Enough Spanish to be treated well
Outside hotels and tour agencies, very little English is spoken in Quito. This is not a problem — it is an opportunity, because the gap between arriving with no Spanish and arriving with twenty phrases is enormous, and it is entirely closable on the flight over.
The short version
- Greet before you ask. Buenos días first, question second. This single habit changes every interaction.
- Use usted. Ecuadorians are formal, more so than most of Latin America.
- Download an offline translator before you land. It is worth more than a phrasebook.
- Ecuadorian Spanish is clear, slow and easy to understand — one of the best places in the region to learn.
- A dozen everyday words here are Kichwa, not Spanish.
The habit that matters more than vocabulary
If you take one thing from this page, take this: greet people before you ask them anything.
Walking up to a stallholder, a driver or a shop assistant and opening with a question — even a polite one, even in Spanish — reads as brusque here. Buenos días, wait for the reply, then ask. It costs two seconds and it changes the temperature of the entire exchange.
The second habit: use usted, not tú. Ecuador is noticeably formal by Latin American standards, and people use usted with neighbours, with colleagues, sometimes within families. It is never wrong. Tú can land as over-familiar.
Twenty phrases that do most of the work
Basics
- Buenos días / buenas tardes / buenas noches — good morning / afternoon / evening
- Por favor · gracias · muchas gracias
- Disculpe — excuse me, to get attention. Softer than perdón.
- ¿Habla inglés? — do you speak English? Usually the answer is no.
- No hablo español, disculpe — I don't speak Spanish, sorry. Said with a smile, it opens more doors than it closes.
- ¿Mande? — the local way of saying "sorry, what?" when you have not understood.
Money and buying
- ¿Cuánto cuesta? — how much is it?
- ¿Tiene cambio? — do you have change? You will use this constantly.
- Solo tengo un billete de veinte — I only have a twenty. Prepare for a sigh.
- La cuenta, por favor — the bill, please
- ¿Puedo pagar con tarjeta? — can I pay by card?
Eating
- ¿Cuál es el almuerzo de hoy? — what is today's set lunch?
- Sin carne, por favor — no meat. For vegetarians, add: ni pollo ni pescado.
- Soy alérgico a… — I am allergic to…
- En agua, por favor — with water rather than milk, for juices.
- Sin hielo — no ice.
- Estaba delicioso — that was delicious. Worth learning purely for the reaction.
Moving around
- ¿Me puede llamar un taxi, por favor? — can you call me a taxi? The single most useful sentence on this page.
- A la Plaza Grande, por favor — to the Plaza Grande, please
- ¿Está lejos? — is it far?
- Aquí está bien, gracias — here is fine, thanks
If something is wrong
- No me siento bien — I don't feel well
- Me duele la cabeza — I have a headache. At altitude, expect this one.
- ¿Dónde está la farmacia más cercana? — where is the nearest pharmacy?
- Necesito ayuda — I need help
- Me robaron — I have been robbed
The words that are not Spanish
Ecuadorian Spanish carries a layer of Kichwa that people use without thinking about it. Recognising a few is the fastest way to sound like you have been paying attention.
- Guagua — baby or small child. As in the guaguas de pan eaten in November.
- Ñaño / ñaña — brother / sister, and by extension a close friend.
- Chuchaqui — hangover. Universally understood, frequently required.
- Achachay — an exclamation meaning "how cold!" You will hear it at 4,000 m.
- Arrarray — the same, for heat.
- Taita — father, and a term of respect for an older man.
- Mote — the hominy corn served with almost everything.
- Cancha — a pitch or court, now used across Latin America.
Ecuadorian habits worth recognising
- Diminutives everywhere. Ahorita (right now, or possibly in an hour), un ratito, agüita, despacito. They soften everything and they are constant.
- Ahorita is elastic. It can mean now, soon, later today, or in principle. Ask for a specific time if it matters.
- Chévere — great, cool. Bacán — the same, younger.
- De una — right away, let's do it.
- Le regalo… — literally "I gift you", used by vendors to mean "I'll give you this for…". Not an actual gift.
- ¿Me regala…? — the customer's version. "Could I have…". Perfectly normal, and confusing the first time.
Pronunciation, briefly
Ecuadorian highland Spanish is among the easiest in the Americas for a learner: measured, clearly articulated, with final consonants pronounced rather than swallowed. If you have struggled with Caribbean or Andalusian Spanish, you will find this a relief.
Three quick rules that get you most of the way: every vowel is short and pure — a e i o u as in "father, met, machine, or, rude"; the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable unless there is a written accent; and j is a throaty h, while ll and y are both roughly an English y.
Practical points
- Download an offline translation pack before you land. Camera translation on menus and signs is genuinely useful, and it works without signal — including in the Cuyabeno, where there is none.
- Write your address down. Taxi drivers are far more likely to know a written address than to decode your pronunciation of it.
- Numbers are the hard part. Prices come fast. Asking someone to write the figure is normal and nobody minds.
- Spanish schools. Quito is a well-known place to study, with schools taking students by the week and homestays available. Even three days changes the rest of your trip.
- Do not apologise for your Spanish. Nobody here is judging it, and the effort is what registers.
What we do here
We speak English at reception, so nothing about your stay depends on your Spanish. But we will happily write down the address you need, call the taxi, phone the restaurant, explain what is on the menu, and translate at the pharmacy — and if you want to practise on us, we will slow down and let you.
Twenty phrases and a greeting will take you a long way
Nine rooms in a restored 1914 house on the quiet edge of the Old Town, with a front desk that will write down whatever you need before you go out. Book direct for our lowest rate.
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This is the one worth having on paper, in a pocket, where a dead battery cannot reach it.
