Hello, how are you? I’ve started this week with more desire than ever, next week is a holiday in Malaga and I’m looking forward to take advantage of the good weather and go to a nearby beach. Besides, most of the beach bars on the Costa del Sol, as well as the best fashionable places are already open and so, I think I can take advantage of this blog to give you some phrases and teach you some vocabulary that will be very helpful during your days in Malaga.

When you are a local, you are not fully aware of how complicated it can be for foreigners or “guiris” -as we usually call them affectionately- to know the idioms of each locality and, besides, let’s be honest, it is practically impossible to know the meaning given to a word in all variants of Spanish. Let’s take as an example the geographical variants of Spanish such as Murcian, Asturian or Aragonese. Sometimes it is complicated even for the speakers themselves, so I can’t imagine what it must be like for a person from another country who has come to our country to learn Spanish.

That’s why I really want to show you some of the most common phrases used in the region of Andalusia and suggest some everyday situations like ordering a drink at the beach bar so that your Spanish classes will be much more productive and you will be able to communicate with the locals without any problem. Here everyone is very friendly! So you won’t have any problems and you will have a great time.

Whenever we have students who come to our school to do an intensive Spanish course in Malaga, they always ask us what are the most typical dishes here or some phrases to ask for a table in the restaurant or how to make a reservation by phone. For this reason, I am going to leave you here some essential phrases so that you can feel like an Andalusian.

chiringuitoIf you are in the chiringuito/bar, it is very likely that you will want to order a cold drink, here are the most common ones.

A beer: you can order a “cerveza” or also a “media” or if you prefer a “botellín”. My advice is to enjoy the moment in Malaga and don’t be in a hurry to guide you with gestures or point to another table. On the Costa del Sol they are totally used to tourism, so they will help you at all times and you will get confidence to ask for it next time.

Very important! In Spain if you order a beer they will give you a blonde beer by default, if you want a roasted or black beer, you will have to specify it.

A glass of wine: un vaso de vino, in Spain the wine culture is very widespread and you will probably be asked what kind of wine you want. In this case, the most common are vino blanco (white wine) Albariño (it is a denomination of origin of white wine, it is delicious), rosé wine (vino rosado) and the classic par excellence and most widespread in our country, red wine (vino tinto). Surely you have heard of Ribera or Rioja, if you have not tried them yet… I recommend them!

Frases en español para pedir en un restauranteThe other drinks are international: Coca-Cola, Fanta, Nestea, Pepsi… you won’t have any problem being served.

If you are thinking of ordering food in a restaurant, we leave you some basic phrases to move in the restaurant like a fish in water:

Hello, we would like to reserve a table for 4 people please: ¡Hola! Queremos reservar una mesa para 4 personas

Can I have some bread, please? ¿Puede traerme pan, por favor?

Could you bring me the menú /dessert menu? ¿Podría traerme el menú/carta de postres?

I’d like my meat rare/very rare/ rare. Quiero la carne poco hecha/muy hecha/al punto

¿Puede traerme otra servilleta / cubiertos?  Can you bring me another napkin/cutlery?

Quiero un café solo/americano/cortado I’d like a black/American/Short coffee

¿Puede traerme la cuenta por favor? Quiero pagar con tarjeta/efectivo.  Can you please bring me the bill? I want to pay by credit card/cash

Esta es su propina, muchas gracias. This is your tip, thank you very much

If you want to know more, you can take a look at a previous blog post that will be very useful.

If you liked it, I will bring you more curiosities about Malaga and I will give you all the tricks so you don’t miss a single word to add to your vocabulary.

See you next blog!

María