Here are a few useful Spanish bits and pieces referring to Spanish as spoken in Spain. Mainly so I don’t forget what to use in certain situations …

The Spanish word for chips is patatas fritas. And if you want a portion una ración de patatas fritas. Very useful for anyone with children. Especially when they reject tapas. It happens.

You are in a bar (or restaurant), order a bottle of wine and the waiter pours a smidge into your glass for you to taste. You can say está bien or está perfecto to indicate your approval. Unless you want to talk about tears, bouquet and the rest. The glass will then be filled …

If you don’t want to order a bottle of wine, you can always have a copa (glass) which in these abstemious days is probably for the good. So,  una copa de vino tinto should get you a glass of red wine. Una jarra is a jug and will get you a bit more. For example, una jarra de media litro is half a litre – in a jug. More like a carafe than a jug. I would say.

And never order ‘diet coke’ as this will confuse everyone. I think we only have this in the UK. Ask for coca cola lite or coca cola zero. 

You are in a bar, have finished your drink and want to pay. You are in a hurry and so you head to the bar (la barra) to pay. What do you say? You say quiero pagar la cuenta or cuanto es? or cuanto es lo nuestro?

At the end of a meal, assuming of course that you enjoyed it, use estaba todo muy bueno (it was all very good).

And then, after lunch, you need to buy a SIM card. Quiero compar una tarjeta SIM. And because this is confusing in any country no tengo claro qué necesito hacer (I’m not sure what I need to do).

Qué me recomiendas? (What do you recommend?)

Peace.

MF