Quick answer
¿Dígame? — Hola, ¿está Marta? — No está. ¿Quiere dejarle un recado?
Hello? — Hi, is Marta there? — She is not in. Would you like to leave her a message? A call runs on four or five fixed lines.
The words of this lesson
The first ten seconds
You call a small office in Seville. Someone picks up with ¿dígame? and now three lines carry you through. Say who you are: hola, soy Thomas Miller. Say who you want: ¿está la señora Ruiz, por favor? or the more formal ¿podría hablar con la señora Ruiz? Then wait for one of two answers.
You will hear either un momento, le paso (putting you through) or ahora no está. Before passing you on they almost always ask ¿de parte de quién? — who shall I say is calling. Answer with de parte de Thomas Miller, not just your name on its own, and you sound like someone who has done this before.
Spelling your name so it survives
Your name will not be understood the first time, and that is normal. Offer the spelling before you are asked: se lo deletreo. Then go letter by letter with the three that cause trouble: hache (H), i griega (Y), uve (V) against be (B). Spaniards often say be de Barcelona and uve de Valencia to keep them apart.
Numbers go in pairs, not digit by digit: a phone number is read seis, cuarenta y dos, dieciocho, noventa. If you miss it, the standard repair lines are ¿me lo repite, por favor?, más despacio, por favor and no se oye muy bien, which blames the line and not the listener.
Leaving a message
When the person is out you get ¿quiere dejar un recado? Say yes and keep it to three pieces: who, why, and how to reach you. Sí, dígale que ha llamado Thomas Miller, que es por la factura de septiembre, y que me llame al 655 40 12 30. Notice each piece starts again with que — that is how reported messages stack up in Spanish.
Closing a call has its own short script: muy amable, gracias, hasta luego. And if you have dialled wrong, the person will say se ha equivocado de número; your line is perdone, me he equivocado.
Where you are matters
In Spain people answer with <span class="es-inline">¿dígame?</span> or simply <span class="es-inline">¿sí?</span> In Mexico the standard answer is <span class="es-inline">¿bueno?</span>, in Argentina <span class="es-inline">¿hola?</span> and in Colombia <span class="es-inline">¿aló?</span> A message is <span class="es-inline">un recado</span> in Spain and Mexico, <span class="es-inline">un mensaje</span> almost everywhere else.
Memory trick
Say who is calling with de parte de, and leave a message with dígale que…
A short dialogue
Typical mistakes
¿Está Marta? Soy de Thomas Miller.
¿Está Marta? De parte de Thomas Miller.
The fixed phrase is de parte de plus your name. Soy de would mean you come from a place.
Estoy Thomas Miller.
Soy Thomas Miller.
Identifying yourself on the phone takes ser, not estar.
¿Puedo hablar a la señora Ruiz?
¿Puedo hablar con la señora Ruiz?
Hablar takes con for the person you talk to; hablar a sounds like talking at someone.
Practice
Practise these on the phone
0/8 matched — tap a Spanish word, then its translation
Check yourself
Someone asks ¿de parte de quién? What do you answer?