📖LearnModule 1 · Lesson 1 of 30Basic User · CEFR A1, first halfUnit 1 · ¡Hola! Sounds and greetings
Greetings and polite words
Module 1 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A1, first half), lesson 1 of 30: Spanish h makes no sound at all: hola is OH-lah. On this page: 11 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
hola
hello
OH-lah
buenos días
good morning
BWEH-nohs DEE-ahs
buenas tardes
good afternoon
BWEH-nahs TAR-dehs
buenas noches
good night
BWEH-nahs NOH-chehs
adiós
goodbye
ah-DYOHS
hasta luego
see you later
AHS-tah LWEH-goh
gracias
thank you
GRAH-syahs
por favor
please
pohr fah-BOHR
sí
yes
see
no
no
noh
perdón
excuse me / sorry
pehr-DOHN
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
La regla · The rule
Spanish h makes no sound at all: hola is OH-lah. It is the one letter you read with your eyes and skip with your mouth — remember it now and it never trips you again.
Y también · And also
Greetings come in day-parts: buenos días until lunch, buenas tardes through the afternoon and evening, buenas noches at night. Hola works at any hour, with anyone.
Ojo · Watch out
The h is silent, every time: hola is OH-lah, not HOH-lah. And buenos días is plural — the -s on both words is spoken.
Do it now — on paper
Say all 11 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with hola.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 1 in Module 1 are the written half of this page.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.