En marcha An Intensive Spanish Course for Beginners

Carmen Garcia del Rio, Eva Martinez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780340905333
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134663255
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

En Marcha is an intensive course in Spanish for beginners. Systematic and comprehensive, it takes the student from beginner's to upper intermediate level in one year. Carefully graded exercises and expert grammatical explanations are combined with lively activities and an attractive presentation to develop the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The material is organised in 8 units, each unit introduces new language and provides a variety of activities to practise that language, with clear instructions guiding the student and regular summaries of key points.

The units also provide sections for self-study which consolidate material learnt in class, as well as a full key to the exercises. Additional material includes audio files to accompany the book available free to download at www.routledge.com/cw/rio, a grammar reference index, and lists of essential vocabulary in easy-to-learn groups.

1 Primeros contactos

DOI: 10.4324/9780203784358-1

A Hola, ¿cómo te llamas?

Hello, what’s your name?

■ Expresiones esenciales	■ Essential expressions
Hola	Hello
Buenos días	Good morning (6 a.m. until about midday)
Buenas tardes	Good afternoon, Good evening (after lunch till nightfall)
Buenas noches	Good evening, Good night (after dark) or after dinner
¿Cómo te llamas? (informal)	What’s your name?
¿Cómo se llama usted? (polite)	What’s your name?
(Yo) me llamo …	My name is …
… es mi nombre	… is my first name
… es mi apellido	… is my surname
… son mis apellidos	… are my surnames
Adiós	Goodbye
Hasta luego	See you later
Hasta mañana	See you tomorrow

1 Saying ‘hello', ‘good morning', ‘good afternoon’, ‘good evening’, ‘good night’

1. Imagine the different times of day (morning, afternoon / evening, night) and greet other people in your class. In turn, respond to their greetings.

   

2. Working with a partner, read the following situations and decide on the appropriate Spanish greeting.
   1. It is 6 p.m. and you have just walked into the office and made eye contact with your boss.
   2. It is 10 a.m. on Saturday and you have walked into a bar where your friend is already waiting to have breakfast with you.

      

   3. It is 7 p.m. and your evening-class teacher has just smiled at you on your arrival.
   4. You are arriving back at your flat at 10 p.m. and you pass a neighbour on the communal staircase.

      

3. 
   Listen to these greetings and number them in the order in which you hear them.

   a ¡Hola!	□
   b ¡Hola! Buenos días	□
   c Buenas noches	□
   d ¡Hola! Buenas tardes	□
   e Buenas tardes	□

C de Cultura

■ Buenas tardes

A visitor to Spain will notice straightaway the later times of both the midday meal, which is usually the main meal of the day (rarely earlier than 2 p.m.), and the evening meal (not before 9 p.m.). Shops will close for lunch between 1.30 p.m. and 4 p.m., for example, and will then reopen from 4 p.m. until 8 or 8.30 p.m.. Thus the afternoon runs into the evening and this is reflected in the greeting Buenas tardes which means both ‘Good afternoon’ and ‘Good evening’.

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Unit 1 Primeros contactos
• Unit 2 Información personal
• Unit 3 En donde vivimos
• Unit 4 La vida diaria
• Unit 5 Permisos, favores y preferencias
• Unit 6 Gustos y otras cosas
• Unit 7 Cuéntame que pasó
• Unit 8 !Olé!