"Spanish vocabulary you actually need" is my series for the words that never make it into a textbook chapter but come up on your first real trip: the parts of a car, the fish on the menu, the fees on the bill, the words for a road, and the little negative words that hold a sentence together. Each Short takes one everyday category and gives you the five or six words natives use for it.
Below is the word bank behind every Short in the series, so you can review after watching. I've marked regional preferences where they matter: Spanish is one language with many kitchens, and a fish or a car part can change its name at every border.
Word bankThe vocabulary in each Short
| Category | The words natives use | Example (ES — EN) |
|---|---|---|
| Car parts | el volante (steering wheel), el parabrisas (windshield), el limpiaparabrisas (wiper), el retrovisor (mirror), el freno (brake), el acelerador, el embrague (clutch), la llanta (Mex/Col) / el neumático (Spain) / la goma (Arg) (tire), el baúl (Arg/Col) / la cajuela (Mex) / el maletero (Spain) (trunk) | Se me pinchó una llanta en la carretera. — I got a flat tire on the highway. |
| Fish | el pescado (fish as food) vs el pez (live fish), el atún (tuna), el salmón, la trucha (trout), el bacalao (cod), la merluza (hake, Spain), la tilapia (LatAm), el camarón (LatAm) / la gamba (Spain) (shrimp), los mariscos (seafood) | ¿El pescado del día es trucha o merluza? — Is the fish of the day trout or hake? |
| Money and fees | la cuenta (the bill), la propina (tip), la comisión (fee, commission), el cargo (charge), el recargo (surcharge), la tarifa (rate, fare), el impuesto (tax), el IVA (sales tax), el cambio / el vuelto (change), efectivo (cash), la tarjeta (card) | ¿La tarifa incluye el IVA o es un cargo aparte? — Does the rate include tax or is it a separate charge? |
| Road and street | la calle (street), la avenida (avenue), la carretera (highway), la autopista (freeway), el camino (road, path), la cuadra (LatAm) / la manzana (Spain) (block), la esquina (corner), la acera (Spain) / la banqueta (Mex) / la vereda (Arg, Col) (sidewalk), el semáforo (traffic light), la rotonda / la glorieta (roundabout) | Siga derecho dos cuadras y doble en la esquina. — Go straight two blocks and turn at the corner. |
| Negative words | no (no, not), nada (nothing), nadie (nobody), nunca / jamás (never), ninguno / ninguna (none, not any), tampoco (neither, not either), ni… ni (neither… nor), todavía no (not yet), ya no (no longer) | No conozco a nadie aquí y tampoco hablo mucho español. — I don't know anyone here and I don't speak much Spanish either. |
Regional labels: Mex = Mexico, Col = Colombia, Arg = Argentina, Spain = Spain. When in doubt, the first word in each cell is understood everywhere.
PracticeHow to make these words stick
Watch the Short once for the sound, then read the row above out loud with the article: la llanta, el volante, la propina. Gender is part of the word, and saying it with the article from day one saves you months of guessing later.
Pick one region and stay loyal to it for a month. If your trip is to Mexico, say banqueta and cajuela and ignore the rest; you can always understand the other variants when you hear them. Trying to learn every regional word at once is the fastest way to remember none of them.
The negative words are the odd one out in this series: they are grammar, not vocabulary, and Spanish stacks them where English forbids it. No veo nada is correct and natural. If that double negative feels wrong, the Spanish present tense lesson shows how negation works around the verb, and the Spanish question words lesson pairs each negative with the question it answers (¿quién? → nadie, ¿cuándo? → nunca).
Once you have the words, you need the sentences around them. Every grammar pattern you'll use with this vocabulary is a free video in all 33 free Spanish lessons, in the order I teach them.
Learn vocabulary in the place you'll use it. Say the car words in the car, the money words when you pay for coffee, the street words while you walk. Your memory files words by situation, not by list, and in forty years I have never seen a student forget a word they said out loud in the right place.