Greetings...

In the Romance languages, the standard approach to a formal greeting is the formula "Good..." followed by the time of day. One of the tricky aspects that we'll see is how they distinguish the times of day.

The phrase, "Good day" we'll get you through up until five or six o'clock, even if there are other appropriate salutations available. So, let's learn this most versatile greeting.

In French and Italian, this is pretty easy stuff - slap together "good" and "day" and you're home free. Like this:

French bon jour becomes Bonjour (bohn-zhoor).

Italian buon giorno becomes Buongiorno (bwohn-jornoh).

Those generous Spaniards, on the other hand, aren't content with one "good day" - they wish you many:

Spanish for "Good day" is Buenos diás.

So... Bonjour, Buongiorno - good day... and Buenos días - yes, many good days to you.