Study sheet: Spanish Foundations and Introductions

📋 Course Outline

1. Spanish Vowel Pronunciation
2. Spanish Alphabet Sounds
3. Greetings and Farewells
4. Formal and Familiar Introductions
5. Nouns Articles and Gender
6. Countries and Numbers

📖 1. Spanish Vowel Pronunciation

★ Must-know

📌 Spanish vowels have stable, brief, pure sounds rather than changing according to English vowel patterns.

• The Spanish vowel sequence is A = “ah,” E = “eh,” I = “ee,” O = “oh,” and U = “oo.”

📌 The letter U is silent in the combinations “gue,” “gui,” and “qu,” as in queso, pronounced “keh-so.”

Further detail

📌 Spanish U is not pronounced with the “you” sound as in “uniform” unless it occurs with a y, as in ayudar.

💡 Memory Hook

A-E-I-O-U: ah, eh, ee, oh, oo

📖 2. Spanish Alphabet Sounds

★ Must-know

• The Spanish alphabet includes the distinct letters ñ, ch, ll, and rr, whose names are enye, che, e-ye, and erre.

📌 Spanish r is usually a short trilled r, almost like d, whereas rr is a long trilled r.

Further detail

• The Spanish letters q and c can represent a k-like sound, while z is pronounced like English “s” in the course examples.

• Spanish v is a soft v, almost like b, and it should not be pronounced with vibration.

💡 Memory Hook

r is short-trilled, while rr is long-trilled

📖 3. Greetings and Farewells

★ Must-know

• Common Spanish greetings are:

  • Hola
  • Buenos días
  • Buenas tardes
  • Buenas noches
  • Bienvenido/a(s)

• Common Spanish farewells are:

  • Adiós
  • ¡Nos vemos!
  • Hasta luego
  • Hasta la vista
  • Hasta pronto
  • Hasta mañana
  • Saludos a…
  • Chao, Chau, or Ciao

• Ways to ask about well-being include:

  • ¿Cómo está usted?
  • ¿Cómo estás (tú)?
  • ¿Qué hay de nuevo?
  • ¿Qué pasa?
  • ¿Qué tal?

Further detail

• Responses about well-being include:

  • Nada
  • (Muy) bien
  • Gracias
  • No muy bien
  • Regular
  • Mal

• Courtesy expressions include:

  • Con permiso or Perdón
  • De nada or No hay de qué
  • Lo siento
  • Muchas gracias
  • por favor

💡 Memory Hook

Saludos begin contact; despedidas end it

📖 4. Formal and Familiar Introductions

★ Must-know

📌 Spanish uses usted for formal interactions and tú for familiar interactions.

• To ask someone’s name, Spanish uses ¿Cómo se llama usted? formally and ¿Cómo te llamas (tú)? familiarly; “My name is…” is (Yo) Me llamo….

• To ask where someone is from, Spanish uses ¿De dónde es usted? formally and ¿De dónde eres (tú)? familiarly; “I am from…” is (Yo) Soy de….

Further detail

• Introduction expressions include:

  • Mucho gusto
  • El gusto es mío
  • Encantado or Encantada
  • Igualmente
  • Éste es or Ésta es
  • Le presento a…
  • Te presento a…

• Spanish titles include:

  • señor (Sr.) or don
  • señora (Sra.) or doña
  • señorita (Srta.)

💡 Memory Hook

usted is formal, whereas tú is familiar

📖 5. Nouns Articles and Gender

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Masculine nouns : nouns commonly end in -o, -or, -ma, -s, or -ista and use el or los as definite articles and un or unos as indefinite articles
• Feminine nouns : nouns commonly end in -a, -ora, -ción, -dad, or -ista and use la or las as definite articles and una or unas as indefinite articles

★ Must-know

📌 To form Spanish plurals, a noun ending in a vowel takes -s, a noun ending in a consonant takes -es, and a noun ending in -z changes z to c before adding -es.

📌 A masculine plural noun is used for a group containing both males and females, so chicos can mean boys or a mixed group of boys and girls.

Further detail

• When a noun has an accent on its last syllable, the accent is dropped in the plural, as lección becomes lecciones.

• Nouns with the same form for both genders include:

  • estudiante
  • joven
  • turista

💡 Memory Hook

Noun gender determines the article

📖 6. Countries and Numbers

📝 Essential Points

• The listed countries are:

  • Argentina
  • Canadá
  • Costa Rica
  • Cuba
  • Ecuador
  • España
  • Estados Unidos (EE.UU.)
  • México
  • Puerto Rico

• The numbers from 0 to 20 are:

  • cero
  • uno
  • dos
  • tres
  • cuatro
  • cinco
  • seis
  • siete
  • ocho
  • nueve

• The listed tens and 100 are:

  • treinta
  • cuarenta
  • cincuenta
  • sesenta
  • setenta
  • ochenta
  • noventa
  • cien

📌 For Spanish numbers from 31 to 99, the tens and units are joined with y, as in treinta y ocho for 38 and cincuenta y cinco for 55.

💡 Memory Hook

Numbers progress from cero to cien

📊 Synthesis Tables

Formal and Familiar Expressions

Function	Formal	Familiar
How are you?	¿Cómo está usted?	¿Cómo estás (tú)?
What is your name?	¿Cómo se llama usted?	¿Cómo te llamas (tú)?
And you?	¿Y usted?	¿Y tú?
Where are you from?	¿De dónde es usted?	¿De dónde eres (tú)?