Useful Spanish Words and Phrases for Airport Travel

A word that describes a noun or pronoun, giving it specific attributes or characteristics.

A word used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb by expressing time, place, degree, and so on. Many Spanish adverbs end in -mente.

Giving goods or services in return for other goods and services, as opposed to the exchange of money.

Any number used in counting or showing how many.

A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater or lesser extent than the thing it is being compared to. Example: slower, more believable.

A verb tense that expresses an action that should have, could have, or would have happened if the conditions were right.

To give different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person. A conjugated verb is a verb that has been changed from its infinitive form to a form that agrees with the subject.

Any of the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z; the double letters ch, ll, and rr may also be considered consonants in Spanish.

1. The government agency in charge of collecting taxes or duties imposed on imported and/or exported goods. 2. The common social acts and conventions of a particular area.

To inform customs officials of any goods you’re carrying that may be taxable.

Any one of the words el, la, los, or las used as adjectives to point out a specific noun.

An adjective that indicates or points out this, that, these, or those people, places, or things to which a speaker is referring.

Replaces a demonstrative adjective and its noun.

1. Small. 2. A word that has been altered with a suffix to indicate a degree of smallness, often ending with -ito or -ita.

A complex vowel sound made by gliding from one vowel sound to the next within the same syllable.

A sentence element that answers the question, “Whom or what is the subject acting upon?” and may refer to people, places, things, or ideas.

Replaces a direct object noun and agrees with it in number and gender.

A tax imposed on imports, exports, or manufactured goods.

Verb tense indicating an action to come.

A verb form that ends in -ing and works like a noun. Spanish gerunds are also derived from verbs.

Negotiations between a seller and a buyer to come to an agreement upon the price of an item for sale. The vendor typically proposes a high price while the buyer suggests a significantly lower price, and, through bartering, the two typically meet somewhere in the middle.

A verb mood that indicates a command or request.

Verb tense indicating a continuing, uncompleted, customary, or simultaneous past action.

Any one of the words un, una, unos, or unas used as adjectives to point out some person, place, thing, or idea, but not a specific one.

Answers the question “To or for whom is the subject doing something?” and refers only to people or beloved pets.

Replaces an indirect object noun, but is also used when the indirect object noun is mentioned.

The unconjugated form of a verb — dormir (to sleep), for example.

An adverb used to ask a question.

A word that replaces a noun and is used to ask a question.

1. (noun) In Spanish cultures, a traditional market is where vendors gather to sell their goods. Markets may be open or under a roof, and they offer a less formal shopping environment than typical supermarkets or grocery stores. Prices are usually negotiable. 2. (verb) To advertise and sell an item.

1. A characteristic of a verb that indicates the manner in which the action occurs. 2. A characteristic of a person that indicates the overall emotional state of that person.

A number used to indicate order in a particular series.

A form of a verb that expresses a completed action or a time gone by.

A word that goes before the noun that’s possessed in order to express my, your, his, her, its, our, or their.

A word that replaces a noun and its possessive adjective and indicates ownership.

A word that connects nouns to nouns, verbs to verbs, or verbs to nouns/pronouns and shows their relationship to one another.

A pronoun that serves as the object of a preposition and always follows the preposition.

Verb tense expressing a past action or state.

A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

A pronoun used in conjunction with a reflexive verb to express that an action is performed by a subject on itself.

A verb that indicates that the sentence's subject is acting upon itself. Reflexive verbs require reflexive pronouns.

A verb that requires an internal change in the vowel before the -ar, -er, or -ir infinitive ending in all the singular and third-person plural forms of certain tenses.

A pronoun used as a subject.

A grammatical mood indicating uncertainty, desire, supposition, hypothetical and theoretical situations, or impersonal opinions.

A part of a sentence containing a subject and verb that can’t stand on its own but describes something in the larger sentence.

Letters added to the end of a word that change its meaning, give it a different grammatical function, or form a new word.

A form of an adjective or adverb which indicates that one thing has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to. Example: greatest, most honorable

A word or part of a word pronounced with a single sound, usually consisting of a vowel and one or more consonants.

A mark (~) used in Spanish over an “n” to indicate the ny sound.

Any of the letters a, e, i, o, and u. The letter y is never a vowel in the Spanish language, unlike its use in English.