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In this free Spanish lesson you're going to learn how to use the greetings: buenos días, buenas tardes and buenas noches - good morning, good afternoon/good evening, good night.
This is how you use these three Spanish greetings:
- Unlike in English, these three expressions have more to do with whether you've had your lunch or dinner than with the actual time of day. Roughly speaking, you'd say buenos días in the hours between getting up and having lunch, buenas tardes between lunch and dinner or at least dusk, and buenas noches after dusk or dinner and when going to bed. Spanish speakers often have their meals later than English speakers, so it's common to hear people say buenos días at 2.00 pm and later. Buenas tardes, especially in summer, can be said till 9.00 pm and later.
- Perhaps the most interesting of the three expressions is buenas noches. Buenas noches doesn't necessarily mean "I'm" or "you're going to bed", like in English, although it means that too. Buenas noches is what you say when you meet someone after dinner, often hours before going to bed, so it translates both as good evening and good night.
- The rules on how to use these three expressions are very vague, but if you're uncertain about how to greet people, you can simply say buenas. It's a very common expression and it applies to all times of day!
This free Spanish lesson has been written by Maria Fernandez, an experienced Spanish teacher, author of Learn Spanish At Your Own Pace - book + 2 cds, Spanish for Kids - interactive multimedia lessons, Spanish for Beginners cd-rom, Spanish Podcasts for Beginners, and other Spanish learning publications for adults and children.
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