01 · Getting their attention
Perdón. ¿Puede ayudarme, por favor?
Excuse me. Can you help me, please?
That's the whole opener — no speech required. Perdón gets you noticed, the question does the rest.
andbefluent.com/spanish/help-me
Help Me
Ask people to repeat, slow down, or explain a word — calmly, out loud, mid-conversation.
No entiendo — I don't understand — is the phrase, and saying it early beats nodding along every time. Pair it with ¿puede repetir, por favor? and más despacio, por favor (slower, please); in Mexico the polite 'sorry, what?' is ¿mande?, and a quick ¿cómo? works across Latin America. One phrase changes the whole exchange: estoy aprendiendo español — I'm learning Spanish — which earns you patience and encouragement almost everywhere.
Below: the phrases for repeating, slowing down and asking what a word means, how locals actually say them, the mix-up that trips learners — and a way to practice getting un-lost out loud.
The warm-up pack
For the moment you stop nodding along and just say you didn't catch it.
01 · Getting their attention
Perdón. ¿Puede ayudarme, por favor?
Excuse me. Can you help me, please?
That's the whole opener — no speech required. Perdón gets you noticed, the question does the rest.
02 · Say what's actually wrong
No entiendo.
I don't understand.
Say it the moment you're lost, not five sentences later. It's the single habit that saves the whole conversation.
03 · Ask them to say it again
¿Puede repetir, por favor?
Can you repeat, please?
Direct and completely normal to ask. Nobody's counting how many times you use this.
04 · Buy yourself time
Más despacio, por favor. Estoy aprendiendo español.
Slower, please. I'm learning Spanish.
Naming that you're learning isn't an apology — it's a script, and it earns patience almost everywhere you say it.
05 · When one word trips you up
¿Qué significa eso?
What does that mean?
For when you followed the sentence but lost a single word — asking beats guessing and nodding along.
06 · Learn a word on the spot
¿Cómo se dice 'bathroom' en español?
How do you say 'bathroom' in Spanish?
Swap in whatever word you're missing. It turns a stuck moment into a two-second vocabulary lesson, live.
07 · Get it right
¿Cómo se escribe?
How do you spell it?
Different question from how do you say it — this one's for writing the word down so you actually keep it.
08 · Ask where you need to go
¿Hay una farmacia cerca?
Is there a pharmacy nearby?
The exact phrase for when something small goes wrong — a headache, a blister. People expect this question.
09 · Say you're lost
Estoy perdido/perdida.
I'm lost.
Perdido if you're a man, perdida if you're a woman — that's the whole grammar lesson. Say it and people stop to help.
10 · The direct ask for help
Necesito ayuda. ¿Puede ayudarme, por favor?
I need help. Can you help me, please?
Necesito ayuda is blunt, and that's fine. This isn't the moment for subtlety, and nobody thinks less of you for it.
11 · Confirm you've got it
¿Lo puede escribir?
Can you write it down?
Read it back before you walk off. This is the difference between hearing an answer and actually keeping it.
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/help-meRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| sorry — what? | ¿mande? | ¿qué decís? |
| slower, please | tantito más despacio, porfa | más despacio, dale |
| what's this called? | ¿cómo le dicen a esto? | ¿cómo se dice acá? |
Watch out
The part no phrase list can do
Isabella
Your conversation teacher for this pack
In the Help Me lessons you're on a busy street corner in an unfamiliar neighborhood, a little lost — you caught half of a passerby's directions and missed the rest. Isabella is a friendly local you stop to ask: patient, kind, happy to repeat as many times as you need, always pointing and gesturing to help the meaning along. You need the nearest pharmacy. She speaks too fast at first, so you set the pace — más despacio, por favor, estoy aprendiendo español — and when she uses a word you don't know, like esquina or glorieta, you ask ¿qué quiere decir…? and learn it on the spot. Out loud, with the street noise around you:
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 4 lessons and Help Me is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
No entiendo. Soften it with ¿perdón? in front, or add context: no hablo mucho español — I don't speak much Spanish. Saying it early is the habit that saves conversations.
Más despacio, por favor — slower, please — or ¿puede hablar más lento? Adding estoy aprendiendo español sets expectations and almost always earns patience.
It's the standard Mexican way to say 'sorry, what?' when you didn't catch something — used where other regions say ¿perdón? A quick casual ¿cómo? works across Latin America too.
¿Cómo se dice…? asks how to say something — ¿cómo se dice 'bathroom' en español? ¿Qué quiere decir…? asks what a Spanish word means. Mixing them up is the classic learner slip; keep say vs. mean straight and you can learn vocabulary mid-conversation.
¿Puede ayudarme, por favor? — can you help me, please? — or the blunter necesito ayuda. If you're lost: estoy perdido / perdida, and for essentials, ¿hay una farmacia cerca? In Argentina you'll hear the friendly ¿me das una mano?