So, when do you use ‘buenas tardes’ and ‘buenas noches’?

Unlike in English, these two Spanish greetings have more to do with meals and the sunset than with the actual time of day.

Therefore, ‘buenas tardes’ is usually said after lunch, which is often from 2.00 pm. ‘Buenas noches’, especially in the summer, is usually said after 9.00 pm. In winter, many people say ‘buenas tardes’ at least until 8.00 pm, even if it’s dark; and many only use ‘buenas noches’ after dinner, which tends to be from 9.00 pm.

When using ‘buenas noches’, remember that it’s not only a farewell, but also a greeting. You can use it both when you meet someone and when you leave.

As you can see, there is no golden rule as to when to use these Spanish greetings. The important point is that they’re vague and flexible. Best of all, there’s an easy way out if you’re unsure as to which one to use: you can simply say ‘buenas’.

If you want to practice saying these and other Spanish greetings, you can hear them said by native speakers in the Lessons 2, 3 and 4 of my Spanish course. Here are two samples:

Lesson 2 dialog and flashcards

The dialogs in my Spanish for beginners course include a wide variety of everyday questions and answers that you’ll often hear when communicating with native Spanish speakers.

Here are five questions from the dialogs in my course that you’ll often hear in conversation, together with their English translation. Click on them to hear them said by native speakers:

¿qué hora es? – what time is it?

¿qué vais a tomar? – what are you going to have?

¿qué más le pongo? – what else can I give you?

¿alguna otra cosa? – anything else?

¿me puede decir cuánto es todo? – can you tell me how much everything is?

In this post I’m going to guide you through how to master these five questions. Let’s listen to the first one once more:

¿qué hora es? – what time is it?

Notice how the intonation rises at the end of the question.

All Spanish questions must rise at the end to be understood properly. Because of the way Spanish verbs and word order work, if your question doesn’t rise at the end, you’ll often sound like you’re making a statement rather than asking something.

As for the pronunciation, in the question ‘¿qué hora es?’ remember that the ‘u’ in ‘qué’ and the ‘h’ in ‘hora’ are silent. If you need to go through the pronunciation rules of any of the letters of the alphabet, you can find them all in the pronunciation lessons in my Spanish for beginners course.

Let’s listen to the first question once more. Once you’re familiar with it, repeat it out loud, along with the Spanish speaker, trying to keep up with the speed. To sound like a native, make sure you imitate her intonation too:

¿qué hora es? – what time is it?

Let’s now move on to the second question. Click on it several times to hear it and, like before, then repeat it after the speaker:

¿qué vais a tomar? – what are you going to have?

Remember that the Spanish ‘v’ sounds like a ‘b’, and notice how the words ‘vais a’ are joined together. You should join them too!

In the third question ‘¿qué más le pongo?’ you need to watch out for the vowels. Before we practice saying the whole question, let’s review these three vowels:

a

e

o

In particular, make sure the ‘e’ in ‘le’ doesn’t sound like the ‘e’ in the English word ‘me’, and that the final ‘o’ in ‘pongo’ doesn’t sound like the ‘o’ in the English word ‘go’. You can practice these two vowels in Lessons 2 and 4 of my Spanish for beginners course.

Like with the previous two sentences, listen to it several times and then repeat it along with the speaker:

¿qué más le pongo? – what else can I give you?

In the forth sentence ‘¿alguna otra cosa?’ make sure again that you’re saying the vowels correctly:

a

o

u

You can practice these three vowels in Lessons 1, 4 and 5 of my Spanish for beginners course.

Also, don’t forget that the question must rise at the end. Practice this sentence like the ones before:

¿alguna otra cosa? – anything else?

The fifth and final question is ‘¿me puede decir cuánto es todo?’ (can you tell me how much everything is?). Here, make sure you’re saying the words ‘me’, ‘puede’ and ‘cuánto’ correctly:

me – me, to me

puede – you can

cuánto – how much

Remember not to drop the final ‘e’ in ‘puede’, and to say both the ‘u’ and the ‘a’ clearly in ‘cuánto’.

This last sentence is longer than the previous ones, so you might find it more difficult to master it. Listen to it as many times as you need to get familiar with its sound, and then repeat it out loud along with the speaker:

¿me puede decir cuánto es todo? – can you tell me how much everything is?

Speaking drill

To review the Spanish questions in this post, we’re going to do a speaking drill. Here are the five questions in English. Can you say them in Spanish? Press play to hear the right answer:

what are you going to have?

can you tell me how much everything is?

what time is it?

what else can I give you?

anything else?

Repeat this drill until you can get all five questions right. You may want to come back to it several times over the next few days to really master them.

If you liked this post, you can find many more interactive multimedia articles like this one on my other site, Spanish Bookworld.

You may only be able to say simple, short sentences, but if you can say them clearly and with confidence you’ll be able to get by in most situations. If every Spanish word you know can be understood by Spanish speakers when you say them, those words will take you a long way.

Being able to communicate successfully in Spanish is also a great encouragement to continue studying the language. With a good pronunciation you’ll find it easier to remember new words, and you’ll make much faster progress.

To help you master the Spanish pronunciation, I’ve created some interactive multimedia lessons. You can play those lessons at your own pace and hear the native Spanish speakers in them over and over.

In those lessons you can find out what the common pronunciation mistakes are and how to avoid them, and you can go through the drills to practice building up your confidence.

You can get my free interactive pronunciation lessons at Spanish Bookworld.