SPEAK FLUENT TRAVELER

Can You Say "Lunch" In Spanish? Learn 10 Useful Words For Your Next Trip!

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Is there anything more exciting than packing your bags and catching that plane to your next destination? Make sure you pack the right clothes for the weather and your essential documents, but don't forget one more thing for your next trip: vocabulary. Spanish is the official language in more than 20 countries around the world. If you want to visit a Latin American destination or the beautiful country of Spain, it's important to know these 10 Spanish travel words and how to use them. Vamos!

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Whenever you travel, you need to pack your clothes and other items for your time away. Whether you prefer just a carry-on or a full set of suitcases, one Spanish word you'll find useful is maleta, which simply means "suitcase."

In the plural, you can use maletas to refer to many suitcases, or equipaje as a collective noun to refer to all of your luggage. For instance, you can say Perdí mi maleta ("I lost my suitcase") or Perdí mi equipaje ("I lost my luggage"). But we hope that doesn't happen to you!

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And if you pack your bags, you'll probably take a plane. While most airports offer information in several languages, including English, it is always useful to know some local words and phrases to make yourself better understood.

El avión is the Spanish term for "the plane." For example, you might hear an airport worker or a fellow passenger say, El avión hacia México parte a las 6 am ("The plane to Mexico leaves at 6 am"). On the other hand, the word vuelo refers to a specific flight. For example, you might say, No puedo comer contigo el viernes. ¡Tengo un vuelo a Buenos Aires! ("I can't have lunch with you on Friday. I have a flight to Buenos Aires!").

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A big part of any trip is exploring new places, visiting historical sites, or enjoying a walk through beautiful landscapes. But to get to those sites, you need to know where they are. While we have the technology to guide us everywhere today, locals often have helpful tips, shortcuts, or route recommendations that can be of great help.

If you want to ask "Where is...?" in Spanish, start with ¿Dónde se encuentra...? Or ¿Dónde está...? For example, you could refer to a specific landmark asking, ¿Dónde se encuentra el Cristo Redentor? ("Where is Christ the Redeemer?"). Bonus tip: When writing in Spanish, remember to use question marks at both the beginning and end of the question.

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Just like in any situation, accidents and emergencies can happen, though we hope they don't during your trip. If you need to buy band-aids or any medication, you could ask, ¿Dónde se encuentra la farmacia?

As you might have guessed, farmacia is Spanish for "pharmacy" or "drugstore," the place you'll need if you get sick or hurt.

In addition, at la farmacia, you can get other products like soap, shampoo, or hand sanitizer if you're about to go on an excursion.

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Now, let's focus on one of the best parts of traveling: buying things! When shopping in a Spanish-speaking country, it's important to know how to ask for prices.

While many people around the world understand English, it's always nice to make a little effort to communicate with the locals in their language. If you walk into a store and fall in love with an item or find the perfect gift for a friend, you'll need to ask, ¿Cuánto cuesta esto? ("How much is this?"). In case you know the name of the product, you can be more specific by saying ¿Cuánto cuesta esa escultura? ("How much is that sculpture?"). Alternatively, you can ask, ¿Cuál es el precio? ("What's the price?").

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If shopping is your thing, there is something you can't forget: your wallet. Since it's one of the most important things to have when you're away from home, knowing how to refer to it in other languages is especially useful.

Billetera and cartera -depending on the country- are the two Spanish words for "wallet." For example, you can say, Dame un minuto mientras busco mi billetera/cartera ("Give me a minute while I find my wallet"). You can also use one of the phrases from this list and ask, ¿Dónde está mi billetera/cartera? ("Where is my wallet?"). And if you're referring to a digital wallet, the Spanish term would be billetera virtual or billetera digital.

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If there's anything more important than your wallet, it's what's inside it. You know, money and credit cards are necessary for any trip.

So, in Spanish, the word for "money" is dinero. If you're specifically referring to cash, you can use the term efectivo. For example, Necesito efectivo ("I need some cash").

On the other hand, the Spanish term for "credit card" is quite similar to the English one: Tarjeta de crédito. To sound more natural, you can simply say tarjeta ("card"), just like the locals do. Quisiera pagar con tarjeta de crédito is the Spanish phrase to say, "I'd like to pay with my credit card."

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Besides meeting friendly people, visiting historical sites, and buying pretty souvenirs, there is another joy that you'll find on every trip: food. Each destination you visit offers unique local recipes and delicacies. That's why it's important to know how to refer to those dishes.

The generic word for "food" in Spanish is comida. You can say, for example, Necesito algo de comida ("I need some food") or Preparemos la comida ("Let's get the food ready"). On the other hand, if you want to talk about specific meals of the day, Spanish, like English, has different terms for each. Desayuno is "breakfast," almuerzo is "lunch," and cena is "dinner." So, what is your favorite meal of the day?

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No matter where your travel takes you, there's one thing you can't overlook: a good place to stay.

If you need to say "room" in Spanish, the term you are looking for is habitación. To express, for example, "My room number is 360," you can say, Mi habitación es la número 360.

If you need to ask, "Do you have any rooms available?" you would say, Disculpe, ¿tiene alguna habitación disponible? And if you'd like to request room service politely, you can say, Quisiera servicio a la habitación, por favor.

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One of the main activities for tourists is visiting museums and art galleries. If you are one of those who don't want to miss any work of art, there are two terms that will be very helpful.

Although the Spanish word museo might look similar to the English "museum," it can sound different when pronounced. If you need to ask how to get to a particular museum, you can say, ¿Dónde se encuentra el museo? You can also express, Me encantaría visitar ese museo ("I'd love to visit that museum").

Another similar term is Galería de arte, which basically translates to "Art gallery."

Changing words

These sayings don't mean what they used to

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More often than not, we toss around old sayings without giving them a second thought. However, many of them once meant something entirely different than what we are trying to say. Over time, words drift, idioms evolve, and what started as a literal warning becomes a cultural cliche. Let's rewind the dictionary and see how these phrases came to be, and whether their meanings remained intact or not.

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Quoted as gospel by floor managers and entitled customers alike, the original phrase had quite a different meaning. Attributed to the business pioneer Harry Gordon Selfridge, some believe that the saying originally was The customer is always right, in matters of taste. That would translate to: don’t argue if a buyer prefers stripes to solids. It never meant the shopper can insult staff or ignore policy.

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Master of none, right? That's the phrase as we are used to hearing it, usually accompanied by an eye roll, implying mediocrity. However, the full phrase from the 1600s was jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than master of one. It praised versatility and curiosity, as opposed to obstinate single-mindedness. As time went by and society became ever more specialized, this phrase dropped the last bit and completely changed its meaning.

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Today, happy as a clam just means "content." But the full 19th-century expression was happy as a clam at high tide, which adds a whole new dimension to the phrase. Clams aren't happy all the time, just when the water is high and they are the safest and hardest to dig up. Over time, the survival context vanished, leaving only the joy.

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The message behind this saying seems to be as clear as day: family always comes first. However, some people sustain that the original phrase went in a completely opposite direction: The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. In the older version, chosen bonds (friendship, camaraderie) run deeper than mere kinship.

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In 15th-century England, a good broth was "without bones:" easy to swallow and free of unpleasant surprises. A soup with bones, on the other hand, was full of obstacles.

The meaning of what-you-see-is-what-you-get transparency stuck, and that's why to make no bones about something means to speak candidly about it, without hiding your opinion.

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This phrase most likely comes from boxing, but some theories about its origin are much more macabre. Allegedly, this saying comes from the Victorian fear of being buried alive. Some coffins were fitted with bells connected to a string inside, so that anyone mistakenly entombed could ring for rescue. Even though safety coffins were indeed made during the Victorian era, there is no actual record of this phrase ever being used during that time.

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If you ever found this one confusing, it's because the phrase is missing a few key words that clarify its meaning. The original saying, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, made quite clear that the test of quality lies in experience, not appearance.

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This is another one of those that dropped their second half to change meanings entirely. Today, it reads as a cheery nod to shared inspiration, but the original quip went: Great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ. In its original sense, though intelligent people can often arrive at the same conclusions independently, unintelligent people tend to always agree without much thought.

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The common explanation for this phrase dates back to Ancient Greece. Back then, citizens cast their votes using colored beans: clear for yes, dark for no. If someone knocked the jar over before the official count, the results were exposed prematurely. Over the centuries, this quirk of ancient democracy morphed into a metaphor for blabbing or revealing secrets.

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While there are many myths about the origin of this idiom, some of them quite violent, its origin is actually quite pragmatic. Back when precise instruments of measurement weren't as commonplace as they are today, various trades used the thumb's width (about an inch) to roughly measure materials informally