Basic expressions: Greeting someone and apologizing for being late

💬 Perdona is the casual form for someone you'd call tú. With a stranger or someone older, say perdone instead.

💬 Spanish uses the present tense here, not "I am late" with a separate word for "am". Llego literally means "I arrive", so llego tarde is "I arrive late".

🇪🇸 This is what you'd say to a friend on arrival. Ten or fifteen minutes late for a casual meet-up in Spain is common and rarely a big deal.

🇪🇸 The standard reply when someone apologises, from small mishaps to lateness. It's warm and genuinely means "don't give it another thought".

💬 In Spain, ha pasado "has happened" is the usual way to talk about something that happened earlier today. Latin Americans would more often say ¿Qué te pasó?.

💬 Adding -ísimo to a describing word makes it "super" or "really": lento "slow" becomes lentísimo. Same with caro "expensive" → carísimo.

💬 Lo siento literally means "I feel it". It's a fuller apology than perdona. Use it when you've genuinely caused trouble, not just to squeeze past someone.

💬 Tranquilo literally means "calm" and changes with who you're talking to. Say tranquila to a woman.

💬 Spanish says "they are only ten minutes": son "are" matches the plural minutos. Likewise son las tres for "it's three o'clock".