Best wishes in spanish language

Here are 90+ common Spanish phrases — the Spanish phrases to know if you want to start speaking Spanish right now.

I’ve found that the best way to learn Spanish is to speak it from day one. And the best way to start speaking is to learn Spanish phrases that you’ll use in real conversations.

(You can read about how I learned Spanish here. I honestly believe it was never my destiny to speak Spanish, but I did it anyway).

Now, back to Spanish phrases. Let’s get started!

Important Spanish Phrases to Know: The Basics

If you’re just starting out, you need to know basic Spanish greetings and introductions.

Here are a few to get started if you’re totally new to the language. Most of these are casual, so they’re best for informal situations.

Spanish Greetings

• Hola – “Hello”
• ¿Qué tal? – “How are you?”
• ¿Qué pasa? – “What’s up?”
• ¿Cómo te va? – “How’re you doing?”
• Bien – “Good”
• Muy bien – “Very good”
• Así así – “So-so”
• No tan bien – “Not so good”
• ¿Y tú? – “And you?”
• Me llamo… – “My name is…”
• ¿Cómo te llamas? – “What’s your name?”
• Mucho gusto – “Nice to meet you”
• Placér – “A pleasure”
• Encantado/Encantada – “Charmed”, “Likewise”

Saying Goodbye in Spanish

• Nos vemos mañana – “See you tomorrow”
• Hasta luego – “See you later”
• Hasta pronto amigo – “See you soon, friend”

Polite Phrases in Spanish

• Gracias – “Thank you”
• De nada – “You’re welcome”
• No hay de qué – “No problem”
• Disculpe – “Excuse me”
• Lo siento – “I’m sorry”

If you want to expand more on the basics, check out these really useful Spanish phrases for conversation and travel, and all the essential beginning phrases you should know.

Common Spanish Phrases for Everyday Life

The sooner you can talk about your everyday life in Spanish, the easier you’ll find it to have real Spanish conversations.

Everyday life is different for everyone, so pay attention to the things you do throughout the day. What did you say? What did you do? Then, make your own list of words that are relevant for you so you can learn Spanish faster.

Use these phrases as starters to get you going.

Interests, Jobs, and Hobbies in Spanish

Getting to know others and talking about your interests are the bread and butter of learning a language. So you have to know how to express your hobbies!

• ¿Qué te gusta hacer? – “What do you like to do?”
• Mi pasatiempo favorito es… – “My favourite pastime is…”
• ¿Cuáles son tus pasatiempos? – “What are your hobbies?”
• ¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre? – “What do you do in your free time?”
• Me gusta / No me gusta… – “I like / I don’t like…”
• Me encanta… – “I love…”
• ¿Qué te gusta leer? – “Do you like to read?”
• ¿Que música te gusta? – “What music do you like?”
• Mi favorito es… – “My favourite is…”
• Me gusta ir… – “I like going to…”
• ¿En qué trabajas? – “What’s your job?”
• ¿Te gusta tu trabajo? – “Do you like your job?”
• Trabajo en… – “I work at…”

With these phrases, you can say things like:

• Me encanta café. ¿Quieres ir a tomar una taza? (“I love coffee. Wanna go grab a cup?”)
• Trabajo en la escuela. Soy profesor. (“I work at the school. I’m a teacher.”)

Common Questions in Spanish

Once you know your basic Spanish question words, like qué and dónde, you can ask a whole number of things. These are some common questions you’ll hear:

• ¿Cuánto cuesta? – “How much is this?”
• ¿Dónde está el baño? – “Where’s the bathroom?”
• ¿Qué hora es? – “What time is it?”
• ¿Pasa algo? – “Is something wrong?”
• ¿Es esto correcto? – “Is this right?”
• ¿Me equivocado? – “Was I wrong?”
• ¿Me puede ayudar con esto? – “Can you help me with this?”
• *¿Puedes traerme … por favor?” – “Can you bring me … please?”
• ¿Puedo entrar? – “Can I come in?”
• ¿Quieres tomar una copa? – “Want to grab a drink?
• ¿A dónde deberíamos ir a comer? – “Where should we go to eat?”
• ¿Estás listo? – “Are you ready?”

Exclamations, Celebrations, and Well Wishes

It’s always good to know how to wish someone well, tell them happy birthday, or what to say when toasting at happy hour. These are simple, single-use phrases you can learn quickly.

• ¡Cuánto tiempo sin verlo(a)! – “Long time no see!”
• ¡Feliz cumpleaños! – “Happy birthday!”
• ¡Buena suerte! – “Good luck!”
• ¡Alto! – “Stop!”
• ¡Salud! – “Cheers!”
• Que te mejores – “Get well soon”
• Buen provecho – “Bon appetit”
• Cuídate – “Take care”
• Felicitaciones – “Congratulations”
• ¡Bien hecho! – “Well done!”
• ¡Genio!– “Genius!”
• Estupendo – “Stupendous” or “Amazing”
• Genial – “Great” or “Awesome”
• ¡Increíble! – “Incredible!” or “Impressive!”

Filler Words and Phrases

Smooth out your speech with conversational connectors, sentence stretchers and filler words in Spanish.

These words and phrases give you a moment to prepare what you’re going to say next. They’ll help you sound more natural and fluid, like how you speak in your native language. We use these types of sayings all the time!

• A ver… – “Let’s see…”
• Pues… – “Well…”
• Bueno… – “Well then…”
• ¿Sabes? – “You know?”
• Por supuesto – “Of course”
• *Por otra parte…” – “On another note…”
• Pero… – “But…”
• De verdad? – “Really?”
• Dios mio – “Oh my god”
• Entonces… – “So…”
• Asi que… – “So… About that…”

Helpful Phrases in Spanish

These are your essential phrases to fall back on when you need to express your intent, your needs, or you don’t understand.

• Necesito ayuda – “I need help”
• Llámame cuando llegues – “Call me when you arrive”
• Me voy a casa – “I’m going home”
• Necesito ir a… – “I need to go to…”
• ¿Como llego hasta ahí? – “How do I get there?”
• No lo sé – “I don´t know”
• No tengo idea – “I have no idea”
• ¿Lo entiendes? – “Do you understand?”
• No entiendo – “I don’t understand.”
• Quiero… – “I want…”
• ¿Puede hablar más despacio, por favor? – “Can you speak slowly, please?”

Funny Spanish Phrases

Add a little colour to your conversation with funny Spanish phrases and idioms! When you can use a well-known phrase like these, you sound much more natural in your everyday speech.

• Ponte las pilas – “Put in your batteries”. It’s like telling someone to “look alive”, “snap out of it”, or “wake up”. You say it to a person who’s daydreaming.
• Papando moscas – “Catching flies”. Speaking of daydreaming, that’s called catching flies in Spanish. Which is quite a visual: Your friend sitting there, so completely lost in thought, the flies have started to land on him or her. But he or she doesn’t even notice!
• Comiendo moscas – “Eating flies”. Flies are popular in Spanish idioms for some reason. You use this phrase when the person talking to you is quite long-winded. It can be said about anyone who goes on tangents, or someone who can’t stay on point.
• Buena onda – “Good wave”. This means good vibes. You can also use it to describe someone who has a positive outlook and attitude.
• Me pica el bagre – “The catfish is biting me”. The catfish being your stomach, and the biting being the painful ache of hunger. In other words, “I’m starved!”
• Hablando del rey de Roma – “Speaking of the king of Rome”. It has the same meaning as “speak of the devil” in English. You say this whenever you were just talking about someone, and then they appear.
• Meter la pata – “To put a paw it in.” It means “to screw up”, and it’s used like how we say in English, “to put your foot in your mouth”.
• Creerse la última coca-cola del desierto – “To think of yourself as the last Coca-Cola in the desert”. This is an interesting one to me. It means you think you’re better than everyone else, or you think you’re hot stuff.
• Tener la cola sucia – “To have a dirty tail.” It comes from the idea of being sneaky like a fox. Doing something you know is wrong, but doing it anyway and trying to get away with it.
• Se puso hasta las chanclas – “Puts on his flip-flops”. It’s like the saying “He/She put on his/her beer goggles.” He or she got hammered, too drunk, trashed.
• Échale ganas – “Insert desire”. It means to try your best. “How bad do you want it?”
• Mandar a alguien por un tubo – “Send someone through a tube”. You use this to tell someone to “shove it”.
• Mala leche – “Bad milk”. You can say this about someone who has bad intentions.
• Tirar la casa por la ventana – “Throw the house out the window”. Or as you would hear Donna from Parks & Rec say, “Treat yo’ self”. It means to splurge, spend a lot of money, or otherwise go all out for a special occasion.

If this is your kind of thing, you can also check out these classic Spanish puns and Spanish jokes that are so bad they’re amazing.

¡Felicitaciones! You’re Off to a Good Start

Well done! That was a lot to go through, but you made it. I hope you learned some helpful phrases to start speaking with others in Spanish. Keep practising, and ¡buena suerte!

Did I miss any phrases that you use every day? What phrases did you add to your list? Let me hear them in the comments.

And finally... One of the best ways to learn a new language is with podcasts. Read more about how to use podcasts to learn a language.

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time globe trotter and international bestselling author. Benny believes the best approach to language learning is to speak from day one.

View all posts by Benny Lewis

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Spanish Greetings

How to say "hello" and "goodbye" in Spanish

You probably already know that "hello" in Spanish is "hola", right?

But Spanish greetings and pleasantries don't stop there. Just like in English, there are a bunch of ways you can say "hi", "how are you?" and "goodbye", depending on the situation.

How to say "hello"

We'll start with the greetings you'll probably see in a Spanish phrase book. There's a good chance you've probably already learned these, but here's a quick refresher:

Note that Spanish greetings are always in the plural ("Good days"), but you might occasionally hear the singular "buen día" instead of "buenos días". 

"Buen día" is not very commonly used. So if in doubt, stick to "buenos días". 

How to say "how are you?"

Just like in English, it's nice to follow up with "how are you?" (Although just like in English, don't always expect to get an answer.)

For casual, everyday conversations you can take your pick from any of the following. They all mean "how are you?", "what's up?" "how's it going?" "how you doin'?" etc. Which one you pick depends on which Spanish-speaking country you come from, or your own personal preference.

* Note that ¿Qué haces? can also mean "what do you do?" or "what are you doing?", depending on the context.

How to say "good, thanks!"

Yup, just as you do in English, if someone asks you "How are you?" you will usually say "good, thanks!" Although just like in English, often the person blurting out a quick "¿Qué tal?" isn't really expecting a response.

If things are a little better than "good" in your world, you can use one of these instead:

If things are a bit more so-so, you could also use one of these:

Even if you're feeling really terrible, it's bad form to ever come straight out and say "mal" ("bad").

In some Spanish-speaking countries (eg, Argentina) people will often only say that they're "very good" when they're being ironic. If you hear someone say "¡Mejor imposible!" ("it doesn't get any better than this!") — there's a good chance they're probably not having a very good day.

How to say "goodbye"

When it's time to say goodbye, again you've got some polite options, and some more casual options.

(It's well worth getting familiar with Hasta. It's very adaptable and useful for saying goodbye, and it's easy to remember: Just think of Arnie in Terminator: Hasta la vista, baby.)

Spanish is one of the world’s most widely-spoken languages and Castilian (the version spoken in Spain) charms expats and tourists as quickly as the country’s narrow cobblestoned streets and tasty tapas. Thinking about going to Spain? Make sure you learn these Spanish expressions and use them on anyone and everyone who’ll listen – it’ll impress the locals and ensure that you’ll have a much easier time making friends and fitting in.

1. ¡Qué guay!

How do you say it? “Gwai”

What does it mean and how is it used? It means cool, awesome or great. Young people pepper their conversations with this adjective, responding to their friends’ stories with a chorus of ¡Qué guay! (“How cool!”)

2. Vale

How do you say it? “Bale” (the V turns into a B)

What does it mean and how is it used? Very much a part of the Spaniards’ vocabulary, meaning OK, alright, sounds good, I understand or no problem. It comes from the verb valer (to be worth, as in ¿cuánto vale? – How much is it?) but means so much more. It’s used as a way of agreeing or affirming what someone has said. (“We’re meeting at 11am tomorrow, vale?” or “Call me later to organize that.” Vale, I’ll call you.) After a while in Spain you’ll notice that people tend to use it twice in reply (vale, vale) which is endearing!

3. Hombre

How do you say it?“Ombre” (the H is silent)

What does it mean and how is it used? It literally means “man”, and is also used to affirm or strengthen what you’re saying; typically to mean no, yes/of course, to greet or to plead. You’ll hear:

No – “Do you like your boss?” Qué va, hombre, para nada. (No way, not at all.)

Yes/Of course – ¡Claro que sí, hombre! (Of course, or definitely)

Greeting – ¡Hombre! Cómo estás? (Hey man! How are you?)

Pleading – ¡Vamos, hombre, por favor! (Aww, come on man, please.)

As a bonus, this isn’t too strange-sounding to English speakers, because English “man” can be used in much the same way.

4. Tío/Tía

How do you say it? “Tio/Tia”

What does it mean and how is it used? While these literally mean “uncle,” and “aunt,” they’re also used informally to generally refer to another person. In the same way English speakers use “dude” or “guy” (“Look at those guys over there!” or “Who said that?” “I don’t know, just some dude.”) Spaniards use tío or tía. You can also use these words to call the attention of a friend, as in “Tío/tía, come here!”)

5. ¿Cómo vas?

How do you say it? “Como bas” (Same thing here – the V is pronounced as a B)

What does it mean and how is it used? Spaniards are a friendly bunch, quick to start up a conversation and armed with several ways to ask the classic “How are you?”. These greetings are used casually all day – in small talk, such as when meeting friends, with well-known colleagues, chatting with a clerk at the store – so it’s great to know them. Many visitors will quickly learn ¿Qué tal? and our fifth expression is another to add to your small talk toolbox: ¿Cómo vas?, literally meaning “How are you going?”

6. Puente

How do you say it? “Puente”

What does it mean and how is it used?Every employee’s favorite – and a stereotype of life in Spain – is the puente, or three-day weekend. Often due to a saint’s feast day, these “bridges”, become the best Mondays and Fridays of the year!

7. Guiri

How do you say it? “Giri”

What does it mean and how is it used?Anyone wanting to blend in in Spain has done their research on how not to look like a guiri. Guiris, pronounced “giri”, are (very obvious) foreigners usually hailing from English-speaking countries or central and northern Europe. The Spanish will call you out as a guiri for being generally non-Spanish: eating dinner or going out for evening drinks far too early; brandishing extra large maps and cameras on city corners; talking really loudly at monuments or while out sightseeing; wearing denim shorts with flip flops year round; and only ordering sangria.

8. Buenas

How do you say it? “Buenas”

What does it mean and how is it used? Start your sunny Spanish morning off with a cheerful Buenos días, continue with buenas tardes in the evening and end with buenas noches when it’s time to say goodbye or good night. Or, just stick to the sweet and simple “Buenas!” to say hello at any time of the day. You’ll receive a chipper “Buenas!” in return and can move on to more important considerations – like how much tortilla and patatasbravas are you going to order for lunch?

9. ¡Venga ya!

How do you say it? “Benga ya” (Again, the V is pronounced as a B)

What does it mean and how is it used?This is another very commonly-used expression in Spain and earns you extra points for stepping outside the usual list of expressions commonly learned by visitors. ¡Venga ya! (or sometimes simply ¡Venga!) is a way of expressing surprise or disbelief. Just like “no way,” “come on!” or “come off it!” in English, it’s used when you are shocked. (For example, if you learned that your friend had ordered 15 tortillas and ten plates of patatasbravas – then proceeded to eat it all.)

10. Pasta

How do you say it? “Pasta” (just like your favorite grub!)

What does it mean and how is it used?Money, money, money. Or, pasta, pasta, pasta if you’re in Spain. That’s right – rather than a call out to the Italians across the sea, in Spain pasta means money. Whether in coins, notes, cards, pesetas or Euros, whether you have it or not, it’s all pasta to the Spanish.

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