learn basic spanish free “Finally! An Easy Way to Get By in Spanish – And You Only Need 138 Words“ Click Here 👈 Choose your Pack...
learn basic spanish free
“Finally! An Easy Way to Get By in Spanish – And You Only Need 138 Words“ Click Here 👈
(Andrew speaks in foreign language) - I'm Andrew Barr, and welcome to Real Fast Spanish. In this video, we're going to cover essential Spanish for beginners. Specifically, we're gonna look at the most important parts of Spanish pronunciation, and you're gonna learn 10 essential words and phrases you need to know really well when first starting out. If you've just started learning Spanish or picking it up again after a long break, or you're about to go to a Spanish-speaking country and need a few basics to get you through the trip, then keep watching. ¡Vamos! When I work with Spanish beginners, I always start with the words and phrases I'm about to teach you because these words will allow you to express yourself in as many situations as possible with as few words as possible. This is because these words were selected on how frequently they occur in the language and how important they are for communication, and this same principle applies to all the curriculum we teach here at Real Fast Spanish. We focus on frequency and importance for communication first. Now, before we get to the words, we need to start with a few important fundamentals for pronunciation. This is because learning correct Spanish pronunciation will help you be understood by Spanish natives when you're speaking Spanish, and just as importantly, it will help you understand the Spanish coming back at you when natives are speaking to you. Okay, so, when it comes to pronunciation, the five most important sounds you need to focus on are the vowels, and these are, a, e, i, o, u Now, to write this phonetically, we don't have a really good equivalent in English, but I could do something like this. Ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. Now, you may want to pause the video here and practice these out loud. Take special note that the vowels in Spanish are a lot shorter and sharper than the vowels in English. For example, the O in English is like no, but in Spanish, it's "no", short and sharp. Now, if you have access to a Spanish teacher, then I would suggest that you ask them specifically for feedback on how you're pronouncing the vowels in Spanish. Now, I'm going to cover the other sounds of the Spanish language in another video, but the reason I start with the vowels is because they are so important for your pronunciation. The reason the vowels are so important in Spanish is that, if you get a consonant slightly wrong in Spanish, you kind of say it like an English consonant, it's not a big deal, but if you get a vowel wrong, then the Spanish native that you're speaking with may not understand what you're saying at all, or they might think you're saying a completely different word, so this is why we need to focus on the vowels first and foremost. All right, so let's pick a Spanish word, and then look at how to pronounce this properly, focusing on the vowels. So the first word for this video that we're going to look at is the verb in Spanish for "to find", when you need to find something. Now, in Spanish, this is "encontrar" Now, a little tip to help you remember this verb is, you can sort of think of it as being very similar to the English verb encounter, to encounter. When you find something in Spanish, you encounter it. Now, to pronounce this word properly, we're going to isolate the vowels. We have e, o, a. Now, your goal is, once you've isolated these vowel sounds, you know how they need to sound in the final word, your job is now to add the consonants back in without changing these vowel sounds. Now, one of the best ways to do this is by just subtly adding the consonants as quietly as you can, so it sounds something like this. E, o, a ... encontrar. All right, let's look at another word. Imagine you want to say I want in Spanish. I want, this is "quiero". Now, to practice our pronunciation again, we're going to isolate the vowels. Now, notice that a U after a Q in Spanish is kind of silent. You can think of a Q and a U together as being like a K sound. So the important vowels to focus on in this word are now the I, the E, and the O, which sound like this in Spanish. I, e, o. And again, we now want to add the consonants back in as subtly as possible, so we have "qui-e-ro", "quiero". All right, and the next word for this video is the word for this, for this. This, in Spanish, is "este". Again, let's isolate those vowels. We have e-e, "este". All right, now we can put this all together. So we have I want to find this. This, in Spanish, is (speaks in foreign language) Now, imagine you're walking through a small town in a Spanish-speaking country, and you're a little bit lost. You've got a map, and you're trying to find a particular landmark, maybe a church or something, and you can see it on the map, but you're not sure where you are. You can simply go up to someone in the street, and you can say (speaks in foreign language) and just point to the map. I want to find this. Now, they may come back at you with lots of Spanish that you can't quite understand, but that's okay, they can still point you in the direction. Okay, the church is that way, right? And just follow the direction, and then, if you get lost again, (speaks in foreign language) and point to that map. Let that person know, I'm trying to find this. Now, another word that we have on the list is I can, I can. Now, this, in Spanish, is (speaks in foreign language) Again, let's isolate those vowels. We have (speaks in foreign language) Now, in a similar sort of idea, you may want to say to someone, rather than I want to find this, you might want to say I cannot find this. Now, that would simply be taking the word "puedo" and putting the word no in Spanish straight in front. So now we have I cannot find this. (speaks in foreign language) So it's almost expressing a very similar idea. I want to find this. I cannot find this. Can you help me? Point me in that direction. So let's look at a quick recap of the words we've got so far. So we have (speaks in foreign language) I want, (speaks in foreign language) I can, (speaks in foreign language) to find, (speaks in foreign language) this, and then (speaks in foreign language) which helps to make our sentences negative. Now, another really useful verb, apart from to find, that you may need while you're traveling through a Spanish-speaking country is the verb for to buy, if you want to buy something in a market, for example. So the word in Spanish for to buy is (speaks in foreign language) Again, isolating those vowels, we have o, a, comprar. So imagine you walk into a market, and you see something that you want to buy, you can now combine a few words together. You can say I want to buy this. This, in Spanish, is (speaks in foreign language) Now, this is a great, simple sentence that you can give to a shop-owner just to let them know, this is the thing that you want to buy. Now, what if you want to be more general, and you like everything in the store, and you say I want to buy something, I want to buy something? Now, the word, in Spanish, for something is (speaks in foreign language) Putting it together, we can now say I want to buy something. This, in Spanish, is (speaks in foreign language) Now, the next thing I'm gonna teach you in this video is not a word, but a phrase, and this phrase is really useful for expressing obligation in Spanish. So the phrase is as follows. (speaks in foreign language) Now, this, translated back to English, means I have to, I have to. Now, when you look up the word (speaks in foreign language) and the word (speaks in foreign language) you might get different meanings. You'll get "tengo" meaning I have, and "que" meaning that, but when they go together in a phrase like this, they express obligation similar to the phrase in English "I have to". So now, we can put this together in a sentence. We can say I have to buy something. This, In Spanish, is (speaks in foreign language) Now, there's one more word I'm gonna teach you in this video. So imagine you're back in that marketplace, and you're walking around, looking for things you want to buy, and someone comes up to you, and they try to sell you something that you don't want or need. Using your politest tone possible, you can simply respond and say (speaks in foreign language) which, in English, is I don't need this, I don't need this. So we have this new word "necesito", I don't need. Now, let's look at the pronunciation of this word again, isolating the vowels 'cause we have quite a few in this word. We have e, e, i, o. So the 10 essential words and phrases that all Spanish beginners need to know are "quiero" I want, "puedo" I can, "necesito" I need, "tengo que" I have to, "este" this, "algo" something, "no", for making our sentences negative or simply responding "no" to a question, "comprar" to buy, "encontrar" to find. So, when it comes to essential Spanish for beginners, with just these 10 words, you'll be able to express yourself in a lot of situations, especially if you're traveling through a Spanish-speaking country. Your goal now is to get as comfortable as possible using these words. As well as that, try to brainstorm different combinations of how we can put these words together in a sentence. For example, (speaks in foreign language) I want this. (speaks in foreign language) I need this. (speaks in foreign language) I don't need this. (speaks in foreign language) I want to buy something. (speaks in foreign language) I want to find something. (speaks in foreign language) I cannot buy this. (speaks in foreign language) I have to buy this. (speaks in foreign language) I don't need to find this. So, as you can see, there's lots of different ways we can put together these words and phrases in a Spanish sentence. Now, if you're still in your home country, and you're not yet traveling through a Spanish-speaking country, see if you can find a Spanish friend, colleague, or teacher to start using these phrases as you learn them. Your goal needs to be to use a phrase or idea as soon as you learn it. Many Spanish students go months or even years before they try to use their Spanish. A more effective approach is to learn something, use it, get comfortable using it, and then go and learn something else. So if you have any questions from this video, then please leave a comment below. If you enjoyed this lesson, then give it a thumbs up, and if you're not already subscribed, then please subscribe. Also, if you want more tips for improving your Spanish, we have a weekly newsletter called Español de la Semana. To sign up for our weekly newsletter, I'll leave a link below in the description. So, on that note, thanks so much for watching. ¡Gracias por ver! And I'll speak with you soon. Hasta pronto. (upbeat electronic music) ...
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