To speak Spanish in a way that sounds and feels natural, you need a few tools.
One of those tools is “Conversational Connectors”.
Conversational connectors help you connect one thought to the next.
This is something you do naturally in English: “Oh by the way”, “as I was saying”, “well anyway”, and on and on.
Equivalents exist in Spanish, and you don’t need to wait years to start using them.
When you get the hang of phrases like these, I think you’ll feel a bit more like yourself (maybe less like a robot reciting phrases).
Here are some of my favorite “conversational connectors”, broken into categories.
Qualifying
- Que yo sepa – as far as I know
- Que yo sepa, no hay partido hoy.
- As far as I know, there’s no game today.
- La verdad es que – the truth is
- Y bueno, la verdad es que no quiero ir.
- Well the truth is that I don’t want to go.
Explaining
- Lo que quiero decir es que… – what I mean is that…
- Lo que quiero decir es que tenemos que tener cuidado.
- What I mean is that it we have to be careful.
- Por si acaso… – Just in case
- Por si acaso, no salgas sin paraguas.
- Just in case, don’t go out without an umbrella.
Agreeing
- Sin duda – without a doubt
- Sin duda, esta es la mejor playa de la región
- Without a doubt this is the best beach in the region.
- Tienes razón – you’re right
- Tienes razón, esta es la mejor playa que he visto
- You’re right, this is the best beach I’ve seen
Filling Space
- Por cierto – by the way
- Por cierto, viste que salió la nueva temporada de Casa de papel?
- By the way, did you see that the new season of Money Heist came out?
- En fin… – anyway
- En fin, basta de hablar de mí, hablemos de ti!
- Anyway, enough talking about me, let’s talk about you!
Of course, there’s a lot more to spoken Spanish than the above. But incorporating phrases like these into your speech can help you connect one thought to the next and feel like things flow a bit more.
For now, pick 3-4 of these short phrases and create your own sentences with them verbally.
Then to really make them stick, each day this week, come back to this email and pick one phrase to focus on. Try to use it as much as you can in your Spanish practice that day.
– Connor
P.S. Another big part of feeling natural in Spanish is the confidence you have around your accent. If you feel like your pronunciation could be better, sign up for the Confident Spanish Pronunciation workshop and start building great pronunciation in 5 minutes a day.
