Telling my landlord the hot water is broken: Prior attemps to fix the problem

🇪🇸 A very common Spanish reaction to mildly bad news. It sounds sympathetic without being dramatic.

💬 Ha is the polite "you" form, the one that goes with usted. To a friend it would be ¿Has mirado?.

💬 The c in calentador is a hard k sound, because it comes before a; only before e or i does c become (th).

💬 mirar "to look" doubles as "to check" here. ¿Ha mirado los plomos? works the same way.

💬 Lo "it" goes before he, not after the verb as in English. Same with lo he visto "I've seen it".

💬 vez becomes veces in the plural, with z switching to c. Both are said with (th): (BEH-thes).

🇪🇸 In Spain, the everyday past for something done today or recently is he apagado, where much of Latin America would say apagué.

💬 de + el always merges into del: la luz del calentador. Likewise a + el becomes al.

💬 encendida ends in -a because it describes la luz. For the heater itself you'd say está encendido.

💬 luz here means the small indicator light, not the lighting. In Spain, la luz is also everyday talk for electricity, as in no hay luz "the power's out".

💬 To say something is on or off, use está, not es, because it's a temporary state. Swap in rota "broken" the same way: está rota.

💬 plomos literally means "leads", from old lead fuses. It's everyday Spain usage: han saltado los plomos "the fuses have blown".

💬 seguir sin + action means "still not doing it". Reuse it: sigue sin haber agua caliente "there's still no hot water".

🇪🇸 vale is the go-to "okay" in Spain, used constantly. It marks you as Spain-based; Latin Americans tend to say bueno or ok.

💬 Spanish often uses the plain present for near-future plans: mañana mando "I'll send tomorrow". The a before el técnico appears because a person is being sent, and merges into al.

💬 le is the polite "you" here, used with someone you call usted. With a friend you'd say ¿te va bien?.

🇪🇸 In Spain hasta luego is the standard goodbye even if you won't see the person again soon. It works fine to end a call with your landlord.