primero
“primero” — to begin with in Spanish. Adverb, level A2, topic — time, days and hours. Opens the order of actions and stands before the verb: primero comemos y luego salimos. As an adverb it never changes; as an adjective it drops the -o before a masculine word: el primer día. In a live sentence: “Primero llamamos al hotel y después reservamos” — To begin with, we will call the hotel, and then book. You can hear how it sounds right here.
In short
| Written in Spanish | primero |
| Translation | to begin with |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | A2 |
- primeroto begin with
Why it looks that way
Opens the order of actions and stands before the verb: primero comemos y luego salimos. As an adverb it never changes; as an adjective it drops the -o before a masculine word: el primer día
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Primero llamamos al hotel y después reservamosTo begin with, we will call the hotel, and then book
Nearby words: time, days and hours
Today, tomorrow, in the morning, at six. You cannot arrange to meet without these — let alone understand the answer.
- el díadayMasculine despite the -a ending: el día, buenos días. One of the most famous gender exceptions
- hoytodayThe h is silent: oy. Hoy en día means 'these days', not 'today at noon'
- mañanatomorrowThe same word also means 'morning': mañana is tomorrow, la mañana is the morning. The article tells them apart
- ayeryesterdayStress at the end: ah-YER. Anteayer is the day before yesterday, glued together from before yesterday
- la tardeeveningSpanish tarde stretches from lunch to dark — the whole second half of the day plus early evening. After dark la noche begins
- la nochenightStarts with darkness, so a ten o'clock dinner is already por la noche
- la horahourBoth the measure of time and the time on the clock: ¿qué hora es? 'One o'clock' is already la una
- ¿a qué hora?at what time?Literally 'at which hour'. The answer keeps the a: a las tres
- ya es tardeit's too lateAbout the hour of day and about a missed chance — both at once
- la semanaweekThe Latin 'seven' is hiding inside. The weekend is el fin de semana — literally the end of the week
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “time, days and hours”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to begin with” in Spanish?
Opens the order of actions and stands before the verb: primero comemos y luego salimos. As an adverb it never changes; as an adjective it drops the -o before a masculine word: el primer día
- How do you say “hour” in Spanish?
Both the measure of time and the time on the clock: ¿qué hora es? 'One o'clock' is already la una
- How do you say “tomorrow” in Spanish?
The same word also means 'morning': mañana is tomorrow, la mañana is the morning. The article tells them apart
- How do you say “week” in Spanish?
The Latin 'seven' is hiding inside. The weekend is el fin de semana — literally the end of the week
- How do you say “night” in Spanish?
Starts with darkness, so a ten o'clock dinner is already por la noche
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “to begin with” in Spanish?
«primero». In a live sentence: “Primero llamamos al hotel y después reservamos” — To begin with, we will call the hotel, and then book. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adverb, level A2, from the set “time, days and hours”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Opens the order of actions and stands before the verb: primero comemos y luego salimos. As an adverb it never changes; as an adjective it drops the -o before a masculine word: el primer día. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.