Answer the airport immigration questions in Spanish.

The question nobody rehearsed with you.

You have the flight, the folder of documents and an address to get to. Then the officer looks up and asks one short question about why you are here, and the only answer that arrives is a nervous nod.

Airport questions are short and repetitive, which helps. There are only a handful, they tend to arrive in a steady order, and the answers are one line each. What fails is timing: you are still translating while the queue moves behind you. Rules and documents differ between countries, so treat this as language practice and check official guidance for your own journey.

Start with the greeting and the passport.

Before any question comes a greeting and a passport. Learn these five lines first; they set the tone and buy you a second to breathe.

Officers usually address you with usted, the polite singular: su pasaporte, su visita. A one-word answer does not need usted in it, but keep your replies short and polite.

Four questions, four short answers.

Read each row aloud, then cover the answer column and say your line again. The middle column is there so you know what you are answering, not so you can translate word by word.

Keep the shortest true answer. On holiday, Vengo de turismo or just Turismo is enough. Visiting family? Vengo a visitar a mi familia. A long explanation in a second language at a busy desk is hard for anyone, so give one line and stop.

The country name changes with the trip: ¿Es su primera vez en México?, ... en España?, ... en el país? The rest stays the same. Apartamento is widely understood; in Spain you will also hear piso. These examples are illustrative.

Say the dialogue in order.

Read it once as the officer and once as the traveller, then swap. The order is the point: greeting, passport, purpose, length of stay, address, first visit, goodbye.

An original practice dialogue, not a recording of a real interview. An officer may add, reorder or skip questions, and the wording differs between countries.

Bienvenido is said to a man and Bienvenida to a woman. You only need to recognise it.

Rehearse aloud, in order, then out of order.

Reading is not rehearsal. Saying the lines out loud is. Three short rounds cover the whole scene.

One more question at customs.

After immigration there is often a second, shorter exchange at customs. Two lines cover it.

What must be declared depends on the country and on what you are carrying, and the rules change. Check official customs guidance before you fly. If you do have something to declare, Sí, tengo algo que declarar is the short way to say so.

Train your ear as well as your mouth.

The question may arrive faster than the version you practised. You do not need every word; you need the key word.

• motivo — purpose. The question is about why you are here.
• tiempo — time. The question is about how long.
• alojarse — to stay, to lodge. The question is about your address.
• primera vez — first time.

If a question goes past you at the desk, you have two rescue lines: No entiendo and ¿Puede repetir, por favor? Both are on the free Conversation Rescue Card, and the guide on asking someone to repeat or slow down puts them into a longer exchange.

Ten focused minutes a day.

One long session the night before you fly is harder to keep than several short ones. Ten minutes is enough here: two minutes reading the lines aloud, four covering and recalling the answers, four running the dialogue from start to finish.

A practice guide from the Institute of Education Sciences recommends spacing learning over time and using quizzing that asks learners to retrieve what they know. It was written for classroom teaching, so treat it as a principle rather than a promise about this page. It does match what happens here: short repeats, spread out, with the answers covered.

Write the four questions into the free 10 Minute Practice Planner and give them three slots this week. On the day, run the dialogue once in the queue, quietly.

If apps gave you points but no speaking.

That worry is fair, so let us be blunt. Points and streaks measure taps, not speech. If you have finished lessons and still cannot say why you are in the country, those lessons were not built around the sentence you needed.

This page is a script, not a course. Its job is to get four answers out of your mouth in the right order. It does not score you, and there is nothing to install. If you want a week of structure, the 7 Day Spanish Starter Plan is free and laid out in full on its own page; Day 2 covers the clarification phrases you need when a question comes too fast.

We also have planned paid options: a starter toolkit, a four-week conversation course and a monthly practice membership. They are not open for booking, nothing starts automatically, and the planned prices are set out on the pricing page, with a published refund policy.

Cover the Spanish and check yourself.

Come back to this table tomorrow and the day after. Say the Spanish aloud before you look at the answers.

• I can greet the officer and hand over my passport.
• I can answer the purpose, length and address questions in one line.

Use the lines whenever you need them. This is practice, not a fluency test.

Common questions.