September 24, 2026

Moving to Colombia: the Spanish you need in the first six months

You learned Spanish in a course. In Colombia you need Colombian Spanish, in an order no course follows: you buy a SIM card on day one, you view a flat in week two, and in week three you stare at a form with a box you do not understand. Below are the first six months of a move in that order, with the word Colombians use for each thing and where it differs from the Spanish you learned. Under each section you find the longer page with the full vocabulary for Mexico, Spain and Argentina as well.

Before you land: the pronoun

Colombians say usted to everyone. In Bogotá and across the Andean interior, people use it with friends, children and dogs, and couples use it with each other. Because they say it all day to the people closest to them, they hear it as warm, and if you switch to tú with someone you do not know well, they may hear flirtation. In Medellín and Cali people also say vos, where other countries use tú. To more than one person, everyone says ustedes.

So start every conversation in usted. To your landlord, the driver, the woman at the bank, the colleague who has sat next to you for a year, you can always say usted. Follow whoever switches first.

People greet you with ¿Qué más?, and nobody answers it with news. Shopkeepers, drivers and waiters say a la orden as you arrive, as you leave and as they hand you change; they mean hello, “can I help you” and “you’re welcome” by it. If you ask for something with quiero, people take it as rude. Ask ¿Me regalas un tinto? instead, and know that a tinto is a small black coffee, never wine.

Week one: a phone and a way home

You ask for un chip, a SIM card. You choose prepago, prepaid, or pospago, also called un plan, and you pay for una recarga to top up. The shop registers the line against your passport number, so buy from a carrier shop, from Claro, Movistar or Tigo.

You take el bus. Bogotá has no metro; you ride TransMilenio with a card called la TuLlave, you wait at el paradero, you change at the big terminals, los portales, and you say recargar to top the card up. In Medellín you ride el metro, el tranvía and el metrocable. You call the driver usted the whole way, and if you say ¿Me avisa cuando lleguemos? he tells you where to get off. Colombians call rush hour la hora pico, and in Bogotá drivers with certain plates stay off the road on certain days under a rule called pico y placa.

In Bogotá you take a yellow, metered taxi and ask ¿cuánto es? at the end. You do not tip. When people give you directions they say derecho nomás and ahí está, and they locate you by cross streets and una referencia, a landmark.

Month one: the flat

Colombians call rent el arriendo and renting arrendar, and they write se arrienda on a listing. You look for un apartamento, or un apto. On top of the rent you pay la administración, the monthly building charge, so the first thing to ask at a viewing is ¿Cuánto es el arriendo y de cuánto es la administración?

Colombian landlords differ from everyone else on the guarantor. They usually want un codeudor con finca raíz, a co-signer who owns property in Colombia, or un seguro de arrendamiento, an insurance you buy through an agency that vets you and guarantees the rent. They rarely take a deposit. If you have no Colombian co-signer, ask the agency about the seguro before you fall in love with a flat.

One more word you meet on every form: el estrato. The state gives every address in Colombia a band from one to six and charges utilities by it. Every Colombian knows theirs, and the electricity company, the internet installer and the bank will all ask you for yours.

People call electricity la luz or la energía, water el agua or el acueducto, and the bill la factura or el recibo. You deal with la empresa de servicios públicos. Many people pay cash at Efecty or at a bank, before la fecha de pago oportuno. Someone comes to read the meter in person, so if you get a bill marked estimada, call and give them a real number.

Colombians count floors from the street: they call street level el primer piso, so when they say segundo piso they mean one floor up, where a Spaniard or a Mexican would say primero.

Month one: the paperwork

You apply for the visa online at la Cancillería, the foreign ministry. Then Migración Colombia issues you la cédula de extranjería, and from that day you show the cédula in every office: the bank, the EPS, the phone shop. Most banks want it rather than a passport, so ask ¿Puedo abrir la cuenta solo con pasaporte? before you queue. You go to la Registraduría for the civil registry and to la notaría for a notary, and you call any procedure at all un trámite.

For proof of address you bring el certificado de residencia or a utility bill, and for proof of income el certificado laboral. When the clerk says something is missing, ask ¿Qué me falta? for the list, and ¿Me puede escribir el nombre del documento? to get it in writing.

Settling in: the building

At the desk sits el vigilante or el celador, from a security company, and every parcel and every visitor comes through la portería. Call him señor until you know his name, then don with the first name: don Julio. The owners together call themselves la copropiedad, they hire el administrador, they meet at la asamblea de copropietarios, and they write their rules in el manual de convivencia.

Settling in: a doctor, a pharmacy, a plumber

You choose an EPS and register with it for health cover. You show el carné de la EPS and your cédula at the desk, you go to the EPS clinic first, and they refer you on. If you buy private cover you buy medicina prepagada, and if you pay out of pocket you pay particular. You book una cita, the doctor sees you in el consultorio, you go to urgencias for casualty, and you call 123 for any emergency.

Colombians say la droguería as often as la farmacia. The chains, Farmatodo, Cruz Verde and La Rebaja, deliver, and you ask ¿hacen domicilios? to find out. You say la gripa for a cold and zancudos for mosquitoes.

When something breaks you say se dañó, and you call el plomero, el cerrajero or el todero, a handyman. You address any of them as maestro: Maestro, ¿me lo puede revisar? You ask for la cotización, a quote, and for el repuesto, a spare part. With a todero working at your flat, you ask the price with ¿en cuánto me lo deja?

Settling in: WhatsApp and the office

Colombians arrange most of life on WhatsApp, and much of it by voice note. They send voice notes to a plumber or a shop they have never met, which people elsewhere find strange. Between friends they write quiubo or ¿qué más? for hello, listo for “got it”, de una or hágale for “let’s do it”, and porfa for please.

At work you send la hoja de vida, your CV; if you call it a currículum people understand you and know at once you are new. You look for Gestión Humana or Talento Humano when you need HR. You say usted to the interviewer, to your boss and to every client. Bogotá colleagues who have shared an office for ten years still say usted to each other; in Medellín and on the coast people say vos and tú more. Start with usted and follow.

The words that change at the supermarket

You shop at Éxito, Carulla, D1 or Ara, or at la tienda de barrio on the corner, el fruver for fruit and vegetables, la plaza de mercado for the market, and la salsamentaria for the deli counter. You buy la papa, el jugo, el aguacate, el durazno, la fresa, el banano, los frijoles, la mazorca, el maní, la gaseosa for any soft drink, la torta or el ponqué for a cake, and las crispetas for popcorn. If you ask for la manteca you get lard; ask for la mantequilla for butter. Among friends you order una pola, a beer, you complain about el camello, work, and you borrow un esfero, a pen, and un pitillo, a straw.

Which Colombia

People in Bogotá speak slowly and finish their consonants, and foreigners find them the easiest to follow. People in Medellín rise and fall as they talk, say vos to everyone, and their slang is the slang the whole country picks up from television. On the coast, in Cartagena and Barranquilla, people speak at twice the speed and soften the final s to a breath, so they sound closer to Havana than to the capital. In Cali people say vos with a drawn-out rhythm. If your job is in Bogotá, you get the clearest Spanish people talk about. If it is in Barranquilla, give your ear a month.

Ten sentences for the first month

¿Me regalas un tinto? Could I have a black coffee?
Una TuLlave y una recarga, por favor. A travel card and a top-up, please.
¿Me avisa cuando lleguemos? Will you tell me when we get there?
¿Cuánto cobra hasta el aeropuerto? How much to the airport?
¿Cuánto es el arriendo y de cuánto es la administración? How much is the rent, and how much is the building charge?
¿Puedo abrir la cuenta solo con pasaporte? Can I open the account with just a passport?
¿Qué me falta? What am I missing?
Tengo gripa. ¿Qué me recomienda? I have a cold. What do you recommend?
Gotea la llave del baño. ¿Puede venir hoy? The bathroom tap is dripping. Can you come today?
Maestro, ¿me lo puede revisar? Could you take a look at it?

Practise these words

Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has every word on this page. You see a sentence a Colombian would say with one word missing, you type the word, and a Colombian voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.