Important spanish words for your next trip!
An article about spanish words and which one you really need. Sure, it is probably not what you expected on a website about Alicante and the Costa Blanca at the first place, but I had to do it simply for personal necessity.
Over the last months I received a lot of emails asking for spanish words and slang referring to these terms and what the word for that is. So, here we are, this is my general global rescue page for everybody who needs some basic spanish words arriving here on holidays.
Spanish Words for Travellers
Now, it would be easy to just list a bunch of spanish words and put the english translation to it, but this is not what you might need. Similar to our article about cleaning palm trees, the story should be a little bit of fun. Therefore, I will put the key words into a little story where some of you might relate to it. Oh, and do not worry it is not going to be like a school lesson. 🙂
A little practical story and how to learn some basic spanish words
Our main character is called Sally who arrives at the Alicante airport directly from London, Stansted. She does not speak any spanish word nor does she want to learn a lot because she just wants to spend two lovely weeks under the spanish sun.
Coming out of the airport arrival area, she could rent a car there and would probably not need any spanish word whatsoever. Hey, this is the airport and it is an international airport, which means people speak and understand english. But… and here comes the big but, just when you leave the airport building you find the first “not-so-fluent-english” speaking taxi driver. And our little Sally does not really want to take a taxi, but just wants to ask where and if there is a bus to her destination which is Benidorm.
So let’s ask the friendly looking taxi driver:
Is there a bus to Benidorm? – Hay un autobus para ir a Benidorm?
Well, the question is just an example because you might already know from this website that there are 4 daily connections between Alicante Airport and Benidorm.
And to be honest – I would not ask a taxi driver for a bus connection. No, not a good idea. So our Sally arrived late at night at the airport and there is no bus after 20 h to Benidorm. Therefore, she takes the taxi. But before we start our ride, let’s ask the taxi driver in our best spanish words how much the fare will be.
How much is the taxi to Benidorm? – Cuanto cuesta el taxi a Benidorm?
Just another example really, but a useful one. So, whenever you want to ask – how much – something costs, simply use the spanish expression – cuanto cuesta … followed by the thing you want to ask for.
Well and what are the things you want to ask for? – Easy….. drinks, taxi, bus or theatre tickets or anything else. We are going to make a short list and have these spanish words :
How much is a pint? – Cuanto cuesta una cerveza?
How much is the entrance ticket? – Cuento cuesta la entrada?
How much is the bus ticket? – Cuanto cuesta el ticket para el autobus?
How much is…? – Cuanto cuesta….?
You see, some basic spanish words mixed with a few gestures and you will get your taxi fare to Benidorm or any other place.
To get on with our little story about Sally and to practise some more useful spanish words, we let her take the taxi and she gets to Benidorm. Actually, spanish taxi driver usually know more english than you’d expect – they will get you to your hotel. Within the hotel and particularly at the reception you will not need any spanish words. But just in case you run into somebody non english speaking person, here are some basic spanish words for hotel guests:
Where is the hotel bar? – Donde esta el bar del hotel? (very important!!)
At what time can I get breakfast? – A que hora se sirve el desayuno?
The TV in my room does not work. – La tele de mi habitacion no funciona.
Just looking at the first of these three examples gives you some idea on how to build a spanish question on where something is located. The simple – where is … – is in spanish – Donde esta…
And with some other spanish words in addition you will find your way around:
Where is ? – Donde esta ?
Where is the beach? – Donde esta la playa?
.. the restaurant? – … el restaurante?
.. the bus station? – … la estacion de autobuses?
.. the train station? – … la estacion de trenes?
Now back to our little story about Sally. After a wonderful quiet night at the hotel, she rushes to the beach the next morning. As with all little things, she left her suntan lotion back home in Maidenhead and now under the spanish sun and it’s 37 C she really needs some sort of protection. So, Sally jumps into the store at the beach and asks for :
Do you have suntan lotion? – Tiene crema protectora contra el sol?
This really simple question explains one of the most common spanish words. Do you have… – is simply translated into .. Tiene … . Whenever you ask somebody about something just build your spanish words around the word tiene.
Do you have icecream? – Tiene helado?
Do you have sunglasses? – Tiene gafas del sol?
Do you have aspirin? – Tiene aspirina?
And believe me, our Sally might need some aspirin after spending many nights at the discos and bars around Benidorm. 🙂
I think we should really leave it there with our little course on spanish words. For those of you who come to Spain and the Costa Blanca for a holiday – it is really not necessary to know a lot of spanish. It will sure make life easier to know some spanish words but it is not needed at all. And those of you who live here permanently or for some months of the year, well, you really should pick up some spanish words and your daily life would be much easier.