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Vocabulary

bien = fine

gracias = thank you

TRANSCRIPT:

Hola, hola mi amiga, or maybe it's Hola mi amigo, welcome back. ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo estás? We say this all the time in Spanish, and if you think about it, we say it all the time in English.

We like to ask one another, How are you? ¿Cómo estás? In fact, we do it so often, we don't really even think about it. Now if you remember in our last lesson we talked about the difference between como estas with an s on the end and como esta without the s.

Do you remember the difference? How are you? ¿Cómo estás? But let's not stress that for now.

Let's keep it a little bit friendly with ¿Cómo estás? How are you? So my question today is, if somebody asks you this, how would you answer back? What would you say?

You know, it's kind of funny. Even in English, if you're having kind of a blah day, we still usually say, I'm fine, thank you. Right? Fine, thanks.

I'm fine, thank you. And that's exactly what we do in Spanish. Except we say, bien, gracias. Bien, gracias.

Let's break it down a little bit. Bien. Bien. B-I-E-N.

B-N. Bien means fine. It's kind of like I'm bein' fine. I'm bein' fine.

Bein' is fine. Try it out. Bein', bein', bein'. How's everything?

Bein' fine. ¿Cómo estás? Bien. So the other person answers with fine.

Now if you want to say thank you, you would say, and you might already know this because it's pretty common even in English, gracias. Let me spell that out for you. G-R-A-C-I-A-S. Gracias And by the way, the word gracias actually comes from the root gracious meaning gratitude.

So I'm grateful. I'm thankful. Thank you. Gracias.

How does that feel? If your tongue isn't rolling yet, don't worry about it. Just say it the best you can and it'll come a little later. And some days, mine takes a little vacation too.

So, let's try the whole thing. Somebody asks, ¿Cómo estás? Try it out with me. ¿Cómo estás?

And they answer, even if maybe they don't feel so great, they say, fine, thank you. Bien, gracias. Bien, gracias. Bien, gracias.

Fine, thank you. Bien, bien, gracias. ¿Cómo estás? Bien, gracias.

¿Cómo estás? Bien, gracias. Okay, let's try it like we're real life friends. ¿Cómo estás?

How are you? Okay, if it's not already sticking in your head, I want to encourage you to try it out 10, 20, 30 times today. Ask your cat, ¿Cómo estás? And then you can answer for him, Bien, gracias.

Ask your coffee cup, your houseplants, your reflection in the mirror, how are you? ¿Cómo estás? Bien, gracias. And just let this little phrase roll around in your brain and write it down in your journal.

Keep up the good work. Little by little, you're going to be building something amazing. I will see you in the next lesson.