Lost and Found

Losing something in another country is stressful enough without a language barrier on top of it. This topic gives you the Spanish to report a missing item calmly and get it back.

What you will be able to say

The conversation follows a hotel guest whose wallet has gone missing, and it covers the whole arc of that situation: explaining what happened, answering where and when, describing the item in enough detail for someone to identify it, leaving a way to be contacted, and confirming that everything is there once it turns up. Along the way you pick up dozens of useful words and phrases, from Perdí mi billetera and ¿Cuándo la vio por última vez? to Todo está en orden. The same language works at a restaurant, a bus terminal, an airport counter, or a museum entrance, anywhere you have to describe something of yours and ask someone to help you look for it.

How the practice works

You follow a realistic conversation as it unfolds and assemble sentences word by word, picking the right options out of a set that includes tempting near misses. Every line is recorded by native Latin American voices, so you are reading and listening at the same time, which is what makes the phrases stick. Sessions are short, and you can repeat a quiz whenever it suits you, on the bus, in a waiting room, or in any spare few minutes.

The blameless way to lose things in Spanish

Spanish has a whole grammatical structure reserved for accidents that were nobody's fault. Next to Perdí mi billetera, you will very often hear Se me perdió la billetera, which turns the wallet into the subject of the sentence and presents the loss as something that happened to the speaker rather than something the speaker did. The same pattern shows up with keys, phones, and forgotten appointments, and it is so common in everyday Latin American speech that using it makes you sound noticeably more natural.

1. Report (part 1 of 3)

The moment you realize your wallet is gone, you need the words immediately. This part of the conversation puts you at a hotel front desk in Latin America, explaining what disappeared and answering the questions any receptionist has to ask before anyone can start looking for it. You work through the opening of a real report: greeting the receptionist, saying what went missing with Perdí mi billetera, and then narrowing things down. Expect to be asked ¿Dónde la perdió? and ¿Cuándo la vio por última vez?, and to answer with a place and a moment, such as Esta mañana, durante el desayuno. There is also the practical business of confirming that you are staying at the hotel and giving your room number, which staff usually need before they can do anything at all. The register stays formal on both sides, so you are hearing and using usted the way you would with any stranger who is helping you. These phrases carry straight over to a restaurant, a museum, a bus terminal, or anywhere else you have to explain that something of yours has vanished.

score: 0% (everyone)

🎧 11 questions

2. Describe (part 2 of 3) 🔒

Saying that you lost something is the easy half. The hard half is describing it well enough that a stranger could pick it out from everything else on the shelf, and this part of the conversation is built entirely around that skill. Here the practice is color, material, and detail: a wallet that is roja, de cuero, a phone that is negro, con una funda azul, and an account of what was inside, from cards to a little cash. You answer ¿Qué más hay adentro? and then deal with the practical follow-up, leaving a way to be reached by room phone or by email. Adjective agreement gets a quiet workout throughout, because one item is feminine and the other masculine, and the endings have to follow along. Everything here is reusable: describing a suitcase to an airline agent, a jacket to a museum attendant, or a camera to a taxi company, plus the vocabulary you need any time someone has to write down how to contact you.

score: 0% (everyone)

🎧 11 questions

3. Claim (part 3 of 3) 🔒

Good news comes in Spanish too, and a small routine follows it: finding out where the missing thing turned up, checking that nothing is gone from it, and signing before you walk away with it. This part covers the happy ending and the small formalities attached to it. You hear where the wallet was found, ask whether the phone is still there, and go through the contents out loud with Las tarjetas, el dinero, el teléfono before confirming Todo está en orden. Then comes the signature, an apology for the trouble, and a genuinely warm exchange of thanks that closes with ¡Que disfrute su estadía!. Much of the language leans on the past tense, which is exactly what you need for talking about something that already happened, and on polite fixed expressions that are worth knowing by heart. You will reach for this stretch of Spanish whenever you collect a package, pick something up from a counter, check that an order is complete, or want to thank someone properly for going out of their way.

score: 0% (everyone)

🎧 11 questions