Learn Spanish one-on-one in a relaxed online learning environment

Elisa Vidal is an independent qualified Spanish teacher based in Mexico.

She offers personalized, one-on-one online lessons in a relaxed and informal setting that puts you at ease to help you improve your language skills and increase your conversational abilities.

Choose the type of Spanish lesson you would like:

• Everyday Spanish conversation — increase your vocabulary, improve your language fluency, and learn about typical nuances and usage of Mexican Spanish in everyday situations.
• Beginner’s Spanish Lessons — start building your Spanish language skills with lessons that will get you started with conversation, understanding grammar, and building essential vocabulary.
• Intermediate Spanish Lessons — build on your existing Spanish language skills with lessons that will help improve your grammar, and build vocabulary and stronger sentence construction for writing and conversations.

Benefits of Elisa’s personalized lessons

Tailored lessons: Elisa offers lessons tailored to help you reach your Spanish language study goals, adapting the lessons to your personal needs.

Goal-oriented learning: Whether you want to improve general conversation, get a better handle on Spanish grammar, prepare for your new lifestyle in Mexico, or simply converse in Spanish with someone who can help you elevate your fluency level, Elisa will tailor the lessons to help you achieve your goals.

Cultural enrichment: Elisa’s language lessons will help you hone your Spanish language skills as you learn about Mexican traditions, expressions, everyday culture and the nuances of local language usage.

Experience you can trust: Elisa is bi-lingual and a qualified Spanish language teacher with over eight years of teaching experience and has worked with learners of all ages and backgrounds.

Spanish lesson plans and prices

Elisa offers 30-minute conversation sessions, pay-per-lesson, and monthly packages. Choose a plan that best suits your language learning intentions.

*Monthly packages are based on 4-week lesson cycles.

Request your language lessons with Elisa

Complete the request form below and Elisa will contact you directly.

What happens next?

• After you complete the request form, Mexperience will send you an email that confirms your request and introduces you to Elisa.
• Elisa will respond to you directly to schedule free initial 30-minute consultation call on Zoom to introduce herself, talk about your language learning goals, and organize the conversation sessions, or lesson plan you choose.

Pride

Of several words in Spanish that can be used to mean pride, orgullo is the most common and the most versatile, and it can have both positive and negative connotations. Orgulloso can apply to people who take pride in their work or in their children’s achievements, but also to describe those who are somewhat aloof.

Soberbia is synonymous with orgullo but usually denotes a greater degree of arrogance. Someone who is soberbio looks down haughtily on others and lets them know it both by actions and attitude. One catch: soberbio can also mean superb, for example in sports when referring to a great goal or some other skillful play. Un gol soberbio, or una jugada soberbia.

Another Spanish expression for pride is amor propio, literally self-love, which can be used when someone’s pride is hurt and they feel offended. It can also mean self-esteem (as can autoestima), vanity or conceit.

Lust

This one is fairly straightforward: lujuria. The adjectival form is lujurioso, and synonyms include libertino and lascivo. Spanish, like other languages, didn’t get the memo about gender equality, and expressions referring to the lustful have a habit of excusing as a peccadillo in men what is often roundly condemned in women. So mujeriego — philanderer or womanizer — has no direct feminine equivalent. Well, maybe promiscua. And even viejo rabo verde — old lecher — sounds somehow less offensive in Spanish. (Note plural: los viejos rabo verde.)

Gluttony

Gula in Spanish. Glutton, someone who eats or drinks excessively, is glotón. The word tragón, from tragar which means to swallow, is far more usual in Mexico, although it is often used in a playful way, such as when a friend decides to go for just one more taco de carnitas.  Someone may also say they ate an extra dessert “por gula,” —out of gluttony— perhaps just to try another flavor.  “Por antojo” —out of whim or fancy— is a nicer way of putting it.

Anger, or wrath

This is ira in Spanish, and the adjectival form is iracundo. Cólera is a synonym for anger or fury, with its adjective colérico, meaning short-tempered. In Mexico, coraje is commonly used to mean anger, which is generally given as its second meaning, the first being courage. (Here people more frequently use valor to mean courage.)  Hizo un coraje means he or she “flew into a rage,” or “threw a tantrum.”  Someone who is in the habit of getting angry can be said to be corajudo.

Enojo is more akin to annoyance, and enojado means cross or annoyed.  Enojón or enojona is closer to grouchy than irate or wrathful.

Envy

Envidia is a very common word in a country where material inequality is great and widespread.  But “the sin of the have-nots against the haves,” strangely enough, seems to be more one of “the haves against the have mores.”  Envidioso is the adjectival form, and “no seas envidioso” is a common retort to criticism, undue or warranted.

Greed

Codicia is generally used for the desire to amass worldly goods.  Avaricia, like avarice, is synonymous with codicia but can also refer to greed in the sense of being stingy.  Avaricioso or avaro means miserly, and avaro is the word for miser (avaro can be a noun or an adjective). Other common words in Mexico for stingy are tacaño and codo.  (Codo means elbow, and in this context supposedly illustrates the grasping action of the money-grubber.)

Codicia is used for greed when it is applied to covetousness, as in “no codiciarás la casa de tu prójimo” — you shall not covet your neighbor’s house.  But it doesn’t really apply to someone who is greedy for food: see gluttony.

Sloth

Most people leave this one until last. Pereza is the Spanish word for sloth.  It also means laziness, although in Mexico flojera and flojo are more commonly used than pereza and perezoso.

An often-heard and impolite alternative for flojera is güeva, itself a sanitized version of hueva—the use of which will get you dirty looks. ¡Qué flojera! can apply to any proposed activity that requires more energy than you wish to expend, or reaction to something that you consider tedious or boring.  It could be translated as “what a drag!”

Perezoso also refers to sloth the animal.

Common terms for streets in Mexico

The most common term seen and used in Mexico is “calle” —street— with calle principal indicating a main route, usually crossing or connecting smaller streets adjacent.  The fancier avenida, or avenue, and even bulevar may also be employed when the need for distinction arises.

Camino, the equivalent of ‘road’ or ‘way’ in English, is less commonly seen and used in Mexico, and is a word that can also serve to describe a person’s journey: va en camino, he’s on his way—or distinctly, va por su camino which translates to ‘he’s making his own way (in life)’.

Callejón indicates a narrow road or alley, and retorno stipulates a dead-end or cul-de-sac, with the Spanish in this case more practical in letting the wanderer know there’s no point going there without a specific reason.  Retorno can also indicate a loop or opportunity to U-turn or double-back over a bridge or under a tunnel to cross-over to the other side of a road; on some roads it could also be a wide space within a camellón (median strip) reserved for that purpose.

Related to retorno is cerrada, which is oftentimes used to describe a private road with a dead-end; privada might also be used in this context.

Another term you’ll come across when driving in Mexico the word crucero which means junction.  Related to crucero is the word entronque, which means to connect, or merge.  Junctions are most often signed when they require additional precautions to be exercised, —for example, Entronque Peligroso— where a road merges with another on the left hand side of the adjoining highway (overtaking lane) instead of the (more-usual) merge lane on the right.

Freeways and tolled highways

Moving onto trunk roads, there are two ways of referring to a highway: carretera and autopista; and these are sometimes referred to (or signed on highways) as ‘Libre‘ (freeway) or ‘Cuota‘ (tollway), respectively.

Carretera is akin to the U.S. freeway and most often refers to the federally-funded interstate roads which connect main towns and cities, but may also refer to a primary trunk road around a town or city.  These are usually not tolled, and most are two-lane highways; some have stretches for overtaking slow vehicles.  You might see these signed as ‘Libre‘ on highways.

Autopista (and its related term, ‘cuota’) are words reserved to describe tolled interstate highways in Mexico—some of which run alongside, or nearby, carreteras federales. You might see these signed as ‘Cuota‘ on highways.

The toll fee is called peaje although tolled highways in Mexico are rarely if ever referred to using that word.

Streets alongside ocean scenes

Seaside resorts, and the roads or highways connecting them, have their costeras, or coast roads.  These describe streets or roads which can vary in size and importance, but which invariably run along the seafront.  Inside coastal towns alongside some costeras you may find el malecón—a pedestrian boardwalk or esplanade facing the waterfront, some of which might also include a lane for pedal-bikers, and those using skates and skateboards.

Miscellaneous street terms in Mexico

Some other related terms you may encounter in journey parlance here include:

• lateral, which refers to a parallel side road that may be situated alongside any main urban road, or carretera, or autopista, and separated by a camellón—a central reservation or median strip;
• libramientos, which can sometimes be part of a carretera or autopista refer to ‘relief roads,’ built specifically to route passing traffic away from, or around, a town or city center;
• periférico refers to a ring road (or beltway) around a town, city, or place;
• in Mexico City, the stretches of tolled elevated beltway raised primarily above the capital’s original beltway (anillo periferico) is colloquially referred to as El Segundo Piso.  You need a ‘Tag’ on your vehicle’s dashboard or windshield to use the electronically controlled gates which give drivers access to the tolled level of roadway;
• for those traveling on foot: footpaths, nature trails, and ancient pathways are commonly described as senderos, whereas formal pedestrian walkways, or shopping streets closed to traffic, are referred to as a paseo peatonal; and
• paseo that means a walk or a drive, and pasear means to go for a walk, or a ride, or a drive. The word pasear is somewhat more versatile than what the average dictionary can accommodate: it can also mean go out with no particular purpose or plan, maybe hang out at the mall, grab a coffee, browse the stores, watch a movie, or just wander about. It’s also used as a term to mean going away, being away, or having been away on vacation—voy/estoy/estuve de paseo.

When someone apologizes for some wrong done to another, it’s as common in Mexico to hear pido una disculpa (I ask you to forgive me) as it is to hear ofrezco una disculpa (I offer an apology).

Disputes arise with the expression pedir una disculpa. Some, including the Spanish Royal Academy (RAE), say that it can mean ask to be forgiven or excused, while the Mexican Language Academy (Academia Mexicana de la Lengua) says una disculpa —in this sense, an apology— can only be demanded by the offended party and offered by the offender.

Each draws a different conclusion using the same definition of disculpa.

The Mexican academy argues that since disculpa isn’t a precise synonym of perdón (pardon or forgiveness), it shouldn’t be substituted for it. The RAE suggests that if the verb disculpar can be used to mean to ask forgiveness, then the noun disculpa can also be a synonym of pardon or forgiveness.

With two such authorities in disagreement on matters pertaining to the correct use of language, the best mere mortals can hope to do is take a look at (or listen to) how Spanish speakers in Mexico go about apologizing for their misdeeds or negligence in daily life.

Starting with an easy one. You bump into someone on the Metro or on a crowded street. “¡Perdón!” or “disculpe” —(sorry!)— is usual, and enough. Often both parties will apologize in this way at the same time, in which case one may assume the disculpa is simultaneously requested and granted. Note “disculpe” is the polite or formal form of the imperative, implying usted whereas the informal form of the verb would be “disculpa.”

For more egregious offenses, one is more likely to ask for out and out forgiveness than to offer an excuse. “Perdóname” or “te pido perdón,” although “discúlpame” is also common. “Lo siento” is another way of saying I’m sorry.

While there is no dispute among Spanish speakers that ofrecer una disculpa is correct, to the English-speaking mind (and to the extent that language affects our way of thinking, if anyone would like to go down that rabbit hole) it can sound a bit like the offender offering to forgive himself or herself.

But se disculpó means the person apologized, not that the person forgave themselves. Or as RAE notes above, disculparse in this sense can mean to justify, and it gives the example of someone blaming the traffic for their tardiness to some engagement.

If this PinPoint Spanish article creates more confusion than it clears up, de antemano una disculpa. 

Speaking Spanish gives you access to the local culture and enables you to engage with people in ways that are simply not possible through third party translation and will enhance every experience you encounter in Mexico.

Conversation is the key to language fluency

It’s the everyday interactions with other people that give us the most value and most pleasure from being able to communicate in another language.  Developing your ability to converse in Spanish requires a regular exercise of your vocabulary, and confidence.

The online course offered by our associate is helpful when

• you visit Mexico frequently and want to converse in Spanish for leisure, lifestyle, or for work;
• you’re already living in Mexico and want to improve your Spanish language conversation skills;
• you plan to move to Mexico and you’d like to arrive prepared to converse more confidently.

You can choose from pricing plans depending on how many lessons you want per week.

Each course is tailored based on your current skill level and language learning goals, and your free assessment also includes a lesson test-run over a video call.

True beginner

When you want to get started speaking Spanish for the first time, a coach will help you to build a solid foundation and get you conversing in Spanish.  You will be speaking Spanish from day one of the course.  This is ideal for those who have never studied Spanish before or those who studied it many years ago but don’t remember much, or anything, from those studies.

False beginner

When you’re someone who’s had previous experiences with trying to learn Spanish but still can’t string a sentence together, this course can help you to retrieve the information you’ve stored over the years, unlock what you already know, and develop new vocabulary and skills while building confidence speaking Spanish in everyday situations.   It’s ideal when you understand more Spanish than you can speak or lack confidence when you need to express yourself in Spanish.

Intermediate learner

When you have a good basic grasp of Spanish, but you sense that you’ve reached a plateau you can’t overcome or need to develop confidence to speak Spanish with strangers or in public, this course can help you to make material advances in your current Spanish language capabilities.  Most language students get stuck in a loop and need some help at some point, and a coach will assess your current level with a view to structuring a course to help you reach your goals.  This is ideal when you’ve tried other courses that don’t seem to work, or sense that your vocabulary and sentence structure need to be sharper or more refined.

Intermediate-advanced learner

When you’re seeking to improve your Spanish language capabilities for specific purposes, for example, as part of a career development plan or due to some other specialized interest, your intermediate-advanced skills can benefit by having the course structured to your more advanced needs or professional goals.   For example, you might need to learn Spanish in the context of medical, scientific, business, educational, or technical disciplines.  This course is ideal for those who have a decent command of the Spanish language, but who want to sharpen their abilities and gain others’ trust when speaking in Spanish, especially in formal or business situations.

Someone who wants to learn Spanish for living in Mexico

If you’re living in Mexico, or plan to make a move here in the future, this online course can also help you to improve your Spanish language skills to face everyday lifestyle situations in Mexico.  Language lifestyle conversations are helpful when you are already living here and want to improve your language skills, or you visit Mexico frequently, or plan to move to Mexico in future—so that you can arrive prepared with language and vocabulary skills that will enable you to converse confidently in lifestyle situations you’ll encounter when you’re here.

Every course is tailored to your current skill level

Every course is tailor-made for each student.

Request a free consultation today and our language associate will take the time to assess your current language skill level on a video call and talk about your goals and intentions in regard to improving your Spanish language conversation skills, with no obligation.

Your free assessment also includes a lesson test-run via video-call, and if you enjoy the format you can choose to sign-up for a course that will be tailored to your current Spanish language proficiency and language learning goals.

Month-to-month coaching plans are available from US$140 per month; and you can cancel anytime.

Book your free consultation and lesson test-run, with no obligation

Two Spanish verbs ‘to know’

Of the two verbs to know, the irregular saber is generally applied to facts, and the almost regular conocer to people and places. There are areas, however, where the two overlap, and either verb could be used—languages, for example:

• él sabe español, means he knows Spanish, and
• él conoce el español means he knows, or is acquainted with, the Spanish language.

One way to determine whether conocer can be used is to test whether the phrase “is acquainted with,” could be substituted for “know.”

When applying conocer to people, the preposition a is used. So:

• conoce Cervantes, means he knows the work of the author of Don Quixote, while
• conoce a Cervantes would mean he knows the writer.

Saber is used for “to know how to,” for example:

• ellos saben nadar (they know how to swim), and
• ella sabe tocar el piano (she knows how to play the piano).

Two Spanish verbs ‘to have’

The two verbs “to have” are tener and haber, and both irregular.

• Tener is used to show possession, tengo dos perros (I have two dogs), and
• haber as the auxiliary verb for forming compound tenses, for example,
• hemos llegado por fin (we have arrived at last).

The expression hay, derived from haber, is used to say “there is” or “there are.”  Hubo or había mean “there was/were.”

The verb haber can also be used in some instances for “must,” “should,” or “ought to.” For example,

• ha de ser difícil, (it must be difficult), or,
• has de conocer esta regla, (you ought to know this rule).

Dealing with the imperative

For indicating an imperative, such as tenemos que tomar el camión (we have to take the bus),  tener is used when the subject is specific. Tengo que ir (I have to go), tienes que entender (you have to understand), but haber can be used when you want something done, don’t want to do it yourself, wish someone else would do it, but would rather not appear to be pushy. This is all possible with the not so subtle “hay que…” Hay que recoger la mesa means the table has to be cleared. This is also useful for broad statements like hay que tener paciencia. The English equivalent “one has to be patient” is somehow stilted in comparison.

One word that is extremely popular among speakers at these events is “fundamental,” which for convenience’s sake is the same in Spanish as in English.

There is usually at least one fundamental challenge, need, or opportunity to be illustrated with each Power Point slide. It means essential or basic, but those words don’t quite do the trick. Fundamental sounds more important, more urgent, and has more syllables to vary the stress according to the severity of the case.

But a listener who had to surmise the meaning of the word from the context of a presentation might come to the mistaken conclusion that it means non-existent. The “fundamental” conditions required for the success of this or that undertaking usually belong more in the realm of the desirable (for some) than the probable, such as the mythical “level playing field.”

In this respect, and in Mexico especially, it would be more practical, and infinitely more useful, to discuss ground rules, in the sporting sense of course.

See also: That’s what false friends are for

One example is the use of the verb regalar—that means to give as a present. If asking someone for a cigarette, a Spaniard or Argentine will say “¿me das un cigarro?” whereas in Mexico the usual way would be to say “¿me regalas un cigarro?” The implication is that of willingness on the part of the giver, and the absence of any debt on the part of the taker.

In times of crisis and other times, politicians and corporations love euphemisms. Prices never go up, they are merely adjusted. The pressing question: “¿ajustados hacia arriba?” will draw a painful look in response that says “of course, but we don’t feel the need to mention it in such blatant terms.”

Layoffs are “maximización de recursos humanos” or something of the sort, and the insistent “¿despidos?” (layoffs) will be considered somewhat mean-spirited.

This beating around the bush and shifting of the blame crops up in the most everyday expressions and turns of phrase.

In Spanish, you never lose anything, rather, the object “loses itself” from you. This and similar phrases make use of the reflexive “se” and the thing lost, dropped, or broken becomes the subject, while the loser (dropper, breaker) becomes the object.

Se perdió el dinero. The money got lost (lost itself).

Se me perdió el dinero. I lost the money. Perdí el dinero is quite correct, but not often heard.

Se me perdieron las llaves. I lost the keys (notice the plural form of the verb).

An illustration that this has euphemistic connotations and that the speaker isn’t merely strait-jacketed by the proper use of language presents itself when someone else is to blame.

“Se me rompió tu iPhone.” Your iPhone broke [in my hands?] may well elicit the outburst “¡rompiste mi iPhone!” and not the smoothed-out “se te rompió mi iPhone.”

One verb that will only allow for the reflexive application is “drop.”  He dropped the glass has to be “se le cayó el vaso,” because Spanish has no direct verb for drop, and “dejar caer” or “let fall” is rather clumsy and could suggest that the dropping was deliberate.

The best of all these reflexive dodges refers to tardiness in a country where punctuality is recognized as a British virtue, to be admired but not really something to get worked up about or go to great lengths to copy.

“Sorry I’m late” is merely “se me hizo tarde,” the lateness having crept up on the arriver.

Infinitive verbs

When caricaturing the Anglo-Saxon Spanish accent, it’s also common to use all verbs in the infinitive. This is more comic than accurate. Even though errors of conjugation are frequent, very few foreigners use all verbs in this way. I once heard an American tourist say “puedemos iremos?” for “can we go?”; but even then, he clearly knew that you don’t just apply verbs in their raw state.

Minding the vowel sounds and gender

Some common mistakes made by English speakers are easily corrected. For example, many people pronounce the country’s currency as “PAY-soe” instead of “PEH-soh.” This is probably because some dictionaries and phrasebooks give this as an approximate pronunciation, since the ‘e’ in Spanish is slightly sharper in sound than the short ‘e’ in English. Nevertheless, the ‘e’ in Spanish is much closer to the ‘e’ in “red” than to the ‘a’ in “gate.” Also, the ‘o’ should be pronounced like the ‘o’ in “gone,” not the ‘o’ in “boat.”

Saying “la problema” rather than the correct “el problema” is another, quite easily remedied mistake.

Trilling the R’s

One real difficulty for some people is trilling the ‘r’, as difficult as it is for some native Spanish speakers to pronounce the ‘th’ in English.

Francophone Canadians who pronounce their r’s flat when speaking English, often revert to the guttural French ‘r’ sound when speaking Spanish or pronouncing a Spanish name.

• In Spanish, a single ‘r’ is trilled once, and the double-‘r’ twice;
• The single ‘r’ is also trilled twice at the beginning of a word, or after an l, n, or s — for example, “alrededor” (around), “enredar” (tangle);
• Some native speakers pronounce the letter’s name as a single r —”ere“— while others pronounce it double—”erre.”  Both are acceptable.

Technique for Trilling Spanish R’s

The technique for trilling r’s is to vibrate the tip of your tongue on the back of your front teeth (or the palate around there).  It takes some practice to be able to differentiate between a single trill, and a double trill (without going ape and turning the double-trill into a growl).

Not surprisingly, some Spanish tongue-twisters involve the letter ‘r’.

A well-known nonsense phrase is: “tres tristes tigres tragando trigo en un trigal” — three sad tigers scoffing wheat in a wheat field.

Another is “camarón, caramelo; caramelo camarón” (shrimp, candy; candy, shrimp). The idea is to repeat the phrase several times quickly without saying “caramón” or “camarelo.“

• Hay lugar para tres personas.
  There is room for three people.
• Hay tres personas en el elevador.
  There are three people in the elevator.

Dealing with tenses

Where hay is restricted is in time, applying only to the present tense. To express “there was/were,” “there will be,”  “there would be” or “there has been,” the verb haber has to be conjugated:

• Habrá tiempo para jugar después del trabajo.
  There will be time to play after work;
• Había una vez un príncipe apuesto.
  Once upon a time there was a handsome prince;
• Ha habido mucho tráfico hoy en la ciudad.
  There has been a lot of traffic today in the city;
• and the famous Si hubiera parque no estaría Usted aquí.
  If there were ammunition, you wouldn’t be here (spoken by Gen. Anaya to U.S. Gen. Scott after the heroic defense of Churubusco in the Mexican-American war).

Plurals in conjugations

Where usage varies —and arguments can start if anyone is interested enough— is when the plural is involved in the conjugation:

• There was room for three people, is
  había (or hubo) lugar para tres personas; 
• but, there were three people in the elevator can be expressed in two ways:
  Había (hubo) tres personas en el elevador, or habían (hubieron) tres personas en el elevador.
• There have been two world wars can be,
  ha habido dos guerras mundiales, or han habido dos guerras mundiales.

The question is whether the verb applies directly to the people, or wars (then plural), or to the concept of there being (in which case, singular).

This writer’s preference is for the latter, on the grounds that it is simpler and more elegant —just like the word hay— but so many native speakers and writers use the plural in such instances that it’s difficult to say that one or the other is the correct form.

Use of ‘should’ and ‘ought to’

When the verb haber is used to mean “should,” or “ought to,” then the plural form must be used for plural subjects:

• El doctor habrá de venir mañana.
  The doctor should (or ought to) come tomorrow;
• Han de ser camiones que hacen ese ruido.
  It must be trucks making that noise.

In these cases the verb haber has nothing to do with “there are” or hay, although it may explain why so many people use the plural form when it does, since it is the same verb that is being conjugated.

Lastly, a translation tip

If someone asks a shopkeeper: ¿habrá leche? it doesn’t mean “will there be milk?” but rather, “do you (happen to) have any milk?”

For tortillas, it would have to be either ¿habrá tortillas? or ¿habrán tortillas?

The choice is yours.

The object pronouns —me, te, lo/la/le, nos, os (Spain), los/las/les— are applied much as the English: me, you, him/her, us, and them.

Whether to use “lo” or “la” for “him” and “her” and when “le” depends on whether the person is the direct object (lo, la) or indirect object (le), and also on whether the action (verb) is intransitive (lo, la) or transitive (le). Likewise in the case of “los,” “las,” and “les” for “them.”

• Lo vi ayer — I saw him yesterday;
• La vi ayer — I saw her yesterday;
• Le dije ayer — I told him/her yesterday;
• Les hablé ayer – I called them yesterday.

I invited them for a coffee would be “los invité por un café,” (they are the direct object) although I invited them to a coffee (i.e. I gave them coffee or treated them to coffee) would be “les invité un café” (here coffee is the direct object)

In the case of third persons, when two object pronouns come together, the first one changes to “se.” The pronoun replaced with “se” is that of the indirect object:

• I brought the book — Traje el libro;
• I brought it — Lo traje;
• I gave him the book — Le di el libro;
• I gave it to him — Se lo di.

“Se” replaces “le” referring to the person, and not “lo” referring to the book.

This is usually no problem in the singular. But in the plural it’s common for people —even native speakers— to mix it up.  If, instead of giving the book to one person, you handed it over to a group, it would be expressed as follows:

• I gave them the book — Les di el libro;
• I gave it to them — Se lo di.

Now “se” replaces “les.”

But people will often say “se los di,” making the book plural, but insisting that it refers to the plural recipients.

If you wanted to argue this point, which isn’t recommended unless, like the present writer, you have time on your hands and little else to do, you could suggest that the book be replaced by the letter —la carta— which is feminine and takes the object pronoun “la.”

Would, “I gave them the letter” be “se la di” or “se los di“?

Another way of clarifying would be to substitute “them” for “us.”

Would, “he gave it (the book) to us” be “nos lo dio” or “nos los dio“?

Thus settled, you could add the annoying “te lo dije“—told you so.

¿A dónde hablo? (where am I calling?) comes a sharp, testy voice.

The easiest way to clear up wrong numbers is to say where the person has called, but usually you don’t want to do that. Instead you respond: ¿Quién habla? (Who’s calling?)

A gentler version of this is ¿Con quién quería hablar? (Who did you want to speak to?), but not necessarily in keeping with local telephone etiquette.

The ensuing conversation can become quite a battle of wills —”no, you tell me”— and frequently ends with both parties hanging up and shaking their heads in incredulity at some people’s lack of manners.

The exchanges can also become the subject of those “I said, he said” monologues, including a description of how the “victim” came up with the perfect put-down for the “offender.”

The problem with all this is that it may not be a wrong number. It could be someone you know who didn’t recognize your voice over the phone, and vice-versa—possibly even one of your in-laws.