For a trip to Spain, start with hola, por favor, gracias, perdone, ¿habla inglés?, and no entiendo. Then learn la cuenta, por favor for the bill and un billete for a transport ticket. These small requests are easier to practise than a long list of words unrelated to your itinerary.

Keep the Spanish line and its English meaning together on your phone. You can point to the phrase when a crowded café or unfamiliar accent makes speaking difficult.

Begin a short conversation

What you want to say Spanish
Hello Hola
Good morning Buenos días
Please Por favor
Thank you Gracias
Excuse me, politely Perdone
Do you speak English? ¿Habla inglés?
I don’t understand No entiendo
More slowly, please Más despacio, por favor

Spanish h is silent, so hola starts with a vowel sound. For por favor, a rough English hint is “por fah-VOR.” Such hints only get you started; use a dictionary’s audio to hear complete words and practise your own greeting plus question together.

¿Habla inglés? is addressed politely to one person. Wait for the answer before adding your request. If the reply is too fast, más despacio, por favor gives you a simple way to ask for a slower pace.

Order and settle the bill

At a café or restaurant Spanish
A table for two, please Una mesa para dos, por favor
A coffee, please Un café, por favor
Water, please Agua, por favor
The bill, please La cuenta, por favor
Can I pay by card? ¿Puedo pagar con tarjeta?
How much is it? ¿Cuánto cuesta?

Use a menu entry to identify what you want, then add the quantity. If you need a particular kind of coffee, show the name on the menu instead of assuming that the word café specifies every detail of your order.

Watch the word menú. It can mean the list of dishes, but it can also refer to a set menu, such as a menú del día. Check the listed courses, price and inclusions before ordering. SpanishDictionary’s entry explains both meanings.

Our menu translation guide can help with unfamiliar descriptions. Translating a dish and confirming what comes with a set menu are separate tasks; ask about the details you need.

Ask for a ticket and recognise useful signs

English Spanish
One ticket to Madrid, please Un billete a Madrid, por favor
Where is the station? ¿Dónde está la estación?
Where is the toilet? ¿Dónde está el baño?
Entrance / exit Entrada / salida
Open / closed Abierto / cerrado

Billete is useful at a transport counter. Entrada also means an admission ticket, so the word on a museum booking may differ from the one on a train ticket. Show the date, destination and ticket type while asking; one short sentence does not establish whether you need a return or a particular service.

When someone gives directions, listen for derecha (“right”) and izquierda (“left”). If the route is still unclear, show your destination on a map and ask the person to indicate it. Confirming the place is more useful than pretending to follow a long spoken route.

Words you may hear differently in Spain

If you learned Spanish elsewhere, you may already know jugo for juice; zumo is useful to recognise in Spain. Likewise, a transport billete may be familiar to you as boleto. These are vocabulary differences, not reasons to discard the Spanish you already know.

You may also hear vosotros, an informal plural “you” used in much of Spain. Regional usage varies, as FundéuRAE discusses. A first-trip phrase card does not need to teach every pronoun or accent: practise a polite request you can use confidently with one person.

Save the phrases that match your plans

Choose six essentials, one restaurant request and your first transport question. Save the exact accommodation address and booking details alongside them. Practise saying a phrase, stopping, and opening the written version when you need help.

For an additional text phrase, you can use our free English–Spanish translator. It provides general Spanish. Spek, our iPhone app, offers an explicit Spain — Spanish (Spain) choice for country-specific translation requests; that setting is not a guarantee about every result.

The app requires internet and offers in-app purchases. For voice exchanges, follow our conversation setup guide and keep short turns so both people can review each result.