¿Que pasa?

This is a Spanish phrase I hear a lot, so is great for sounding more Spanish.

¿Que pasa? means 'What's happening?' and can be used literally or in a casual greeting

¡Eh, tio! ¿que pasa? - Hey man, what's up?

It also works in the past tense

¿Que pasó? - What happened?

Conjugation of the week - 14. Irse - to leave

Having mentioned 'irse' in yesterday's post I thought perhaps it would be a good time to revive the 'Conjugation of the week' posts. This is the first one using the reflexive form which changes the meaning of 'ir' from 'to go' to 'to leave'. By the way, 'irse' is pronounced roughly like 'ear-say'.

irse - to leave

me voy - I leave
te vas - you leave (sing. fam.)
se va - he/she/it leaves, you leave (sing. pol.)
nos vamos - we leave
os vais - you leave (pl. fam.)
se van they leave, you leave (pl. pol.)

Me voy

On Monday I'm leaving Chamonix (in France) and heading back to the UK for a while. Hopefully I'll manage a trip to Spain in the next couple of months. It seems appropriate then to introduce the reflexive form of 'ir' (to go), i.e. 'irse' = to leave. It is similar in use to 'salir' (to go out, to leave) but is more common for leaving and not used in the going for a night out sense.

Hasta luego, ahora me voy - See you later, I'm leaving now.