A phrasebook teaches you to speak and then abandons you the moment somebody answers. Every line below has the reply beside it, because the reply is the part that decides whether the conversation continues.
| What you want | Say | The reply you will get |
|---|---|---|
| Open anything | Buenos días, or buenas tardes after about one | Buenos días, or buenas |
| One of those | ¿Me da uno, por favor? | ¿Este? or ¿Cuántos? |
| The price | ¿Cuánto es? | Son ciento veinte, or son doscientos |
| Sorry, what? | ¿Mande? | The same sentence again, usually slower |
| Slower | Más despacio, por favor | The same words, spaced out |
| I did not understand | No entendí | ¿Le explico otra vez? |
| The bathroom | ¿Dónde está el baño? | Al fondo a la derecha |
| Do you take cards? | ¿Aceptan tarjeta? | Sí, or nada más efectivo |
| The bill | La cuenta, por favor | Ahorita se la traigo |
| Close the transaction | Nada más, gracias | ¿Algo más? then gracias a usted |
These ten cover the great majority of what a visitor says in a week, and two of them are the ones no phrasebook teaches. "¿Mande?" is how a Mexican asks you to repeat, and hearing it without recognising it is the commonest way a first conversation stalls. "Nada más, gracias" is how you close a purchase without being rude, and without it people keep offering you things because you have not signalled that you are done. Note the last reply in the table: "gracias a usted" is the standard answer to thank you in Mexico, not "de nada", and hearing it is a sign the exchange went well.
What to do when you did not catch it
This is the real skill, and it is four moves deep. Most people only know the first one.
The move nobody makes is the last one. "¿Me lo escribe, por favor?" hands over a pen and a phone, and it turns a failed exchange into a solved one in about four seconds — which is why it belongs in your first ten phrases rather than your hundredth. Use it by default for two things regardless of how well the conversation is going: a price and an address. A misheard "sesenta" for "setenta" costs ten pesos, and a misheard street name costs an afternoon.
Getting around
The taxi lines are worth saying exactly, because a price agreed before you get in is a price.
| What you want | Say | The reply you will get |
|---|---|---|
| Name your street | A la calle Hidalgo, por favor | ¿Por el centro o por el periférico? |
| Agree a fare first | ¿Cuánto me cobra al centro? | Son ciento cincuenta |
| Is it far | ¿Está lejos? | Está cerquita, or como veinte minutos |
| Which way is it | ¿Por dónde queda el zócalo? | Derecho y luego a la izquierda |
| Stop here | ¿Me puede dejar aquí? | Claro que sí |
| Wait for me | ¿Me espera cinco minutos? | Sí, aquí le espero |
| Excuse me, getting past | Con permiso | Propio, or pásele |
| Excuse me, interrupting | Disculpe | Dígame, or mande |
The last two rows are one English phrase and two different Mexican ones, and using the wrong one is a small, constant stumble. "Con permiso" is what you say when your body needs to be where somebody else's body is; "disculpe" is what you say before you take up somebody's attention. The reply to "con permiso" is "propio" — literally "your own" — which sounds like a non-sequitur the first time you hear it and is simply the set answer.
Eating
The taco stand has its own script, and it is short.
| What you want | Say | The reply you will get |
|---|---|---|
| Order at a stand | ¿Me da dos de pastor? | ¿Con todo? |
| Say yes to everything | Con todo, por favor | Van saliendo |
| Hold the onion | Sin cebolla, por favor | Sale, sin cebolla |
| Is it spicy | ¿Pica? | Poquito, or no pica nada |
| Ask what is good | ¿Qué me recomienda? | El de suadero está muy bueno |
| Takeaway or here | Para llevar, or para aquí | ¿Se lo envuelvo? |
| Ask for a small thing | ¿Me regala una servilleta? | Claro, aquí tiene |
| A table for two | ¿Tiene mesa para dos? | Pásele, por aquí |
| Ask about the tip | ¿Está incluida la propina? | No, es aparte |
"¿Me regala…?" is the row to notice. It translates as "will you gift me", which sounds absurd to an English speaker, and in Mexico it is the ordinary polite way to ask for a small thing you are not paying extra for — a napkin, a bag, a glass of water, the wifi password. Asking for those with "¿me da?" is not wrong, but "¿me regala?" is what a local says, and it is one of the two or three phrases that visibly change how people respond to you. "Con todo" means onion and coriander; if you do not want them, say so before the question is asked.
The hotel, the pharmacy and the bad day
| What you want | Say | The reply you will get |
|---|---|---|
| Check in | Tengo una reservación a nombre de Smith | Permítame, ahorita la busco |
| Checkout time | ¿A qué hora es la salida? | A las doce del día |
| Leave a bag | ¿Me puede guardar la maleta? | Sí, hasta qué hora |
| Something for a headache | ¿Tiene algo para el dolor de cabeza? | ¿Para usted? Le doy esto |
| Say where it hurts | Me duele el estómago | ¿Desde cuándo? |
| Ask about a prescription | ¿Necesito receta? | Para eso sí, para esto no |
| Report something lost | Perdí mi cartera | ¿Dónde fue la última vez que la tuvo? |
| Get help now | ¿Me ayuda, por favor? | Sí, dígame |
| An emergency | Llame al 911 | Ya voy, no se mueva |
Two of these are worth saying out loud before you need them. "Me duele" plus a body part is the whole of describing pain in Spanish and it takes no grammar you have to think about: me duele la cabeza, me duele el estómago, me duelen los pies. And 9-1-1 is the single emergency number across Mexico for police, fire and ambulance, having replaced 060, 066 and the rest. (Gobierno de México: 9-1-1) It is the same three digits as the United States and Canada, which is the one piece of luck in this table.
Usted or tú, decided quickly
Use usted with anybody behind a counter, anybody in a uniform, anybody older than you, and anybody you have just met. Use tú with people obviously your own age once they have used it with you first.
Getting this wrong in the safe direction costs nothing. An over-formal visitor reads as polite; an over-familiar one reads as a tourist who did not notice where he was. Mexico is more formal about this than Spain, and considerably more formal than Argentina.
The shortcut: if you are asking somebody for something, use usted.
The tip, which is not what most guides say
The famous ten per cent in Mexican restaurants is custom, not law. PROFECO, the federal consumer agency, has stated plainly that a tip is voluntary, that it cannot be added to your bill without your consent, and that a restaurant demanding one is committing an abusive commercial practice. (PROFECO)
In practice: at a sit-down restaurant, ten to fifteen per cent is normal and appreciated. At a taco stand or a market stall, nobody expects a tip at all. If a bill arrives with "propina" already printed on it, "¿Está incluida la propina?" is the question, and you are within your rights to ask for it to be removed.
The five mistakes visitors make
Saying "¿Qué?" instead of "¿Mande?" A bare "¿qué?" is blunt in Mexico in a way it is not in Spain. "¿Mande?" costs the same one word and lands completely differently.
Using "coger". In Spain it means to take or catch. In Mexico it is obscene. Tomar and agarrar are the safe verbs: tomar un taxi, agarrar el camión.
Saying "estoy caliente" for "I am hot". That means something else entirely. The weather is "hace calor" and you are "tengo calor".
Saying "estoy embarazado" for "I am embarrassed". Embarazada means pregnant. Embarrassed is "me da pena".
Speaking louder instead of slower. Volume has never once helped. "Más despacio, por favor" has.
And the mistake underneath all five: skipping the greeting. Walking up to a counter and starting with your question reads as rude in Mexico in a way it does not in New York. "Buenos días" first, every time, even when you are in a hurry, especially when you are in a hurry.
Where the lessons on this site fit
The differences behind half of this page — mande, ustedes, coger, the forty nouns — are set out in Mexican Spanish vs Spain Spanish, and what a week of this costs in study time is in how long it takes to learn Spanish.
Speak is built out of exactly this shape — a real dialogue with the reply attached — across a hundred and twenty-nine situations including the airport, the market and the doctor. Words is where the numbers live, and numbers are the half of a transaction most visitors get wrong.
Key takeaways
- Learn "¿Mande?" before anything else. It is how a Mexican asks you to repeat, and not recognising it is the commonest way a conversation stops.
- "¿Me lo escribe, por favor?" solves the failures the other phrases cannot. Use it for every price and every address by default.
- "¿Me regala…?" is the local way to ask for a small free thing — a napkin, a bag, the wifi. It changes how people answer you.
- Greet before you ask. Buenos días first, every time.
- Use usted with anyone behind a counter, in uniform, older, or new. Over-formal costs nothing.
- The ten per cent tip is custom, not law, and PROFECO says it cannot be added to a bill without your consent.
- 9-1-1 is the emergency number across all of Mexico.
- Coger is obscene in Mexico, hot is "tengo calor", and embarazada means pregnant.