Hola! I went to Spain at the start of this year and, knowing no Spanish, I bought a phrease book and a dictionary to get me communicating.

However, I found that whole phrases are hard to remember and difficult to adjust to exact situations if you don't understand a word of them, and a dictionary is very time consuming to use. What I wanted was a short list of the absolute minimum vocab you need to get by, arranged so you can construct your own rudimentary sentences. Grammar, gender and spelling not required.

I couldn't find anything like that on the interwebs either so I've written my own, the absolute bare minimun guide to Spanish for travelling in Spain.

Numbers

0 - cero, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, sieste, ocho, nueve, 10 - diez

Vocab

• yes - si
• no - no
• hello - hola
• goodbye - adios
• please - por favor
• thankyou - gracias
• room - habitacion
• train - tren
• bus - autobu/s
• plane - avio/n
• today - hoy
• tomorrow - man~ana
• english - inglese

Phrases

• (I don't) understand - (no) comprendo
• my name's - me llamo
• How much? - quanto?
• What time? - a que hora?
• where is? - donde es?
• I'm sorry - lo siento

Constructors

• for - para
• on/in - en
• that - aquel
• this - este
• what? - que?
• when? - cuando?

Pronunciation

• c - s (gracias = grasias)
• r - rll (tren = trllen)
• u/ - oo (autobu/s = autoboose)
• ho - o (hola = ola)
• ll - y (me llamo = me yamo)

Examples of use

• Where's the train station - donde es tren, por favor?
• Table for two at a restaurant - para dos?
• How much is this rabbit pelt? - cuanto es este (along with pointing)
• The bill please - use the international "bill please" mime

There. Now that's bound to have some obvious gaps - so have a think, and bung me your suggestions, however, remember nothing too specialist, and nothing that you can do easily with mime...