Matt’s Spanish Companion

Everyday Mexican Spanish (es-MX) for cafés, shops and real conversations
¡Hola, Matt! 👋

Patterns first, real situations, gentle corrections. Tap any Spanish to hear it. 🐢 = slow, 🔁 = hear it three times.

High priority · 10 Oct

The Puebla cortado lesson ☕

The cortado was far too small. Your default is now an 8 oz flat white with oat milk, or a 12 oz latte if the flat white is small. Always ask the size: names don’t mean the same volume from café to café.

Today’s five

High-priority phrases, rotating daily.

☕ Find my coffee

A guided scenario for getting the 8–12 oz oat-milk coffee you actually want.

1 · What do you feel like?

Size
Taste

3 · Roleplay at the counter

Pick what the staff member says about the size and the script adapts.

Why ask the size?

Drink names aren’t standardised by volume in Puebla. Flat whites on local menus range from 150 ml up to 16 oz, while a cortado can be 4 oz or 130 ml. A flat white is usually more coffee-forward; a latte is usually milkier. Size and espresso dose depend on the shop, so at some cafés a 240 ml latte is closer to your target than their flat white.

Examples of variable sizing seen on Puebla menus (not promises about current availability, stock or prices):

  • OKAL: cortado 130 ml, flat white 150 ml, latte 250 ml, oat-milk substitution. menu
  • NEXO Coffee Lab: flat white 180 ml, latte 240 ml. menu
  • Miel Negra: flat white 8 oz, latte 12 oz. listing
  • Café Bellunesi: flat white 12 oz and 16 oz, latte 12 oz. listing
Pronunciation: in onzas the z sounds like s (OHN-sahs). avena = ah-VEH-nah, ocho = OH-choh, doce = DOH-seh, tamaño has ñ (“ny”). Menu loanwords like “flat white” and “shot” are often said with an English-influenced pronunciation in Mexico; the device voice may read them in a more Spanish way.

All coffee phrases

Phrase library

Practice

Spaced repetition: phrases you find hard come back sooner. Progress saves on this device.

Progress

Café conversation challenge

Play line by line or the whole thing. Tap any chunk of a line to hear just that part.

Updated 10 Oct: this script used to order a cortado. That was too small in Puebla, so it now orders an 8 oz flat white with oat milk. For the size-checking version, use Find my coffee.

Numbers 1–80

Tap any number to hear it. Then quiz yourself, including peso prices.

Tap a number below.

Quiz

How the numbers work

  • 16–19 are one word: dieci + number (dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve).
  • 21–29 are one word: veinti + number (veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés…). Note the accents on veintidós, veintitrés and veintiséis.
  • 31 onward are three words: tens + y + units (treinta y uno, cuarenta y cinco).
  • uno → un before a masculine noun: un peso, veintiún pesos, treinta y un pesos.
  • Easy to confuse: seis (6) / siete (7), sesenta (60) / setenta (70), doce (12) / dos (2).

Pronunciation: central Mexican Spanish

Guides are English-friendly approximations with the stressed syllable in CAPITALS. The Spanish spelling is the real authority, and the audio matters more than any guide.

Word speed:
In the guides, rr means a rolled (trilled) r, and h stands for the breathy Spanish j sound.

Ahorita ⏳

The most Mexican word you’ll hear daily, and the most slippery.

Ahorita is a diminutive of ahora (now). In Mexico it depends on context and tone: it can mean right now, shortly, or later (maybe). It doesn’t guarantee an exact time on its own.

When you need precision, use ahora mismo (right now) or give a time: en cinco minutos.

A polite, very common use: Ahorita no, gracias to decline a street vendor without sounding abrupt.

Contrast

Listen in context

Guide & settings

🔊 Voice

How to get a better Mexican voice

iPhone / iPad: Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices → Spanish → Spanish (Mexico). Download an Enhanced or Premium voice, then reload this page.

Mac: System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → System voice → Manage Voices → Spanish (Mexico).

Android / Chrome: install Spanish (Mexico) or Spanish (United States) in your text-to-speech settings.

How to use

  • Before going out: run the relevant scenario (Café challenge, Find my coffee) in roleplay mode.
  • Daily: 10 minutes of Practice. Grade honestly; “Again” brings it back the same day.
  • Bookmark ★ anything you want handy, then filter the library to Bookmarked.
  • tú vs usted: use usted forms (que tenga, ¿puede…?) with staff, older people and strangers; tú (que tengas, ¿cómo te llamas?) with friends and people your age once things are relaxed. Defaulting to usted is never rude.
  • Speech recognition (🎤) is optional and rough. It shows which words the browser caught; it is not a grade.

Where the content comes from

Each phrase is labelled with its source:

  • You requested phrases you asked for, including the 10 Oct coffee update.
  • Fireflies situation situations that came up in your September and early October Fireflies recordings. Those conversations were in French; the Spanish here is an editorial translation, not something said verbatim.
  • Editorial added to round out a lesson (examples, drills).
Situations seen in your Fireflies recordings
  • 19 Sept, stationery shop: asking what a word means, individual prices, packs of ten, receipts, bags, thanking the assistant for helping with French.
  • 19 Sept, café: ordering coffee, milk options, wishing someone a good day.
  • 19 Sept, restaurant: vegetarian burger with cheese and chips, drink sizes, explaining you’re from New Zealand, thanking staff for being kind.
  • 29 Sept, everyday practice: trying to speak French, daily practice, thanking others for kindness.
  • 9 Oct, café: comparing espresso drinks, almond milk, mineral water.
  • 9 Oct, bar: asking for the QR menu and which drink is recommended.
  • 9 Oct, hotel: check-in, breakfast, Wi-Fi, directions, thanking staff.

This is a thematic list, not a statistical count of all transcripts.

Reset

Clears practice progress, bookmarks and quiz scores on this device.