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Spanish 2 Unit 10: Travel, Health and Food Vocabulary

This unit builds the vocabulary you need to travel, see a doctor and eat at a restaurant, and combines it with the grammar from earlier units.

Covers: Airport and travel, Hotels and getting around, The body and doler, Illness, symptoms and the doctor, Food and restaurants, Polite requests (quisiera, podría, me trae)

Study guide

Travel vocabulary is high-frequency on Spanish 2 tests. At the airport (el aeropuerto) you show your passport (el pasaporte) and boarding pass (la tarjeta de embarque), check your luggage (facturar el equipaje) and go through security (el control de seguridad) and customs (la aduana). A ticket (el boleto or el billete) can be one-way (de ida) or round-trip (de ida y vuelta), and a flight (el vuelo) may be direct (directo) or have a layover (con escala). At a hotel you ask for a single or double room (una habitación sencilla o doble), check in (registrarse) and receive a key (la llave). Remember that departure is la salida and arrival is la llegada.

Health vocabulary centers on the body and symptoms. Key body parts are la cabeza, la garganta, el estómago, la espalda, el pecho, el brazo, la pierna, el pie, la mano, los ojos and los oídos. To say something hurts, use doler, which works like gustar: the body part is the subject, and an indirect object pronoun shows who hurts. Me duele la cabeza (my head hurts) but me duelen los pies (my feet hurt). Use the definite article, not a possessive, with body parts. Doler is o→ue in the present, and in the past it is usually preterite for a specific episode (me dolió anoche) and imperfect for background (me dolía todo el día).

At the doctor (el médico) or clinic (la clínica), you describe symptoms: tener fiebre (to have a fever), tener tos (to have a cough), estar resfriado (to have a cold), estar mareado (to be dizzy), estornudar (to sneeze) and ser alérgico a (to be allergic to). The doctor may take your temperature (tomar la temperatura), give you a shot (ponerle una inyección) or a prescription (la receta), and you buy medicine (el medicamento, las pastillas) at the pharmacy (la farmacia). Watch the false friend receta, which means prescription or recipe, never receipt. Doctors give instructions with usted commands: tome, descanse, beba mucha agua.

At a restaurant, the server (el mesero or la mesera) brings the menu (el menú or la carta), and you order an appetizer (el entremés), a main dish (el plato principal) and dessert (el postre). Polite requests soften the verb: quisiera (I would like), ¿me trae...? (would you bring me...?) and ¿podría...? (could you...?). At the end you ask for the check (la cuenta) and leave a tip (la propina). Describing food uses estar for its current condition: la sopa está fría, el pollo está delicioso. On tests, expect reading passages and dialogues that mix this vocabulary with doler, commands, the preterite and imperfect, and comparisons.

Key ideas

• Doler works like gustar: the body part is the subject.
• Use definite articles, not possessives, with body parts.
• Receta means prescription or recipe, not receipt.
• Quisiera, ¿me trae? and ¿podría? make requests polite.
• Doctors and servers use usted commands with customers.
• Estar describes the current condition of food or a person's health.
• Travel words often come in pairs: ida y vuelta, salida y llegada.

Formulas and rules

Common mistakes

• Making doler agree with the person, as in yo duelo la cabeza.
• Saying me duele los pies instead of me duelen los pies.
• Using mi with body parts, as in me duele mi cabeza.
• Translating receta as receipt.
• Using tú commands or dame with a server or clerk.

Before the test, make sure you can

• Use key airport and hotel vocabulary in context.
• Use doler with the correct pronoun and agreement.
• Describe symptoms with tener and estar expressions.
• Understand doctor's instructions given with usted commands.
• Order food and ask for the check politely.
• Avoid false friends such as receta.
• Solve simple travel problems involving times and prices.

Words to know

el aeropuerto

airport

el vuelo

flight

el pasaporte

passport

el equipaje

luggage

la aduana

customs

de ida y vuelta

round-trip

la habitación

room

doler

to hurt

la garganta

throat

la espalda

back

la fiebre

fever

la tos

cough

resfriado

having a cold

la receta

prescription

las pastillas

pills

el mesero

server

el plato principal

main course

el postre

dessert

la cuenta

check

la propina

tip

quisiera

I would like

Sample practice questions

30 more questions like these, from level 1 to 5, are in the practice set.