Tips:Spanish for English speakers/Greetings

Tips

2 documents

Skill

Skill:Spanish for English speakers/Greetings

Course

Course:Spanish for English speakers

Buenos días

Before lesson 1

Buenos días is literally "good days" — Spanish greets you with a plural where English uses a singular.

Both halves have to agree with each other, so the greeting changes shape with the time of day it belongs to:

• buenos días — masculine, and so is días
• buenas tardes — feminine, and so is tardes

Say it to anyone, at any distance. Unlike hola, it is never too familiar for a stranger, a shopkeeper or a teacher.

Morning, afternoon, evening

Before lesson 2

Spanish splits the day into three greetings, and the boundaries are not the ones English draws.

1. Buenos días — from waking until the midday meal, which in Spain can be as late as three in the afternoon.
2. Buenas tardes — from that meal until dark.
3. Buenas noches — after dark. This one both greets and says goodbye, so it is also what you say on the way out.

When you are not sure

Hola carries no time of day at all, and is never wrong. Reach for it whenever the hour is ambiguous.