You don’t want to think about worst-case scenarios when planning a vacation to a Spanish-speaking country, but you never know when you might find yourself in a situation where calling for help in Spanish is a must, or when someone might need your help. Thumbing through your dictionary isn’t going to be quick enough in such a circumstance, so you may want to memorize these words. Note: You can use the first two terms interchangeably.
Here are some basic distress-signaling Spanish words:
¡Socorro! (soh-koh-rroh) (Help!)
¡Auxilio! (ahoo-ksee-leeoh) (Help!)
¡Ayúdeme! (ah-yoo-deh-meh) (Help me!)
¡Incendio! (een-sehn-deeoh) (Fire!)
¡Inundación! (ee-noon-dah-seeohn) (Flood!)
¡Temblor! (tehm-bvlohr) (Earth tremor!)
¡Terremoto! (teh-rreh-moh-toh) (Earthquake!)
¡Maremoto! (mah-reh-moh-toh) (Tidal wave!)
You can help speed up your request by using one of these two words:
¡Rápido! (rah-pee-doh) (Quick!)
¡Apúrense! (ah-poo-rehn-seh) (Hurry!)
