En resumen (the short version)
- Four verbs do most of the work when you talk about yourself: ser, estar, tener and llevar.
- Then say what you're into, with me encanta or the very Spanish soy muy de…
- Have a short answer ready for why you're learning Spanish, and add a word or two about your personality.
¡Aventurero!
You're at a dinner, and the person next to you turns and says Bueno, cuéntame algo de ti (So, tell me something about yourself).
You open your mouth and out comes… Me llamo… But they already know your name. They asked it five minutes ago 🙈
Your first lessons gave you a name, an age and a country, and that's a fine start. But it's not much to work with when someone actually wants to get to know you. So in this post I'll show you how to talk about yourself in Spanish properly: who you are, what you're into, and why you're learning.
Four verbs that tell people who you are
Teacher bit first 🤓 Talking about yourself in Spanish mostly comes down to four verbs. Each one has its own job, and English uses "be" or "have" for several of them, which is why they get mixed up.
| Verb | What it's for | Example | In English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ser | Who you are: nationality, job, personality | Soy escocesa y soy fisioterapeuta. | I'm Scottish and I'm a physio. |
| estar | Your situation at the moment | Estoy casado y estoy buscando trabajo. | I'm married and I'm looking for work. |
| tener | Age, family, things you have | Tengo dos hijos y un perro. | I've got two kids and a dog. |
| llevar | How long you've been doing something | Llevo dos años aprendiendo español. | I've been learning Spanish for two years. |
A few things worth noticing:
- Married, single and divorced usually take estar in Spain: Estoy casada, Estoy soltero, Estoy divorciada.
- Jobs don't need un or una: Soy profesor, not Soy un profesor.
- Llevar + time + a verb ending in -ando or -iendo is the most natural way to say how long you've been doing something.
If the first two still trip you up, have a look at my visual guide to ser and estar.
What you're into
People don't remember your age. They remember that you love hiking, or that you'd cross the city for a good croqueta. So tell them!
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Me encanta… | I love… | Me encanta cocinar. |
| Me gusta mucho… | I really like… | Me gusta mucho el cine. |
| Soy muy de… | I'm really into… / I'm a big … person | Soy muy de playa. |
| Soy más de… que de… | I'm more of a … than a … person | Soy más de café que de té. |
| No me gusta nada… | I don't like … at all | No me gusta nada correr. |
Soy muy de… is one of my favourite Spanish expressions, and you'll hear it all over Spain: soy muy de montaña, soy muy de quedarme en casa, soy muy de dulce (I've got a real sweet tooth). It's short, it's natural, and it tells people something real about you straight away.
Quick grammar note: me gusta and me encanta work backwards, because the thing you like is the subject. That's why it's me encantan los perros, with an n, when the thing is plural. The whole story is in how gustar works in Spanish.
Why you're learning Spanish
This is the question you'll get the most: ¿Y por qué aprendes español? It's a good one, because the answer is usually a little story 🗺️
To tell it, you need a few past forms for things that happened once:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Empecé a aprender español hace… | I started learning Spanish … ago. |
| Me enamoré de España en un viaje. | I fell in love with Spain on a trip. |
| Me mudé aquí por trabajo. | I moved here for work. |
| Conocí a mi pareja en… | I met my partner in… |
| Quiero poder hablar con… | I want to be able to talk to… |
Put two or three together and you've got your answer: Empecé a aprender español hace un año, porque me enamoré de Sevilla en un viaje. Ahora quiero poder hablar con la gente cuando vuelva. (I started learning Spanish a year ago, because I fell in love with Seville on a trip. Now I want to be able to talk to people when I go back.)
If someone asks you this and your mind goes blank, you're not alone. There's help for exactly that in why your Spanish won't come out when you speak.
A bit of personality
Finally, a word or two about what you're like. Two or three adjectives are plenty, and bastante (quite) and un poco (a bit) make them sound more natural:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Soy bastante tranquilo / tranquila. | I'm quite calm. |
| Soy un poco despistado / despistada. | I'm a bit scatterbrained. |
| Soy muy charlatán / charlatana. | I'm really chatty. |
| Soy bastante tímido / tímida al principio. | I'm quite shy at first. |
Spanish speakers usually save un poco for the less flattering ones: un poco despistado, un poco cabezota. It softens them. You'd say muy simpático, but un poco simpático sounds strange. There are lots more of these in personality adjectives in Spanish.
Estoy aburrido means you're bored right now. Soy aburrido means you're a boring person 🙈 So if a class or a party is dragging, it's always estoy.
Putting it all together
Here's how it can sound on the first day of a group class, when the teacher says Cuéntanos un poco de ti (Tell us a bit about yourself):
Look at Emma's answer to the second question: just Llevo un año y medio. She doesn't repeat aprendiendo español, because the question already said it. Short answers like that are completely natural in Spanish ✨
Make your own this week
Write one sentence for each of the four verbs
One with ser, one with estar, one with tener and one with llevar, all true about you. For example: Soy galés. Estoy jubilado. Tengo tres nietos. Llevo seis meses aprendiendo español.
Add one thing you're into
Finish Soy muy de… or Me encanta… with something true, like Soy muy de playa or Me encanta cocinar.
Say it to a real person
Put it all together and say it out loud a few times. Then try it on a real person: in a class, at a language exchange or online.
Recap ✨
- Four verbs do most of the work: ser (who you are), estar (your situation), tener (age, family) and llevar (how long).
- Say what you're into with me encanta, me gusta mucho or the very Spanish soy muy de…
- Have a short answer ready for why you're learning Spanish, with past forms like empecé, me mudé and conocí.
- Add a couple of personality words, softened with bastante or un poco.
- Watch out for estoy aburrido (I'm bored) and soy aburrido (I'm boring).
If you'd like somewhere to try all this out with real people, come and say hola in the Aventureros Club. It's full of aventureros who'd love to know what you're muy de 🎉
Now tell me 👀 Finish this sentence in Spanish: Soy muy de… Cuéntame in the comments!
¡Un abrazo!
Lucía ☕
Lucía · Linguist, translator, Spanish teacher and author of the Visual Spanish Grammar Book.
Come and learn Spanish with me and other aventureros like yourself at skool.com/learnspanish 🎉