Rocket Spanish Newsletter Series:
"Saludos y Despedidas"
(Greetings and Goodbyes)

Conversation Practice

In this newsletter, you'll get more practice with ways to greet people and say goodbye. You'll learn a few new phrases, see familiar conversations with a few new twists, and practice matching written words with how they sound in Spanish.

Because it is SO important to hear Spanish being spoken, audio links are provided for each conversation and table. Listen and listen again. Your ability to recognize the sounds of words is even MORE important than your ability to recognize written words (unless you’re planning to write things down on a sheet of paper and show them to people)!

Are you ready? Here is a brief Spanish conversation. Listen to Esteban and Estela as they greet one another.

Greetings like “good morning” or “good afternoon” are incredibly important in Spanish. As the Latin culture is more formal, going through the ritual of greeting another person is an important way of showing respect. In fact, in some parts of Latin America , you are expected to greet every person individually, even if they’re in a group. That means that if you’re walking along the road in a village and pass a group of five people, you’ll have to say, “Good morning,” five times!

So spend some time learning how to greet people in Spanish.

Here are some common greetings. Listen to them as you read along.

After you greet someone, you’ll want to ask how they are or how’s it going. Here are some common questions that follow a greeting.

What could you say if someone asks you one of these questions?

A common follow-up question is, “And you?” ¿Y tú?

Now, listen to Esteban and Estela’s conversation again. Try to understand everything they say.

Did you understand most of what they said?

Here’s another conversation. This one is much more casual. You’re likely to hear this kind of conversation among young people.

Two new phrases in the above conversation are lo siento and sí.

The above words are extremely important. From experience, I know that the most important phrase in any language is how to say you’re sorry!

Others disagree. They say that there are THREE important phrases that you absolutely must know in any language. They are:

Hmm, I can’t think of a situation in which I’d need to use all three, but I’ll leave it to your imagination!

You can say goodbye with one of the following phrases.

That's it for this newsletter! In the next newsletter you'll receive a quiz on "Greetings and Goodbyes" to test you on what you've learned in the past three lessons. So study hard, practice with your flashcards, and I'll see you again in four days.

Until next time! ¡Hasta la próxima vez!

Mauricio Evlampieff
Rocket Spanish

P.P.S. Did You Like What You Heard? I have an entire book full of every nitty-gritty detail you need to know about the Spanish language. Rocket Spanish gives you a complete course giving you the blow by blow of Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and everyday use. No matter what your learning style, I have something for you. Whether you prefer to listen to Spanish, read a book, do exercises, or play vocabulary-building games, Rocket Spanish is for you! Visit my site today to learn more.

» Click Here To Visit Rocket Spanish

P.P.P.S If you’d like to improve your learning, practice makes perfect! Here are some exercises to practice what you have learned. The answers will come in your next newsletter, which will be arriving in your inbox in four days.

Exercise 1
Pretend that you are meeting a friend of yours named Pamela. Write your response in Spanish to the questions below. (There’s not a single right answer.)

Pamela: ¡Buenas tardes!

 You: _________________________________________________

 Pamela: ¿Cómo estás?

You: _________________________________________________

 Pamela: Muy bien, gracias. ¡Bueno, hasta luego!

 You: _________________________________________________

Exercise 2
Read the following conversation and translate it into English below.

Now, can YOU tell me what they said?

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