Common Spanish phrases found in Spanish phrase books can be helpful and many people buy them before embarking on vacation to Mexico or Spain. However, in real life, a number of people discover that phrase books limit you to a fixed way of saying something, and life is far from being like that.
Having the ability to say, "Can you tell me if this is the 10.15 or the 10.30 train leaving for Barcelona?" is all very well. But when you are in Bolivia and it's a bus leaving at midnight you are hoping to catch to some insignificant village you can't even pronounce, it isn't much help. You need to know more than just easy Spanish words, or at least you need to be able to adapt the Spanish phrases you know.
It is good to start by learning the useful Spanish phrases. Learn how to greet people by saying "good day" (buenas días), "good afternoon" (buenas tardes), and "good evening" (buenas noches). You can always just say "hola" (hello) if you're unsure which phrase to use.
You can naturally advance from there to a relatively more complicated greeting: "¿Cómo estás?" which means, "how are you?" However, that's a rather formal and stilted. You are likely to find that most people just say, "que tal?" If someone says that to you, answer them, "bien, ¿y tu?" (I'm well, and you?). They will be impressed with your command of their language, believe me!
In keeping with the infamous Spanish phrase books, you need to also learn how to ask for something if you are in a Spanish café or restaurant. As in most English speaking countries, Spanish speaking people have several courses to their meals. The first is the, "primero plato," the second is the "segundo plato," and the third is the "tercero plato."
You may wish to have a cup of water (un vaso de agua) with your meal, or a coffee (un café). If you want your coffee with milk, then it should be, "un café con leche." A glass of red wine (un vaso de vino tinto), or white wine (un vaso de vino blanco) may also go down well. Perhaps you want an entire bottle of wine (una botella de vino). And now you can ask for one that's either red or white too.
You may have realized that in all those Spanish phrases I didn't mention "please" at any one time. Because we do it all the time in English, we assume that everyone else does it too. In fact, we typically are not able to understand why anyone Could be so rude as to not use "please" when asking for something.
It simply is not a Spanish custom. On the contarary, they think it is rude if you do say, "please" for every single thing. For instance, if you were to say to a Spanish barman, "un vaso de vino tinto, pro favor," he would probably get a little offended.
Picture a man standing at the bar in an English speaking country waiting for a long time to get served. Finally, he speaks to the barman with a loud voice, "a glass of red wine, PLEASE." The "please" at the end is said in a rather sarcastic way, and that's very much how it comes over when you add "please" in Spanish. Don't do it and you'll keep yourslef out of needless trouble.
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