On the phone in Spanish

You’ll feel confident speaking on the phone in Spanish after this free online lesson. We’ll teach you some useful Spanish words and phrases so you can ask and answer common questions, leave a message in Spanish, or make an international phone call.

Whether you’re on a public telephone, calling from the office, at home, or on your mobile phone, this lesson will help you navigate some simple Spanish conversations.

Talking on the phone in Spanish

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El número de teléfono
Phone number
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Línea telefónica
Phone line
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Contestador automático / Máquina Contestadora
Answering machine
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El tono
Dial tone
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El recado / El mensaje
Message
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La guía telefónica / Directorio telefónico
Telephone book
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La extensión
Extension
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El teléfono móvil
Mobile phone
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El teléfono cellular
Cell phone
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El teléfono móvil del coche
Car phone
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El teléfono público
Public phone
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La tarjeta de teléfono
Phone card
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Llame sin costo
Toll-free
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Llamada por cobrar
Collect call
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Llamada internacional
International call
Answering the Phone

There are several ways to answer the phone in Spanish. If you are the person making the call, you will hear on the other end one of the following greetings…

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¿Hola?
Hello? - Argentina
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¿Oigo?
Hello? - Cuba
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¿Aló? / ¿Sí?
Hello? - South America
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¿Bueno?
Hello? - Mexico
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¿Díga? / ¿Dígame?
Hello? - Spain
Or, when answering for companies you can also say...

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Le atiende….
This is (name) / (Name) speaking
The first Spanish phrase you can say is…

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Buenos días, habla...
Good morning, this is...
It may not always be necessary to state your name, but it’s good phone etiquette to use a friendly polite greeting depending on the time of day with…

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Buenos días.
Good morning.
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Buenas tardes.
Good afternoon.
When calling, you may need to ask if someone is there. These are some typical phrases:

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¿Me puede comunicar con…?
May (Could / Can) I speak to?
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Quisiera hablar con…
I'd like to speak to...
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¿Me puede comunicar con la extensión…?
Can I have extension...?
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¿Se encuentra ...?
Is ... there?
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¿Se encuentra el Doctor …?
Is Doctor ... there?
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¿Está …?
Is ... in?
Now the person on the other side may ask...

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¿De parte de quién?
Who is calling?
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¿Quién le desea hablar?
Excuse me, who is this?
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¿Quién habla? / ¿Quién es?
Who is speaking? / Who is it?
In many cases, you may need to ask your caller to hold on, or need to connect them to the person they’re calling.

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Permítame.
Can you hold the line?
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Permítame un momento.
Can you hold on a moment?
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Espere un momento, por favor.
Please hold.
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Un momento / un segundo, por favor.
Just a moment, please.
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Lo/La comunico.
I'll put you through.
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Voy a transferir su llamada
I'm transferring your call.
What if the person isn’t there?

Leaving a message

Talking to someone voice-to-voice may be difficult when having a busy day. So we often communicate by leaving phone messages for each other. You may leave a message on a Contestadora - answering machine, or leave a message with a person.

Speaking to a live person, you can ask to leave a message by saying…

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¿Puedo dejarle un recado?
May I leave him / her a message?
If you are the receiver wanting to ask the caller if he/she would like to leave a message say…

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¿Puedo tomar su mensaje?
Could (Can / May) I take a message?
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¿Desea que le indique quién lo/la llamó?
Could (Can / May) I tell him / her who is calling?
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¿Desea dejar un mensaje?
Would you like to leave a message?
For your message, the easiest would be…

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Favor de llamar a Pedro a 901-0392.
Please call Pedro at 901-0392.
Or, you may simply say...

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Llamaré/Intentaré más tarde.
I'll call back later.
You can apply the same rules just above to be polite on the answering machine in Spanish too. Typically you can say…

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Hola Itzel. Habla Mauricio. Favor de llamarme a 305-0394. Gracias, adios.
Hi Itzel. This is Mauricio, Please call me at 305-0394. Thanks, bye.
If you need to specify the time for the person to call you back, you can add something like this…

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Favor de llamarme el miércoles a las 10 de la mañana.
Please call me Wednesday at 10am.
Finally, saying good-bye…here are phrases you can use or may hear on the other end.

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Gracias, muy amable, adios.
Thank you, you have been very kind.
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Gracias, ciao.
Thank you, bye.
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Gracias, nos vemos, ciao.
Thank you, see you, bye.

See you later!  ¡Hasta luego!

Mauricio
Mauricio Evlampieff
Rocket Spanish

P.S. You can practice your Spanish skills with these exercises.

Exercise 1 - Pretend that you are calling a friend of yours named Mario, but Juan answers the phone. Write in your response in Spanish below. (There’s not a single right answer.)

Juan: ¿Bueno?

You: _________________________________________________

Juan: ¿Quién habla?

You: _________________________________________________

 Juan: Mario está ocupado (Mario is busy) ¿Desea dejar un mensaje?

 You: _________________________________________________

Exercise 2 - Match the Spanish phrases with the correct English translation.

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1. Lo comunico / La comunico.
( ____ )
a. I’ll phone back later.
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2. ¿Puedo tomar su mensaje?
( ____ )
b. Who is calling?
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3. ¿Bueno?
( ____ )
c. I’ll put you through
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4. ¿De parte de quién?
( ____ )
d. Hello?
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5. Llamaré más tarde. / Intentaré más tarde.
( ____ )
e. Can I take a message?

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Yours sincerely,

Mauricio Evlampieff

Mauricio Evlampieff
Rocket Spanish

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