¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are over you might be considering some possible resolutions to jumpstart the new year. After all, a new year seems to require some new activities to set it apart from last year. I'm going to resolve to keep up with this blog; I started it last summer but soon became distracted and well, you know how that goes. If you're interested in learning Spanish for the first time, refreshing old skills, or want some useful phrases for traveling, I hope you'll find the blog useful. Please feel free to comment, ask questions and make suggestions for future posts.

Since it is a new year I thought it might be appropriate to learn, or for some review, how to talk about days and the date. My students are always happy to know that the days of the week and the months aren't capitalized in Spanish (one less thing to worry about). Let's start with the days: los días (lohs dee-ahs)

lunes (loo-nays):                     Monday

martes (mar-tays):                  Tuesday

miércoles (mee-air-coh-lays):    Wednesday

jueves (hway-vays):                 Thursday

viernes (vee-air-nays):              Friday

sábado (sah-bah-doe):             Saturday

domingo (doe-ming-oh):           Sunday

A good way to learn the days of the week is to use the words daily:

Hoy es lunes (oy ace loo-nays): Today is Monday

Mañana es martes (mahn-ya-na ace mar-tays): Tomorrow is Tuesday

Using the words this way, in a meaningful context, is much better than memorizing them together. It will prevent you from having to run through the whole list just so you can remember how to say "Thursday". If you keep a diary you can write the day in Spanish, or you can write the words on your calendar. Seeing the words every day is a great way to learn them, too.

Okay, now for the months: los meses (lohs may-says)

enero (en-air-oh):           January

febrero (feb-rare-oh):      February

marzo (mars-oh):            March

abril (ah-bril):                  April

mayo (my-oh):                May

junio (who-nee-oh):         June

julio (who-lee-oh):           July

agosto (a-gost-oh):         August

septiembre (sep-tee-em-bray): September

octubre (oc-too-bray):             October

noviembre (no-vee-em-bray):   November

diciembre (dee-cee-em-bray):   December

Not so bad, right? In fact the months are pretty easy once you get used to all those syllables in the winter months. Just go slow and take it syllable by syllable.

If you know your numbers in Spanish you can put the days and months together to tell the date: la fecha (la fay-chah). The day comes before the month so January 8 becomes "the 8 of January":  el 8 de enero. If you're still working on your numbers don't worry about the date right now, just practice using the days of the week every day. Before you know it "Hoy es lunes" will seem perfectly natural!