Learn about buying a phone card
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| INTRODUCTION |
| While most people wouldn’t or couldn’t live without their cell phones when visiting another country, sometimes, it’s a little too far from your local carrier. In recent years, you can rent a cell phone when you get to Spain and we’ll cover this in another lesson, but the cute old payphone is still an option when you travel in Spain. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Public phones in Spain take coins and phone cards. You can buy €6 and €12 telephone cards and today, we’ll work on asking for them. You can purchase these cards at kiosks, special vending machines, at airports or stations, stores of the telephone companies, etc. |
| Now, before asking for a card, you may want to find out if they have them available. |
| In Spanish, “Do you have telephone cards?” is ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Tie-nen tar-je-tas te-le-fó-ni-cas? |
| Now, let’s hear it once again, ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| The first word, tienen, means “you have.” |
| Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: tie-nen. |
| And tienen. |
| This is followed by tarjetas, which in Spanish is carrots. |
| tarjetas |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: tar-je-tas. |
| And once again, tarjetas. |
| Finally, we have telefónicas, which is the adjective “telephone.” |
| telefónicas |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: te-le-fó-ni-cas. |
| And hear it one more time, telefónicas. |
| So, all together, we have ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| Literally, this means “Do you have telephone cards?” |
| The answer to this will be “yes” sí or “no” no. |
| In the case that they have the cards, you will want to ask for one of the denomination we talked about. |
| Let’s start with a €6 card. In Spanish, “A six euro telephone card, please” is Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: U-na tar-je-ta te-le-fó-ni-ca de se-is eu-ros por fa-vor. |
| Now, let’s hear it once again, Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| The first word, una, means “one.” |
| una |
| This is followed by tarjeta telefónica, which, as we’ve just covered is “telephone card.” |
| tarjeta telefónica |
| Let’s hear it again, tarjeta telefónica. |
| So, to recap here, we have - Una tarjeta telefónica…, which means “A telephone card…” |
| Let’s look at the next word, de, which means “of.” |
| de |
| Then we have seis euros, which means “six euros.” |
| seis euros |
| Let’s hear it again, seis euros. |
| Finally, we have the expression por favor, which means “please.” |
| por favor |
| And one more time, por favor. |
| So, all together, we have - Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| Literally, this means “A telephone card of six euros, please” that is translated as “A six-euro telephone card, please.” |
| For twelve-euro cards, you just have to change the value in this way: |
| Una tarjeta telefónica de doce euros por favor. |
| Una tarjeta telefónica de doce euros por favor. |
| When looking for a payphone, you will have to ask, ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? which means “Is there a payphone nearby here?” |
| ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Hay un te-lé-fo-no pub-li-co cer-ca? |
| The first word, hay, means “there is.” |
| hay |
| Then we have un, which is an indefinite article “a” for masculine singular. |
| un |
| Then we have teléfono publico, which is “payphone.” |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: te-lé-fo-no pub-li-co. |
| And now, let’s hear it once again, teléfono publico. |
| Finally, we have cerca, which means “near.” |
| cerca |
| Once again, cerca. |
| So, all together, we have ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? which means “Is there a payphone nearby here?” |
Outro |
|---|
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for saying it aloud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish. |
| Okay, here we go! |
| “Do you have telephone cards?” - ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| ¿Tienen tarjetas telefónicas? |
| “A six euro telephone card please.” - Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| Una tarjeta telefónica de seis euros por favor. |
| “Is there a payphone nearby here?” - ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? |
| ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? |
| ¿Hay un teléfono publico cerca? |
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