  Estudio ______.

For a list of majors, see the following slide.

Be sure to play the following audio to hear how each major is pronounced in Spanish.

If your major is not shown, you can look it up at wordreference.com.

¡Muy bien!

You can now introduce yourself with a greeting, your name, stating where you are from, where you live and what you study. ¡Excelente!

For a summary of how to introduce yourself, see Slide 2. You will notice that Slide 2 also includes ways to ask someone else about themself informally and formally.

Finally, there are added expressions in Slide 2 such as Nice to meet you or The pleasure is mine, when meeting someone for the first time.

Play the audio to hear how these expressions are pronounced.

¡Bien hecho!

II. El alfabeto (Alphabet)

You’ve learned how to introduce yourself and say your name in Spanish. ¡Muy bien!

Do you know how to spell your name, if asked?  To do this, you will need to know the alphabet in Spanish.

As children, learning the alphabet in school was one of the first lessons taught. It helped children pronounce and spell out words in their native language. Similarly, when learning a new language such as Spanish, it is important to know what letters sound like and how to use those letters to spell words.

Did you know that the letters of the alphabet have distinct pronunciations depending on the country where Spanish is spoken?

Watch the following videos to hear how the alphabet is pronounced in Latin America and Spain.  Do you hear a different pronunciation for certain letters?

Feel free to pause the videos when necessary to practice pronouncing the Spanish alphabet.

The following video provides the Latin American pronunciation of the alphabet, courtesy of Jumpspeak.

The following video provides the Spanish pronunciation of the alphabet, courtesy of EO Español Online.

Actividad K

Lola Aguilar has a weekly podcast called, ¿Qué tal?  Listen as Lola introduces her 4 guests this week.

In groups of two, take turns spelling the names of her guests.

Modelo- Lola se escribe con (is written with) L, O, L, A. Aguilar se escribe con A, G, U, I, L, A, R.

Invitado 1 se llama Gabriel Flores. Gabriel se escribe con… Flores se escribe con…

Invitada 2 se llama Valeria Cruz.

Invitada 3 se llama Brenda Arias.

Invitado 4 se llama  Héctor Reyes.

¡Fantástico!

Knowing the alphabet in Spanish is also important when sharing personal details such as your e-mail or asking others to spell their first and last name.

See Slide 3 for vocabulary on asking for and providing e-mail addresses and first and last names.

Play the audio to hear how these expressions are pronounced.

¡Excelente!

III. Los números (Numbers)

Knowing your numbers 0-100 in Spanish could be very useful when introducing yourself. You may want to share your age, date of birth, address or phone number with someone. To do this, it is important to learn how to say and spell your numbers en español.

Do you know your numbers in Spanish? Listen and watch as randomspanish pronounces numbers 1-100 for you.

@randomspanish

How to count to 100 in Spanish. #greenscreen #spanishlessons #spanishtutor #spanish101 #learnontiktok #spanishlesson #quieressaber #learnspanish #spanishvocabulary #teachersoftiktok #frasedeldia #speakspanish #hablaespañol #aprendeespañol #spanishtutorial #spanishpractice #spanishphraseoftheday

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

To hear the numbers pronounced with a Spanish accent, MyDailySpanish pronounces numbers 1-100 as well.

You could scroll to the number you need for your age with the progress bar.

For a visual of numbers 0-100 in Spanish, see Slide 4.  Play the audio to hear how each number is pronounced for an additional review.

Now that you know your numbers, you can share more personal information about yourself, such as your age.

In Spanish, to express your age, you will use the verb tener, which means to have.  In English, when someone asks for your age, your response would be- I am 32 years old, for example.  However, in Spanish, you need to use the verb tener, which means I have 32 years of age. (Tengo 32 años).

Watch as Jumpspeak introduces you to the verb tener and how to use it when asking for someone’s age or expressing your own.

For a summary of the verb tener and how to ask for and provide your age in Spanish, see Slide 5.

¡Bien hecho! 🙂

You’ve successfully learned how to introduce yourself and express your age with numbers. ¡Excelente!

Did you know that you could also use numbers to share the date, your birthday, address and phone number?

See Slide 6 to learn how to express this information.

Play the audio to hear how the following questions and answers are pronounced pertaining to dates and numbers.

IV. Las despedidas (Farewells)

You’ve learned how to introduce yourself in this chapter and ask others about themselves.  You are now ready to conclude a conversation with a farewell expression. Do you know how to say goodbye in Spanish?

Listen as StoryLearningSpanish shares common ways to say goodbye in Spanish. Which is your favorite?

Gabby, who you met at the beginning of this chapter, will conclude by sharing different ways to say farewell and other expressions useful when conversing in Spanish.

Gabby also shares days of the week with you, in case you would like to say- See you on Monday or See you on Friday.

See Slide 7. Play the audio to hear how these expressions are pronounced.

V. Chapter 1 Final Assessment

In Chapter 1, you learned how to introduce yourself, spell your name, say where you’re from, provide your e-mail, age, birthday, and other personal data, and ask others about themselves.

¡Bravo! 🙂 You learned how to start and end a basic conversation in Spanish! 🙂 You should feel very proud of yourself! 🙂

As a review for your Chapter 1 Final Assessment, converse with Gabby because she would like to get to know you.

Listen to Gabby’s questions, and answer them by completing the following prompts and providing the answers outloud on your own.

For your Chapter 1 Final Assessment, you will answer Dani’s questions in the following video in Quiz 1 on Blackboard. You can practice here on your own.