Expressions

Grouped by situation rather than by topic, because that is how you need them: before a lunch, at a market, on the phone. Each one says what it really does, not just what it means.

A2At a family lunch15 expressionsAt the family table

What gets said at a Peruvian lunch, from knocking on the door to saying goodbye. Almost none of it translates literally, and getting it wrong here is more noticeable than any grammar mistake.

A1Everyday manners14 expressionsGreetings and manners

The formulas you choose in the first ten seconds of every conversation, and which decide whether you sound warm or distant.

A2Getting around Lima15 expressionsOn the street and at the market

Buying, asking, catching transport and getting out of a scrape. Includes the Peruvian words you will hear on day one and that no course teaches.

A1First conversations11 expressionsTalking about yourself

What people will ask you the moment you are introduced, and how to answer without going silent.

A2Words that betray you17 expressionsFalse friends

They look like an English word and mean something else. Every one of these has produced an awkward silence at a real table, which is why they are worth learning by heart.

A2How people really write19 expressionsChat and WhatsApp

Written Spanish on a phone looks nothing like the textbook. This is what you will see in your partner's family group, abbreviations and voice notes included.

A2When something happens13 expressionsAt the doctor and the pharmacy

The minimum you need to explain what hurts and understand the answer. Written for the moment when you cannot stop to look things up.

B1Arguing, apologising, caring15 expressionsAs a couple

Difficult conversations in a language that is not yours. These formulas exist because saying the same thing translated from English lands cold, or lands as a reproach.

A2What nobody explains8 expressionsHow things work

Not vocabulary and not grammar: the invisible rules that make a correct sentence land badly, or a silence read as rudeness.

B1Refranes16 expressionsSayings people actually use

Spanish leans on proverbs far more than English does, and using one at the right moment lands better than any perfect sentence. These are the ones you will actually hear, with what they mean and when they get said. Several hide a grammar point worth knowing.