GCSE Spanish: Key Vocabulary and Everyday Phrases Guide

Greetings and introductions

Use hola for hello and adiós for goodbye. To introduce yourself, say me llamo... ("my name is...") and tengo ... años ("I am ... years old").

Talking about family

Learn la madre (mother), el padre (father), el hermano (brother) and la hermana (sister). Use tengo ("I have") to describe siblings and pets, e.g. tengo un perro ("I have a dog").

School and free time

Key phrases include me gusta ("I like"), prefiero ("I prefer") and odio ("I hate"), always followed by a noun or an infinitive verb, e.g. me gusta leer ("I like reading").

Giving opinions

Give reasons using porque ("because"), and boost or soften opinions with muy ("very"), un poco ("a little") or realmente ("really") — this range of language is rewarded highly in speaking and writing assessments.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the correct article (el/la/los/las) in front of nouns.
• Translating word-for-word from English instead of learning the Spanish phrase as a whole, e.g. tengo hambre not "soy hambre".
• Confusing similar-looking words, such as la hija (daughter) and el hijo (son).