Hello friends,

Can someone give a few spanish pharases just to get by in Spain for 9 days?

Like "can you give me the direction to XXXX?"

"Do you have chicken items on the menu?"

"what is your most popular chicken item here?"

"Can I speak English with you?"

"How do I get a bus or cab to get back to my hotel?


If you have any more common phrases pls feel free to share w/us.

Thanks a lot.

Well - I would approach this rather differntly.

First - learn how to address people- proper greetings, please, thank you etc

Then - do you speak english?

Then basic tourist things like where is the toilet? what time does X open or close? How do I get to?

Any basic phrase book or on-line translator can give you all of the above in about 3 minutes.

For menus you just need a small menu reader book so you know how to look under chicken (pollo). Do you really care what the most popular chicken dish is there (what if it's fixed in some esoteric way?) And - do you plan on eating only chicken? No pork? Or Ham? or fish? or seafood? (Berlitz publishes a very small book we use in many languages.)

try learning some Spanish om the Net:
www.studyspanish.com

If you need to know these phrases I presume your pronunciation will be terrible, so I suggest you get them typed on paper to show. You can find an online translator, are not difficult phrases.

Here's a web resource:

http://tinyurl.com/37ynnh

Use this web site to translate any phrase you feel you might need:

http://www.freetranslation.com/

1) Por favor , me puede decir como ir a XXXX

2)Que tiene con pollo en el menu?

3) Cual es el plato con pollo mas popular ? ( O mejor I would say, Which chicken item do you recommend?:
Que plato con pollo me recomienda?

Puedo hablar en Ingles ?

Como puedo tomar un taxi o un omnibus para ir a mi hotel?

Good luck. In Spanish you pronounce everything exactly the way it is written, you only have to learn the sounds of the vocals, A E I O and U. That is it.

The 4th one is the only phrase that will be helpful. Think about it... even if you can manage to ask these other questions, you will not be able to understand what the answer is because they will be speaking Spanish!

The phrase I practice up on in the local language is: "Hello. I'm sorry, I do not speak ___. and then "Do you speak English?"

As far as asking directions on the street, just use a map or guidebook and try to know where you're going ahead of time (generally good advice, when you are in a place that you don't speak the language).

The words and phrases I learned first: greetings such as good morning, good afternoon, good evening, polite words such as please, thank you, excuse me, nice to meet you, my name is ___. Knowing numbers is helpful for prices and times. Words for "how much" or "what is" or "where is" are also handy.

I would suggest getting a pocket sized guide book. Berlitz makes a good one. You'll want to learn phrases like Excuse me/pardon me, where is the bathroom, etc. Graziela's phrases are correct, but do keep in mind that you will more than likely get your answers in Spanish. If you don't speak any Spanish, you might run into some trouble.

If you are staying at a hotel, you might want to ask the concierge/front desk staff for restaurant recommendations (if you have special diet needs, or are looking for the best chicken in town).

When you leave the hotel, make sure to take a hotel card, with the full name address and phone number of the hotel with you, so if you get lost or disoriented, you can go into a hotel, store, hop in a taxi and just show the card so that you can get home. Once in India, I called the hotel on my cell phone and they sent a cab to come and get me!

Buena suerte! (Good luck!)

I forgot to add, the most important phrase whould be, a nice smile,
then of course as it has been suggested,

Hola, Buen Dia- to say hello in the morning
Hola -later in the day
and when the day is over, Buenas noches
Of course, Por favor=please, gracias=thank you, are a must but I was assuming you already know these little words so useful in any language.

sumplanner,

Hmm.... Now how about some slangs to make things more lively ?

Just kidding. Enjoy Spain.

Hi there!

In Spain they add the word "vale" pronounced Bah-lay at the end of sentences to confirm things. Kind of like OK or certainly.

"Blah blah blah..."bale"?
Or perhaps you order
"Un cana por favor" (a small beer please)They may answer with "vale" to aknowledge you.

Also when you thank them with gracias they will respond with "nada" instead of de nada. My DH asked me about that one when were there.

My keyboard does not have the Spanish accents etc but yu get the drift, no?
Have a great time.

ams