THERE are many ways of saying goodbye in Spanish. You probably already know a few. But we are going to make sure you have a full repertoire of foreign language farewells at your disposal.

The simplest, most common way to say goodbye in Spanish is adiós. Pronounced ah-dyos, the word breaks down into two words a, which means “to,” and dios, which means “God.” So it literally means “to God,” similar to the expression “go with God.” But there is no longer a religious undertone — it has become a secular word meaning goodbye. (If you did, however, want to say “go with God,” the phrase is Vaya con dios, bah-ya cohn dyos.)

Another way is hasta luego (pronounced ah-stah lweh-goh). Hasta is the Spanish word for until and luego means later. So this way to say goodbye in Spanish literally means “until later.” It’s used the same way you use “see you later” in English, which may or may not mean that you will actually see that person later.

If you will not be seeing the person you are parting from until the next day, you can say hasta mañana. Mañana (pronounced mah-nyah-nah) means “morning” and “tomorrow.” Hasta mañana translates into “until tomorrow” and means “see you tomorrow.”

Another phrase in Spanish meaning goodbye will be familiar to fans of the Terminator movies — hasta la vista. (Baby, is optional, and probably best avoided!) It is pronounced ah-stah lah bee-stah. Vista means “sight,” “eyesight,” even “eyes,” as well as “view.” The Spanish phrase translates roughly to “until the seeing,” equivalent to saying “see you.” Don’t know if Terminator is to blame, but this farewell is not commonly used. Choose a different one unless you’re being jokey with a pal.

Yet another hasta phrase is hasta pronto. Pronto (pronounced prohn-toh) means soon. Hasta pronto — see you soon.

You can also express see you with the words nos vemos (pronounced nohs beh-mohs). It translates into “we will see each other.” Nos is the “each other” part. Vemos is the first person plural form of the verb ver,  meaning “to see.” This is a common and colloquial way of saying goodbye in Spanish.

Even more colloquial is the word chao, which is taken from the Italian word for goodbye, ciao.

Note: If you’re puzzled by the letter ‘b’ in the pronunciations listed above, it’s because the Spanish ‘v’ sounds more like an English ‘b’ than it does an English ‘v’. More like, but not exactly; it’s kind of between the two.

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