... Spanish Survival Course (Lesson 4 of 4) ...
by Infocostarica Staff

Imagine being sick in Costa Rica, without speaking any Spanish, and having to tell someone "take me to the hospital". In the last courses you learned the word for hospital, but what about "take"? Without verbs we don't have action, and without action, you might find yourself in a lot of trouble when you're asking someone to do something. Therefore, the following list of verbs is necessary in order for you to get along well in a Spanish speaking country. Since this is an elementary course, we'll limit ourselves to the present tense.

Verbs 

to be: estar 
to eat: comer 
to walk: caminar 
to sleep: dormir 
to talk: hablar 
to understand: entender 
to take: tomar 
to look for: buscar 
to need: necesitar 
to call: llamar 
to pay: pagar 
to go: ir

Once you memorize this short list of survival verbs, you should combine them with these personal pronouns:

I: yo
you: usted (sigular)
you: ustedes (plural)
he:él 
she:ella 
they:ellos(as) 
we:nosotros

In Spanish, verbs are conjugated differently for each pronoun. For example with the verb "to sleep"- dormir, you would say: I sleep: yo duermo She sleeps: ella duerme However, since the idea in this course is that you acquire the basics, there is nothing wrong with you communicating on an elementary level; if you say "yo dormir" people will understand that you are saying "I sleep", even though it's incorrect.

An important combination that you can make includes the verb "to need" and any other verb. For example, if you have to say "I need to look for...", you can say "Yo necesitar buscar..." (the correct way of saying it is "yo necesito buscar", but like I said previously, people will understand you, anyway).

How would you say the following phrases?

1.Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom. 
2.Excuse me, where is the green hotel? 
3. I need to sleep, please. 
4. I need to call a cab. 
5. Do you have a yellow knife? 
6. How much is the black coffee? 
7. Give me sixty tickets, please. 
8. How do I get to the airport? 
9. Where is the rent-a-car? 
10. I need to eat salad. 
11. She walks. 
12. They call and take a bus.

If you've practiced the small bits of information that were presented to you on these short lessons, then you will be understood at a basic level. Costa Ricans are very friendly and patient people, and they won't get upset if your Spanish isn't very good; most Ticos will go out of their way to communicate through "sign language" and to show a lost tourist his/her way around the city or the countryside. Actually, you might find it hard to practice your spanish as more and more Ticos learn english and are always overeager to practice themselves. Hopefully, with these elementary lessons you'll be able to enjoy yourself a little bit more if you encounter people that don't speak your language.

Good luck and have a blast in Costa Rica.