Becoming a good user of a language doesn’t mean that you pick up everything in all circumstances. I’d argue that what makes you a good user is developing the abilities which are necessary to navigate a conversation as smoothly as you possibly can.

To be able to do it with elegance and without panicking is learning to ask for repetition. How do you do it? It depends on the context, but there are a few phrases you can apply quite confidently in almost any situation.

Let’s get them down, shall we?

¿Cómo?

In Argentina you can equal sorry? to ¿cómo? and play it safe. Just one word? Yep, just one word, but make sure your face and intonation matches your intention! It’s very easy to get distracted in using a phrase and then forgetting the theatrical skills involved in using it right.

¿Disculpá?

This is a strange one. You would typically use an imperative without question marks, but if you don’t understand what’s being said, you can use ¿disculpá? to show you missed something.

You could accompany ¿disculpá? with the specific information you lost. For example:

• ¿Disculpá? ¿Cómo dijiste que se llama el lugar?
• ¿Disculpá? ¿Dijiste Loderman?

¿Perdón?

Similarly, you could use ¿perdón? to signal you’re not following. You could even clarify, as in beg your pardon?

• ¿Perdón? No te entendí
• ¿Perdón? No escuché

Basically, you can use any of this three and you’ll be on your way to get back to the conversation.

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Enjoy the ride!

Happy Spanish learning!

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