Spanish: A Beginner's Guide

i) The Basics: Phrases & Address

Here are a few basic words and pronouns you need to first know to form simple sentences and phrases in Spanish

Direct Nouns                           Common Command Indicators
Yo- I (first person)                   Pregunta- question
Tu- you (second person)         Muy- very
Nosotros- we                            Mas- more
                        
Verbs                                         Common Conversation
Tiene/tengo- to have               Si- yes
Puede- to do                             No- no (sams in both languages)
Afirmar- to confirm/agree     Gusta- to like
Nada- nothing (not the same as 'no')

Common Phrases in Spanish

{Hello} hola
{Goodbye} adios
{Please} por favor
{Thank you} gracias
{My name is...} Mi llamo...
{What is your name} ¿Como sé llama?
{I like...} Mi gusta...
{Do you speak English?} ¿Habla inglés?

(These phrases are extremely beneficial to any English speaker who encounters someone in Mexico or Spain, or someone who is not an English speaker. These are simple, understandable phrases for English speakers to master.)

Ask a question if needing to translate a certain phrase or word !

Think of forming sentences in Spanish the same way you would in English, just ordered differently at times. Always put your noun of direct address, or change a verbs ending accordingly.

For example:   I have your love --> Yo tengo soy amor.

Yo replaces 'I' in English, so let's start out our sentence with Yo.

To describe what 'I' am doing or feeling, you would follow the direct noun with a verb most of the time.

In this example we want to say that I, the speaker, an having something. Have in Spanish is 'tiene' but, we conjugate the verb depending on what our direct noun address is.

Each noun has a different ending of effect on a verb.

If I said 'you have,' then it would be "Tú tengan"

Yo makes tiene then turn into 'tengo'

So now we have 'I have' in English translated to 'Yo tengo' Now, let's translate 'your love' into Spanish.

You know that 'tu' in Spanish means your. You can say tu, but grammatically this is incorrect. In this case, you would use soy.

Why? Because Tu can be conjugated, or changed, into other forms depending on the verb as well. So soy fits in this case, but it's okay not to get it at first. Switching from regular to irregular verb forms will be discussed later in the guide.

I'm addition, 'amor' means love in Spanish. So you would simply put amor at the end of the sentence.

Congratulations, you just formed your first sentence in Spanish! But, you still do not fully understand what is used when, so let's continue.