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Vocabulary:

hola = hello

amigo = friend

TRANSCRIPT:

Hola, hola, hola. How are you? It's finally time for some real Spanish. As you probably already know, my name is SherI Summers and I'm glad you're here.

Hola and welcome to Spanish Slow and Easy. Have you heard this word before? Hola, hola. Hello, hola.

Hola is hello in Spanish. I'm saying it a ton of times so it sticks better in your head. Hola. Hola.

Okay, let's break this word down just a little bit. Hola. H-O-L-A. Hola.

Let's review some pronunciation for just a second. Now, we'll talk more about this later, but the H in Spanish is silent. That's why you see the H at the beginning of hola, but you don't hear it. The O, of course, sounds like oh, so we have oh, oh.

And then at the end, there's that A. Do you remember what the A sounds like in Spanish? Ah, ah as in father. So we end up with oh, la, hola.

Say hi back to all of these people if you would. Now let's add another word. Let's add amigo. Amigo.

This is a pretty common word so you may have heard it, you might have used it. Amigo. What is amigo? Amigo is friend.

So if I say hola amigo, I'm saying hello friend. The vowel in the beginning is an A, so it sounds like ah. You don't want to say uh, amigo. I think people would understand that, but that's not going to be real Spanish pronunciation.

So, ah, ah, and then the MI, mi, mi, ami. Amigo, Amigo. Hello, friend. And if I want to say, hello, friend, in Spanish, what would I say?

Hola, amigo. Congratulations. So today, if you would, write these words down. I recommend you write it down in your Spanish journal.

If they seem a little bit difficult, write them down several times, and then go around your house, take a walk, take a shower, and just say, out loud, or even just to yourself, Hola, amigo. Do it ten times, twenty times, a hundred times if you want. The more you do it, the more it will stick. So this is your very basic Spanish lesson for today, and we're going to start building on it.

So I'll see you in the next lesson. Bye-bye, amigo.