Spanish survival phrases for the three scenes you cannot avoid.

A short script beats a streak.

An app gives you recognition: you see la cuenta, you pick it from four options, you get a point. The moment you fear asks for production — someone speaks and you have to put words in the air with nothing to tap. A script is small and finished: one exchange, in order, until the reply stops being a surprise. Each scene below gives you five or six basic Spanish phrases for living abroad, the replies you are likely to hear, and one move for when a reply arrives too fast.

Scene one: order coffee and stay in Spanish.

This is the scene you will run most often, so make it automatic first. You may be asked ¿Para llevar o para tomar aquí? — to take away or to drink here — so have your answer ready before the question arrives.

¿Cuánto es? asks for the total; ¿Cuánto cuesta? asks about one item. Expect the reply to start with son plus the amount, even for a single coffee. If the number flies past, ask ¿Puede escribirlo, por favor? The ordering half is in the coffee dialogue article, and paying as a group is in split the bill in Spanish.

Scene two: ask the landlord for one repair.

Landlord messages are usually written, which is good news: prepare once, send once. Name one problem, then end with the question you need answered — when they can come.

Hay introduces a problem that exists; no funciona covers a thing that has stopped working. The tap is la llave in Mexico and el grifo in Spain. Use puede, the polite usted form, with a landlord you do not know well. This page stops at the first message on purpose: the visit itself, the rent and the deposit are in the landlord visit script.

Scene three: buy something simple at a pharmacy.

A pharmacy is a counter conversation, not an appointment. Keep it small: what hurts, is it over the counter, how often do I take it.

Me duele works as a pattern: me duele la cabeza, me duele la garganta, but me duelen los pies for plural parts. Sin receta matters most — receta is a prescription, not a recipe.

The move that keeps you in Spanish.

Every scene will meet a reply you did not expect. That is when the switch to English happens — not because you cannot speak, but because you have no line for being lost. Four lines cover almost everything, all in the polite usted form.

Note puede, not puedes: with a stranger at a counter, puede is the safe choice. The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas describes tú as the informal form used in Spain and in large parts of America, in family, informal or trusting contexts — not week one at a pharmacy. Asking someone to repeat is the sentence that keeps the conversation in Spanish.

Rehearse one scene in five minutes.

Set a timer. One scene only — the point is to finish, not to cover all three tonight.

Then leave it. Return to the same scene in two days, and add the next one on the day between. The IES What Works Clearinghouse practice guide Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning recommends spacing review over time and using quizzing that makes learners retrieve answers rather than reread them; it is written for teachers, but the habit transfers to a kitchen table.

One next step.

Do the café scene today, and only the café scene. Open Day 4 of the free plan, read the café dialogue aloud as the customer, then answer the other side out loud before you look at the next line. Ten minutes, and you are the one speaking.

Open Day 4: at a café

Also useful: Day 2 of the free 7 Day Spanish Starter Plan for the clarification lines, and the Conversation Rescue Card for those four phrases on one printable page.

Common questions.