Spanish for emergencies -

Spanish warm up!

Before we beginn with the lesson, I want to prove to you that you already can understand a lot in Spanish just by relating what you see and hear to your knowledge of English, your mother language and other languages that you might know.

I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, dont worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.

Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!

¡Es una emergencia!

A veces, cuando viajamos suceden cosas que no esperamos y necesitamos pedir ayuda.

En español hay muchas maneras de hacerlo, por eso en esta lección te voy a enseñar algunas de las formas más comunes de pedir ayuda.

¡Vamos a ello!

Useful words:

emergencia– emergency

necesitar– to need

pedir ayuda –to ask for help

por eso – for that reason

te voy a– here: I am going to…

enseñar– to teach

comunes– common

Today’s lesson!

Sometimes things don’t go the way we want to and we are forced to ask for help or react properly in the face of an emergency.

I have prepared for you some of the most useful phrases to deal with emergencies in the hispanic world, all of them divided in 3 stages:

1- Call people’s attention

2- Explain your situation

3- Make a request

¿Are you ready?

¡Vamos!

Etapa 1

Llamar la atención de alguien – call someones attention

1. Disculpe

Let’s break that down:

Disculpe significa “excuse me” and it’s the most neutral and common way to call for someones attention.

It is conjugated according to the polite 2nd person singular “usted” wich is commonly used in South America, and rarely used in Spain (for being too polite in there).

If you don’t need to be polite or want to call a friends attention in a neutral way cou can say disculpa.

Pronunciation notes:

Make sure to intonate this word stressing the middle sylable. /dis.’CUL.pe/

Note: everything written in “<…>” is an orthographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the syllables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest syllable with an apostrophe ” … ‘ … “. So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/

2. Ayuda

Let’s break that down:

Ayuda litteraly means “Help” and it is the right thing to shout if you find yourself in a life threatening or painful situation.

People will react to this immediately because they will understand that there is a very serious issue going on, so don’t use it lightly…. or you might upset someone.

Pronunciation notes:

Remember the sound of the Spanish <y>?

It is very similar to the English sound on the word “you”!

3. Cuidado

Let’s break that down:

Cuidado means “careful” and it is what you say to someone to warn him or her of danger.

If you say this, remember to be loud and show some agitation, other way people might not take it seriously.

Grammar notes:

Nothing fancy on this one ^^

Etapa 2

Explica tu situación – explain your situation

4. Estoy perdido / estoy perdida

Let’s break that down:

“Estoy perdido” means “I am lost” and once you say it, peoples reaction would be either explaining a direction or taking you to the place you need to go.

Remember that perdido is an adjective, and in Spanish adjectives variate depending on the gender of the speaker… so, if it is a man talking he will say “perdidO”… and if it is a woman talking she will say “perdidA”

Examples:

¡Disculpe!… estoy perdido… ¿dónde está la estación?

5. No me siento bien

No me siento bien means “I am not feeling well” and it is what you say to express that you are experiencing some physical discomfort.

You probably thought about “estoy enfermo/a” but in this case, estoy enfermo would mean you have a condition that is somehow permanent, not that you need immediate help.

Grammar notes:

Sentirse bien / sentirse mal… are reflexive verbs and they are conjugated the same way we conjugate “llamarse”

(yo) me siento

(tú) te sientes

(él/ella) se siente

(nosotros) nos sentimos

(ustedes) se sienten

(vosotros) os sentís

(ellos) se sienten

6. Es una emergencia

Es una emergenciameans “It is an emergency” and unless you give more information about the kind of emergency that you are… it might not be enough to make people help you.

So, if you use it try to combinate it with some of the other phrases from this lesson.

Pronunciation notes:

Remember that in Spanish the combination <ge> sounds like <he> in English (like in the expression “hey”)

7. Necesito ayuda

Necesito ayuda means “I need help”.

Just like before, you probably want to be more specific if you really want people to trust you enough to aid you.

Pronunciation notes:

The combination <ce> in Spanish (south american Spanish) sounds like <se> so we would say /ne.se.´si.to/

In Spain they would pronounce <ce> like the English <th> so it would be /ne.θe.si.to/

8. Me han robado (something)

Me han robado mi… means ” My …. has been stolen“.

“robar” is the verb “to steal something” and in this situation we have it conjugated in past perfect.

Me han robado mi teléfono (phone).

Me han robado la cartera (wallet).

Me han robado el bolso (purse/bag)

Pronunciation notes:

The “h” in <han> is completely mute, so we say /an/. }

The consonant R in the begining of a word is always strong in Spanish! so roll it babe!

9. He perdido mi (something)

He perdido mi… means ” I have lost my…“.

“perder” is the verb “to lose something” and in this situation we also have it conjugated in past perfect.

He perdido mi teléfono (phone).

He perdido mi cartera (wallet)

He perdido mi bolso (purse/bag)

Pronunciation notes:

In this case the consonant R is in the middle of a word so instead of rolling it, we just pronounce it with a tap and flap!

10. ¿Puedo usar su teléfono?

¿Puedo usar su teléfono? means ” May I use your phone“.

The adjective “su” shows us that this is a formal way of speaking, keeping politeness to the highest.

If you want to be unpolite you can say “¿puedo usar tu teléfono?”

Pronunciation notes:

Nothing fancy about this one ;D

11. ¿Dónde queda …(a place)?

¿Dónde queda la estación? means ” where is… the station“.

“Quedar” is a verb that we use to talk about the location of unmovable things like buildings, offices, monuments and so on.

If you want to ask about the location of something generic (including the things mentioned before), people, animals or small stuff… you can use the verb “estar”:

¿Dónde está la estación?

¿Dónde está el baño?

¿Dónde está Saru?