Your first conversation with a Spanish tutor: what to say in the first five minutes, and how to be corrected
The first five minutes of a first lesson are the hardest Spanish you will speak that week, and they are also the most predictable. The tutor asks the same four things every tutor asks, and if you have those answers ready you spend the rest of the hour talking instead of assembling sentences. This page has the opening, the phrases you use to keep a conversation moving when you lose a word, how to ask for corrections and get useful ones, the etiquette of a language exchange, and what a tutor from Mexico, Spain, Colombia or Argentina is likely to correct first.
The first five minutes
Four questions come in this order, near enough every time.
| What you will hear | What it means | What to answer |
|---|---|---|
| ¿Cómo te llamas? / ¿Cómo se llama? | What is your name | Me llamo Ana. |
| ¿De dónde eres? / ¿De dónde es usted? | Where are you from | Soy de Irlanda, vivo en Dublín. |
| ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas estudiando español? | How long have you been studying | Llevo dos años. / Empecé hace seis meses. |
| ¿Por qué estudias español? | Why are you learning | Porque me mudo a México en enero. |
Then the question the rest of the lesson depends on:
¿Qué quieres practicar? What do you want to practise?
Have an answer. If you say “conversación”, you get a pleasant hour and little progress. Say the thing you cannot do yet.
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| I want to practise speaking | Quiero practicar la conversación. | True but vague. Add something |
| I want to talk about everyday things | Quiero hablar de cosas cotidianas. | |
| I want to be able to handle a doctor’s appointment | Quiero poder desenvolverme en una cita médica. | Desenvolverse is to manage, to cope |
| I understand a lot and speak little | Entiendo bastante pero hablo poco. | The most common true sentence in a first lesson |
| I want to work on the past tenses | Quiero trabajar los tiempos del pasado. | |
| I want to lose my accent a bit | Quiero mejorar la pronunciación. | |
| I want you to correct me a lot | Quiero que me corrijas mucho. | Subjunctive after quiero que. Worth memorising whole |
Saying your level
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| My level is basic | Mi nivel es básico. | |
| I am a beginner | Soy principiante. | No article |
| Lower intermediate | Nivel intermedio bajo. | |
| Intermediate | Nivel intermedio. | |
| I am about a B1 | Tengo más o menos un B1. | See the note below |
| I can read but I freeze when I speak | Leo bien pero me bloqueo al hablar. | |
| I understand Spain better than Mexico | Entiendo mejor el español de España que el de México. | Useful information for a tutor |
| I have never had a class | Nunca he tomado clases. | Tomar clases is to attend them. Dar clases is to teach them |
The CEFR letters, A1 to C2, come from the Marco Común Europeo de Referencia. In Spain every tutor knows them and schools are organised around them. In Mexico, Colombia and Argentina they are known but used less in everyday talk, and básico, intermedio, avanzado is the ordinary way to say it. If you give a letter, add the plain word.
Managing the conversation
With these phrases you stay in Spanish instead of switching to English. Learn them in the form you need: tú for most tutors, usted if you are being formal or the tutor is older, vos with an Argentine.
| You want to say | tú | usted | vos (Argentina) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will you correct me? | ¿Me corriges? | ¿Me corrige? | ¿Me corregís? |
| Correct me, please | Corrígeme, por favor. | Corríjame, por favor. | Corregime, por favor. |
| Can you repeat that? | ¿Puedes repetir? | ¿Puede repetir? | ¿Podés repetir? |
| Say it more slowly | ¿Puedes hablar más despacio? | ¿Puede hablar más despacio? | ¿Podés hablar más despacio? |
| Can you write it in the chat? | ¿Me lo escribes en el chat? | ¿Me lo escribe en el chat? | ¿Me lo escribís en el chat? |
| Do you understand me? | ¿Me entiendes? | ¿Me entiende? | ¿Me entendés? |
And these do not change:
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| How do you say…? | ¿Cómo se dice…? | ¿Cómo se dice “receipt”? |
| What does … mean? | ¿Qué significa…? or ¿Qué quiere decir…? | |
| Is that said correctly? | ¿Está bien dicho? | The single most useful question in the lesson |
| Does that sound natural? | ¿Suena natural? | Asks for a better answer than ¿está bien? |
| Would you say it like that? | ¿Tú lo dirías así? | Gets you what a person actually says |
| How would you say it? | ¿Cómo lo dirías tú? | |
| I did not catch that | No te entendí. / No lo capté. | |
| I lost the word | Se me fue la palabra. / No me sale la palabra. | |
| I got tangled | Me trabé. | Mexico, Colombia, Argentina |
| How do you spell it? | ¿Cómo se escribe? | |
| With an accent? | ¿Lleva tilde? | Tilde is the accent mark |
| Sorry, I will start again | Perdón, empiezo de nuevo. | |
| Is this word used in your country? | ¿Esta palabra se usa en tu país? | |
| Give me a second to think | Dame un segundo para pensarlo. | Better than silence, and it is a sentence in Spanish |
Two of those are worth a line. With ¿Está bien dicho? you ask whether the sentence is grammatical. With ¿Suena natural? you ask whether a person would say it, and the answer is different and usually more useful. And no me sale la palabra, the word will not come out, is what natives say about their own language too.
Agreeing on tú, usted or vos
Ask in the first five minutes and the rest of the lesson is easier.
| You want to say | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Shall we use tú? | ¿Nos tuteamos? |
| You can call me tú | Me puedes tutear. |
| Do you prefer tú or usted? | ¿Prefieres tú o usted? |
| Should I learn vos or tú? | ¿Me conviene aprender el voseo o el tuteo? |
| I am going to Argentina, teach me vos | Voy a Argentina, prefiero practicar el voseo. |
Tutear is the verb for using tú with someone, and ¿nos tuteamos? is how Spanish speakers propose it.
What to expect from each country:
| Mexico | Spain | Colombia | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tutor’s default with a new adult student | usted for a few minutes, then tú | tú from the first line | usted, often for the whole course | vos almost at once |
| Plural “you” | ustedes | vosotros in casual speech, ustedes formally | ustedes | ustedes |
| What they will teach you to say | tú forms, ustedes for groups | tú and vosotros | usted even between friends | vos: vos tenés, vos podés, vení |
A Colombian tutor using usted with you is being normal, not distant. In Bogotá and much of the interior, parents use usted with their children. Ask for tú if you want to practise it, and expect usted back.
Asking about their country and their Spanish
Tutors like these questions, and the answers are the part of a lesson you cannot get from a book.
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Where are you from exactly? | ¿De qué parte eres? | Country is never the whole answer |
| How do people say it where you are from? | ¿Cómo lo dicen en tu país? | |
| Is that word used in Spain too? | ¿Eso también se usa en España? | |
| Is that slang or normal? | ¿Eso es jerga o es normal? | Argentina also says lunfardo for the old Buenos Aires slang |
| Would that sound strange in Mexico? | ¿Eso sonaría raro en México? | |
| What do you call this? | ¿Cómo le dicen a esto? | The Latin American form, with le |
| Which word should I use if I travel to all four? | ¿Qué palabra funciona en todos lados? |
¿Cómo le dicen a esto? is worth copying. In Spain people would say ¿cómo lo llamáis? or ¿cómo se llama esto?, and in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina they say ¿cómo le dicen?, which is the phrasing you will hear in the answer as well.
Language exchange etiquette
A paid lesson is an hour of Spanish. An exchange is half an hour of Spanish and half an hour of English, and the second half is the one that usually gets cut short.
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Half an hour each? | ¿Media hora cada idioma? | Agree this before you start |
| Shall we start in Spanish? | ¿Empezamos en español? | Start with the language you are worse at |
| We are over time in English | Se nos pasó el tiempo del inglés. | |
| Now let’s switch | Ahora cambiamos. | |
| Do you want me to correct you? | ¿Quieres que te corrija? | Ask, because not everyone does |
| Correct me at the end, not while I talk | Corrígeme al final, no mientras hablo. | |
| Correct me on the spot | Corrígeme en el momento. | |
| Write the corrections in the chat | Escribe las correcciones en el chat. | The only ones you will still have tomorrow |
Two practical notes. The exchange drifts to English when one person is tired, and the fix is the clock rather than willpower. And time zones: Spain is one hour ahead of the United Kingdom, six or seven ahead of Bogotá and seven or eight ahead of Mexico City; Argentina is four hours behind Spain’s winter time. Confirm in both clocks: ¿A las siete hora de España o hora de México?
Ending the lesson and booking the next
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| We are out of time | Se nos acabó el tiempo. | |
| Thank you, it was very useful | Gracias, me sirvió mucho. | Servir is the verb people use for “it helped” |
| Can you send me the notes? | ¿Me pasas las notas? | Pasar is to send over, everywhere |
| What should I study before the next one? | ¿Qué estudio para la próxima? | |
| Homework | la tarea (Mexico, Colombia, Argentina) / los deberes (Spain) | |
| Does Thursday work for you? | ¿Te viene bien el jueves? (Spain, Argentina) / ¿Te queda bien el jueves? (Mexico, Colombia) | |
| I have to cancel | Tengo que cancelar. | Give a day’s notice, as anywhere |
| Take care | Cuídate. / Cuidate. (Argentina, vos form) |
What a tutor from each country corrects first
Every tutor corrects gender, ser and estar, and the pronunciation of r. After that the priorities part by country.
Mexico. The first correction is usually vocabulary you picked up from a Spain-facing course. Coger is the ordinary verb for to take in Spain, and in Mexico and Argentina it is vulgar, so it goes first. Then ustedes in place of vosotros, carro for coche, and ¿mande? rather than ¿qué? when you have not heard something. A Mexican tutor will also soften your requests, because bare quiero sounds abrupt there and ¿me da…? or ¿me podría…? does not.
Spain. Expect a correction on the perfect tense within the first hour. Spaniards say hoy he comido tarde where people in the other three say hoy comí tarde, and a Spanish tutor hears the simple past as a small mistake for anything that happened today. Then vosotros with its verb ending, os as its pronoun, and the z and the c before e and i said as the English “th” in most of the country, which the tutor may teach or may simply tell you not to worry about. Both are accepted; seseo, saying them as s, is what people do all over Latin America and in part of southern Spain.
Colombia. The first correction is often the pronoun: you will be gently returned to usted, and taught ¿me regala…? as the polite way to ask for something, and ¿me colabora con…? for asking help. Colombian tutors tend to be precise about pronunciation, because in the Bogotá standard the ends of words are pronounced clearly, and about diminutives, since un momentico, ahorita and un tintico mean something real there.
Argentina. The first correction is tú to vos, with the verb that goes with it: vos tenés, vos podés, vos querés, and the imperative vení, mirá, decime, with the stress on the end of the verb. Then the ll and y said as “sh”, which you do not have to imitate but do have to understand, and acá in place of aquí. Argentine tutors also correct ¿cómo estás? small talk into the local one, ¿todo bien?
Ten sentences you can say tomorrow
- Hola, me llamo Ana. Llevo dos años estudiando español. Hi, I’m Ana. I have been studying Spanish for two years.
- Entiendo bastante pero hablo poco. I understand a fair amount but I speak little.
- Quiero que me corrijas mucho. I want you to correct me a lot.
- ¿Nos tuteamos? Shall we use tú?
- ¿Está bien dicho? ¿Suena natural? Is that correct? Does it sound natural?
- ¿Me lo escribes en el chat? Can you write it in the chat?
- No me sale la palabra, dame un segundo. I can’t get the word out, give me a second.
- ¿Cómo le dicen a esto en tu país? What do you call this in your country? (Mexico, Colombia, Argentina)
- ¿Media hora cada idioma? Half an hour in each language?
- ¿Te viene bien el jueves a la misma hora? Does Thursday at the same time work for you? (Spain, Argentina)
Questions people ask
What if I understand nothing in the first lesson? Say so in Spanish: No te entiendo, ¿puedes hablar más despacio? A tutor who cannot slow down is the wrong tutor. Most will drop half their speed and keep it there for weeks.
Should I book a tutor from the country I am going to? Yes, once you have a reason to. Before that any accent will do, and a tutor from Bogotá or central Mexico is often easier for a beginner because the consonants at the ends of words are pronounced clearly.
How much correction is useful? Enough that you notice, not so much that you stop talking. Ask for corrections at the end of each topic and written into the chat, and ask the tutor to mark which mistakes matter.
What do I do when I run out of things to say? Bring three topics and a photo. With te cuento algo que me pasó esta semana, let me tell you something that happened this week, you can fill ten minutes.
Is a language exchange as good as a lesson? It is different. In an exchange you get a person and their real speech, and no plan. A tutor gives you the plan. Many learners do one of each per week.
Do I have to pick tú or vos? No, and nobody expects you to say vos unless you live in Argentina, Uruguay, Medellín or much of Central America. Understand it, use tú, and switch if you move.
What does “me sirvió” mean at the end of a lesson? It was useful to me. In Spanish you use servir for “helped” and “worked”, where in English you need several verbs: no me sirve, that is no use to me.
Should I use usted with my tutor? With a Colombian, yes, until told otherwise. With a Spaniard, no. With a Mexican tutor, start with usted and you will be moved to tú within minutes. With an Argentine you will be on vos from the first minute.
Practise these words
corregir, nivel, principiante, intermedio, error, pronunciación, acento, repetir, entender, significar, practicar, tutear, tarea. Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has each of these. You see a sentence with one word missing, you type the word, and a native voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.