(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,
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Also, if you want more tips
for improving your Spanish,
we have a weekly newsletter called Español de la Semana.
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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)