Tuesday, June 7, 2016

10 Helpful Spanish Phrases

I've been trying to teach myself Spanish using DuoLingo for the past six months or so. The app says that I'm 52% fluent, but I think that's positive thinking. Certainly, I can read much more than I can say or understand, but only getting 5 words out of every 10 right could be problematic.  As such, I've looked up 10 phrases that I think might come in handy for my trip and am practicing these on my own. I thought some of you might want to 'play along' and learn these Spanish phrases too. I think I have these mostly right; please correct me if I've made errors (other than accent marks - can't figure out how to add that keyboard option on my laptop).

1. I would like a glass of wine.  Yo quiero un vaso de vino. 

2. How much is this? Cuantos?

3. Where is the ____________? Donde, esta el banyo, el restaurante, el stacion, etc.?

4. I am lost. Estoy perdido.

5. I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish. Do you speak English?
Disculpe, no hablo espanol. Tu hable ingles?

6.  What time is the next train? A que hora sale el proximo tren?

7.  May I have the check, please? Puedo tener la cuento, por favor?

8.  No, that costs too much. No, mucho dineres.

9.  Can I try this on? Puedo probarme esto?

10. Do you have free wifi?  Tiene wifi gratis? 

I'll be practicing all of these in the coming days; hopefully, I'll be able to get along okay on my Spanish adventure this summer. :)

5 comments:

  1. Hi Tiffany,
    I think you will get on fine with most of these phrases. However, I hope you don't mind me suggesting a couple of little corrections (mind you, neither English nor Spanish is my first language, but I'm trying hard, ha ha!).

    1. Since you are a woman the correct grammatical form in #4 is "estoy perdida".

    2. You shouldn't address someone with the informal "tu" unless they're a friend or you are under 20. This could easily be misinterpreted as impoliteness or flirting. Remember your experiences with some French guys... ;-)
    The correct phrase in #5 is "Habla usted ingles".

    3. #8 translates as "I don't have much money", which you probably do not want to let people know, should that really be the case ;-). "Es demasiado caro" is the right phrase.

    4. The check is "la cuenta".

    I hope you don't consider me an obnoxious know-it-all now :). I wish you a safe journey and a great time in Spain. Looking forward to your adventures and photos which I am sure I will enjoy just as much as I did enjoy your stories from Paris last year.
    Take care and "que te diviertas!" (I'm using the "tu" here because I feel like I know you quite well, having listened to more than a hundred Scrapgals shows) :-))
    Regina from Germany

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  2. I knew how to say Hello and Thank You on my first trip to China. For everything else it was facial expressions and gestures. I'm impressed with the work you've done so far! I look forward to hearing or reading about your adventures in Spain. Happy Trails!

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  3. I remember when I first visited Mexico years ago the most important phrase in my "arsenal" was Where is the bathroom? LOL!! Oh...and another beer please. ROFL!

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  4. I'm so excited for you, Tiffany! I hope you'll share a few things with us as you travel. Let us live vicariously through you!!!
    For phrase #1 you can just say Quiero un vaso de vino. Yo means I and quiero means I want so it's like saying I twice if you say yo quiero. It's not wrong - it just isn't necessary.
    For phrase #2 you could say Cuanto cuesta? Or Cuanto cuesta esta?=how much is this?
    Esta perdida is correct since you're female.
    To ask if someone speaks English you could say Habla Ingles?
    I will add that a friend of mine spend two weeks in Spain and was so disappointed that he didn't get to use any of his Spanish there. As soon as he started to speak everyone recognized that he was American and would switch to English whether he liked it or not.
    By the way, did you ever figure out what that French perfume was?

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  5. I hope you have an amazing adventure and all the corrections above are spot on!!

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