01 · The go-to borrow line
¿Me prestas una pluma?
Can you lend me a pen?
The line you'll use most in this whole badge. Prestar means to lend, and this structure works for anything you need to borrow.
andbefluent.com/spanish/cosas
Cosas
Ask for the pen, the keys, the cup by name — politely, out loud.
Learn every object with its article as one unit — la mesa, el libro — so gender comes for free, and ask for things the polite way: ¿me prestas una pluma, por favor? Then the twist textbooks skip: the most everyday objects change names by country. A pen is la pluma in Mexico, la lapicera in Argentina, el esfero in Colombia — and your phone is el celular all over Latin America, never el móvil.
Below: the objects lesson by lesson, a table of what to call them where you're going, the article slips to avoid — and a way to ask for it all out loud in real exchanges, no flashcards, no picture-matching.
The warm-up pack
The lines you need to actually ask for something — not the labels on a diagram.
01 · The go-to borrow line
¿Me prestas una pluma?
Can you lend me a pen?
The line you'll use most in this whole badge. Prestar means to lend, and this structure works for anything you need to borrow.
02 · Same ask, voseo
¿Me prestás la lapicera?
Can you lend me the pen? (Argentina, voseo)
Same request, Argentine grammar — prestas becomes prestás. Swap the ending and you're understood everywhere in the Río de la Plata.
03 · When you just need a scrap
¿Me pasas un papelito?
Can you pass me a little paper?
Papelito, not papel — the diminutive makes it sound like a small, easy favor instead of a demand.
04 · Add the magic word
¿Me prestas el bolígrafo, por favor?
Can you lend me the pen, please?
Same borrow-line, now with por favor stitched onto the end — the version you'd use with someone you don't know well.
05 · Ask for a whole notebook
¿Tenés un cuaderno que me prestes?
Do you have a notebook you could lend me? (Argentina, voseo)
A longer ask than most beginners attempt — but it's built entirely from words you already have, just chained together.
06 · What you're told to do after dinner
Lava los trastes.
Wash the dishes. (Mexico)
Trastes, not platos — this is the word that actually gets used around a Mexican kitchen sink.
07 · The question you'll ask yourself
¿Dónde dejé las llaves?
Where did I leave my keys?
Dejé (I left), not perdí (I lost) — you know exactly where you put them, you just can't remember.
08 · Said right after, every time
¡Siempre las pierdo!
I always lose them!
The exasperated follow-up to the line above. Las points back to the keys.
09 · Not 'celular'
El celu.
My phone. (Argentina/Uruguay, casual)
Celular is correct everywhere. Say celu with a friend in Buenos Aires and you'll sound like you belong.
10 · The unambiguous word for wallet
La billetera.
The wallet. (Southern Cone)
In Mexico cartera can mean wallet; in Argentina and Chile it means purse — billetera is the word that's never confused.
11 · Argentina's word for glasses
Los anteojos.
Glasses. (Argentina)
Gafas is understood everywhere, but anteojos is what you'll actually hear on the street in Buenos Aires.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/cosasRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| pen | la pluma | la lapicera |
| cell phone | el celular | el celu |
| glasses | los lentes | los anteojos |
| wallet | la cartera | la billetera |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no picture cards — in the Cosas lessons the objects come up because you need them, and Olivia plays the other side: you borrow a pen in class (¿me prestas una pluma?), you help set the table at a friend's house and name what goes where — el plato, la taza, el tenedor — and you pack for a weekend trip, saying out loud what you can't forget: las llaves, el teléfono, la cartera. The articles stick because you keep saying them.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 4 lessons and Cosas is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
The textbook word is el bolígrafo, but locals rarely say it: it's la pluma in Mexico, la lapicera in Argentina and Uruguay, and el esfero in Colombia and Venezuela.
¿Me prestas…? plus por favor — ¿me prestas una pluma? In Argentina you'll hear the voseo form: ¿me prestás la lapicera?
In Latin America it's el celular — el móvil is Spain. Argentines clip it affectionately to el celu.
In Mexico and Central America, la bolsa is a purse and la cartera is a man's wallet. In the Southern Cone it flips: la cartera is a woman's purse and the wallet is la billetera.
Like "scissors" in English, tijeras only exists in the plural — say las tijeras, never la tijera.