Food and drink in Spanish

186 words on the topic

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  el café

  coffee

  Both the drink and the place that serves it. El is the masculine article — it also tells you the gender
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  el té

  tea

  El té with the accent is tea; te without it is 'you' as an object. The third pair after sí/si and tú/tu
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  el agua

  water

  The word is feminine, but it takes the article el — simply easier to say before the stressed a
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  el pan

  bread

  The root of panadería, 'bakery' — the sign everyone hunts for each morning
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  el queso

  cheese

  The qu is a plain k with a silent u: KEH-soh. The root of quesadilla, the cheese-filled flatbread
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  la carne

  meat

  Meat of any kind. The kinds are built by description: carne de vacuno is beef, carne de cerdo is pork
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  el pescado

  fish

  The fish on your plate is el pescado, literally 'the caught one'; the fish in the water is el pez. Two words where English has one
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  la fruta

  fruit

  A collective, so grammatically singular: me gusta la fruta — 'I like fruit'. A single piece is una fruta
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  la manzana

  apple

  The same word means a city block: vive a dos manzanas — 'he lives two blocks away'
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  la naranja

  orange

  Both the fruit and the color: una camiseta naranja — an orange T-shirt. As a color it never changes for gender
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  el tomate

  tomato

  Masculine despite the -e ending: el tomate. The word came to Europe from Nahuatl by way of Spanish
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  la ensalada

  salad

  There's sal — salt — inside it: the 'salted' one. In Spain it means vegetables with oil and vinegar, not the mayonnaise kind
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  la sopa

  soup

  Estar hecho una sopa means 'soaked to the skin'. A plate of it is un plato de sopa
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  la sal

  salt

  Feminine even though it ends in a consonant. The same spelling is a command form of salir: ¡sal de aquí! — 'get out of here!'
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  rico

  tasty

  Its second meaning is 'rich': un hombre rico. With food it goes through estar: está rico — tasty right now
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  comer

  to eat

  In Spain comer also means to have lunch on its own: comemos a las dos? — shall we have lunch at two?
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  beber

  to drink

  Drinking in the plain sense. Tomar is broader and politer: tomamos algo? — shall we get something?
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  el desayuno

  breakfast

  From ayuno, a fast: breakfast is what breaks the fast. The verb desayunar is to have breakfast
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  la comida

  lunch

  In Spain la comida is the midday meal, the main one, around two or three. In Latin America lunch is el almuerzo and comida is just food
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  la cena

  dinner

  Dinner, Spanish-style late: often after nine. The verb cenar is to have dinner
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  masticar

  to chew

  To chew. Masticar bien — chew well; chewing gum is not from this verb, it's el chicle
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  tragar

  to swallow

  To swallow. At the doctor's it starts here: me cuesta tragar — it hurts to swallow. Figuratively: to put up with something unpleasant
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  el apetito

  appetite

  Appetite: no tengo apetito. At the table you wish somebody buen provecho!, not buen apetito
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  el trozo

  piece

  A piece of anything: un trozo de pan. A synonym is el pedazo, and a slice of bread is la rebanada
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  el olor

  smell

  Any smell, good or bad. A nice one gets el aroma, a foul one la peste. The verb oler: huele a café — it smells of coffee
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  el aceite

  oil

  Vegetable oil, and in Spain that means olive by default. Butter is a different thing: la mantequilla
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  la patata

  potato

  Spain says la patata, Latin America la papa. Patatas fritas covers both fries and chips
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  la harina

  flour

  The h is silent: ah-REE-nah. A relative, el harnero, is a sieve
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  la miel

  honey

  Feminine even though it ends in a consonant: la miel
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  las nueces

  walnuts

  One of them is la nuez. A mix of nuts and dried fruit in the shop is frutos secos
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  la cebolla

  onion

  the ll is the y of 'yes': seh-BOH-yah
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  la zanahoria

  carrot

  A word of Arabic root — hence the unusual z at the start
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  el pimiento

  sweet pepper

  The vegetable is el pimiento; ground pepper in the mill is la pimienta. The gender is the only difference
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  las judías

  beans

  Spain says judías or alubias, Latin America los frijoles
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  las especias

  spices

  Usually in the plural. Do not confuse with especial, special
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  cocinar

  to cook

  From la cocina, kitchen. Preparar la cena also means to cook, but about a specific meal
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  lavar

  to wash

  Washing vegetables and washing laundry alike. Washing dishes in Spain is fregar
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  el cuchillo

  knife

  the ll sounds like y in 'yes': koo-CHEE-yo
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  hervir

  to boil

  To boil in water and to be boiling. In the present the e turns to ie: hierve
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  freír

  to fry

  Frying in oil. The participle is irregular: frito, fried
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  hornear

  to bake

  From el horno, oven. In speech people more often say hacer al horno
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  cortar

  to cut

  To cut, to trim hair, and to cut off service: han cortado el agua — the water is off
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  la olla

  pot

  OH-yah
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  la sartén

  frying pan

  Feminine in Spain despite the final -n: una sartén grande
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  los fogones

  stove

  The burners of the kitchen stove, usually plural. The whole cooker is la cocina — the same word as the kitchen
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  el plato

  plate

  A plate. Deep is plato hondo, flat is plato llano
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  la taza

  cup

  A cup with a handle, for coffee and tea
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  el vaso

  glass

  A glass for water. A stemmed glass is la copa. A vase is something else entirely: el jarrón
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  la cuchara

  spoon

  The table spoon. The small one is la cucharilla
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  el tenedor

  fork

  Masculine. Restaurant stars in Spain were once counted in forks
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  la botella

  bottle

  boh-TEH-yah
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  la servilleta

  napkin

  Paper or cloth alike. A relative of servir, to serve at table
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  la tetera

  teapot

  The teapot for brewing. The electric kettle for boiling water is el hervidor
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  la bandeja

  tray

  A tray in the bar and an oven tray
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  caliente

  hot

  One form for both genders: la sopa caliente. The weather is not caliente — that is hace calor
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  frío

  cold

  The adjective takes the accent: la sopa fría. The same word as a noun, el frío, is the cold
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  hambriento

  hungry

  A bookish adjective; in real life people say tengo hambre — 'I have hunger'
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  el sabor

  taste

  The taste of food. Taste as in good taste is el gusto
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  salado

  salted

  From la sal, salt. About a person, salado means witty
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  ácido

  sour

  Sour to the taste. Milk that has gone off is agrio
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  amargo

  bitter

  Bitter coffee and a bitter truth alike
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  picante

  hot (spicy)

  Hot on the tongue, from picar, to sting. A sharp knife is afilado
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  lleno

  full (after eating)

  Literally 'full': estoy lleno — I have had enough. The same word about a full glass
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  probar

  to try

  To try food and to try doing something. With -se it becomes trying on clothes
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  el menú

  menu

  Careful: el menú in Spain is usually the set lunch; the full list of dishes is la carta
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  el camarero

  waiter

  Spain says camarero, Latin America el mesero. You get attention with ¡oiga! or perdone
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  el pedido

  order

  An order in a restaurant and online alike. From pedir, to ask for
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  pedir

  to order

  Both 'to ask for' and 'to order'. In the present the e turns to i: yo pido
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  el plato principal

  main course

  El plato alone is both the plate and the dish; menus split el primer plato and el plato principal
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  la ración

  portion

  In a Spanish bar una ración is a big plate to share; half of it is media ración
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  una mesa para dos

  table for two

  Always with the indefinite article: you are asking for any free table
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  el postre

  dessert

  Masculine. De postre — for dessert
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  sin carne

  without meat

  After sin no article appears. A vegetarian is vegetariano
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  la tarta

  cake

  A round cake, often with cream. A savory filled pastry is la empanada, a plain dry sponge is el bizcocho
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  la pasta

  pasta

  A collective, in the singular: he hecho pasta. Specific kinds are los macarrones, los espaguetis. In speech la pasta also means money: no tengo pasta
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  el yogur

  yogurt

  No final t, unlike English. The plural is los yogures. Natural means no additives; desnatado — fat-free
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  la nata

  cream

  The Spanish word: in Latin America the same cream is la crema. Nata montada — whipped cream; nata para cocinar — cooking cream. The skin on boiled milk is also la nata
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  el helado

  ice cream

  From helar, to freeze. As an adjective the same word means icy: estoy helado — I am freezing. Una bola de helado — a scoop of ice cream
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  el chocolate

  chocolate

  A square of a bar is una onza. El chocolate a la taza is thick hot chocolate, drunk in Spain with churros — a dish of its own, not a drink from a sachet
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  las galletas

  cookies

  Where English uses one mass noun, Spanish counts: una galleta — one cookie, un paquete de galletas — a pack of cookies
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  la ternera

  beef

  In a Spanish butcher shop beef is split by age: la ternera is young meat, la vaca and el buey are adult. Un filete de ternera — a steak; la ternera picada — minced beef
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  el cordero

  lamb

  The lamb and its meat — one word. El cordero asado, roast lamb, is Castile's great festive dish. The meat of an adult sheep gets another name, la oveja, and in the shop it is a rarity
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  las gambas

  prawns

  The Spanish word: in Latin America — los camarones. Gambas al ajillo — shrimp in garlic oil, a tapas classic. The big ones are los langostinos
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  las uvas

  grapes

  Countable in Spanish: una uva — one grape. Under the New Year chimes on December 31 Spaniards eat exactly twelve of them, one per stroke
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  el pepino

  cucumber

  Eaten fresh in Spain, rarely pickled. Me importa un pepino — 'it matters to me a cucumber' — is how Spaniards say they couldn't care less
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  el repollo

  cabbage

  The headed kind, often called la col. The family branches out: la coliflor is cauliflower, las coles de Bruselas are Brussels sprouts, la lombarda the red one
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  el ajo

  garlic

  Un diente de ajo is a clove — literally a tooth of garlic — and una cabeza is the whole head. Al ajillo on a menu means cooked in garlicky oil
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  la calabaza

  pumpkin

  Crema de calabaza is pumpkin soup. Dar calabazas a alguien — to hand someone pumpkins — is the old-fashioned way to turn a suitor down
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  la berenjena

  eggplant

  the j is a throaty h: beh-ren-HEH-nah
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  el limón

  lemon

  In the plural, los limones, the accent mark disappears: the stress lands where it should without it. La lima is the lime — don't mix the two up
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  la sandía

  watermelon

  stress on the last syllable: sahn-DEE-ah
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  las fresas

  strawberries

  Countable: una fresa is a single berry. The big garden kind gets an augmentative, el fresón, and fresas con nata — strawberries and cream — is the classic dessert
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  la pera

  pear

  Ser la pera is slang for something remarkable — praise or a jab, depending on the tone. Pedir peras al olmo, to ask an elm for pears, is to demand the impossible
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  el melocotón

  peach

  Spain's own word; Latin America says el durazno. Melocotón en almíbar is canned in syrup, and el nectarino is the nectarine
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  la receta

  recipe

  One word covers the kitchen and the doctor's pad: una receta médica is a prescription. Context does the sorting. A cookbook is el recetario
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  pelar las verduras

  to peel the vegetables

  From la piel, skin: pelar means to take the skin off, not to wash. Washing produce or cleaning a fish is limpiar. A peeler is el pelador
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  poner a hervir

  to bring to a boil

  The course already has hervir, to boil; adding poner a makes it 'put on to boil'. El agua hierve — the water is boiling; pon a hervir el agua — get it heating
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  remover

  to stir

  A false friend of the English remove: here it means to stir with a spoon. The stem vowel shifts: remuevo, remueves. Mezclar is to mix different things together
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  salar

  to salt

  In the kitchen people more often say echar sal — to throw some salt in. Está soso is under-salted, está salado over-salted; you will hear both at every table
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  calentar

  to heat up

  The stem e turns to ie: caliento, calientas. Calentar en el microondas is to heat something in the microwave; the adjective caliente is hot
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  enfriar

  to cool down

  Most often in the pair dejar enfriar — let it cool. With -se it cools on its own: deja que se enfríe. Built on frío, cold
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  batir los huevos

  to beat the eggs

  Batir means to beat and to whisk — the blender, la batidora, is named after it. Huevos batidos, beaten eggs, is what a tortilla starts from
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  añadir agua

  to add water

  the ñ is ny as in canyon: ah-NYAH-deer
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  hacer a la plancha

  to grill

  La plancha is a flat iron griddle — the same word as a clothes iron. A la parrilla is over the coals on a rack; the English 'grilled' covers both. Fried is frito
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  la fecha de caducidad

  expiration date

  The verb caducar means to lapse or run out, said of passports and contracts too. Next to it on packages stands consumo preferente, a softer 'best before'
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  estropearse

  went bad

  Serves food and appliances equally: se ha estropeado la leche, se ha estropeado la lavadora. About food people also say está en mal estado or se ha puesto malo
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  el bote

  jar

  Spanish splits the container by material: el bote has a lid and may be glass or plastic, el tarro is wide-mouthed glass, la lata is tin. The same bote is also a boat and a jump
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  el paquete

  packet

  The course already knows paquete as a parcel. In the shop it is a packet: un paquete de galletas, un paquete de arroz. Context tells them apart
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  otra ración

  second helping

  Spanish has no single word for it. At the table you ask with a verb: ¿quieres repetir? — do you want seconds? La ración is a portion, and in a bar a big plate to share
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  para llevar

  to take away

  The question every coffee bar asks: ¿para tomar aquí o para llevar? — for here or to take away? Literally 'in order to carry'
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  sin azúcar

  sugar-free

  Azúcar takes both el and la — the norm allows either. The same labels line the shelf: sin cafeína and descafeinado for decaf, sin gluten for gluten-free
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  soy vegetariano

  I'm a vegetarian

  A woman says soy vegetariana. Vegano is the stricter vegan, no animal products at all. The simplest thing to tell the bar: no como carne — I don't eat meat
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  soy alérgico a los frutos secos

  I'm allergic to nuts

  Los frutos secos is one shelf for nuts and dried fruit; walnuts on their own are las nueces. The allergy always hooks onto a: alérgico a algo
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  ¡que aproveche!

  enjoy your meal

  The phrase Spain uses; buen provecho sounds Latin American. The reply is gracias, igualmente — thanks, same to you. Waiters say it as they set the plate down
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  la comida grasienta

  fatty food

  La grasa is fat; grasiento — fatty to the touch and the eye. Also said as la comida grasa
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  el caramelo

  candy

  A hard candy and caramel in one. A chocolate bonbon is el bombón; de caramelo — caramel-flavored
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  el plato típico

  traditional dish

  Literally 'a typical dish' — that's exactly how people talk about local food. Nacional sounds official, for the national team and national holidays
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  la comida callejera

  street food

  ll is a y sound: ka-mee-da ka-ye-HE-ra
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  recién hecho

  freshly baked

  Literally 'just made'. Fresco works for bread too, but recién hecho nails it
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  duro (pan)

  stale

  The same duro as hard — Spanish has no word of its own for gone-stale bread
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  la carne de cerdo

  pork

  El cerdo is first of all the living pig; to avoid confusion at the butcher's you ask for carne de cerdo
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  el pollo

  chicken (meat)

  The meat and the bird at the shop. A live hen in the yard is la gallina, and the two don't swap
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  el pato

  duck (meat)

  The same word as the bird on the pond: Spanish doesn't split the meat from the animal. To be clear you can say carne de pato
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  la carne picada

  ground meat

  Literally 'chopped meat'. In Mexico and Argentina the same thing is la carne molida
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  el jamón

  ham

  In Spain el jamón with no qualifier means dry-cured leg; the cooked, sliced deli kind is el jamón de York
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  la salchicha

  sausage

  The boiled frankfurter from the counter. The cured stick is el salchichón, and the smoked paprika one is el chorizo
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  el atún

  tuna

  Both the fish in the sea and the can on the shelf: atún en lata. Stress on the last syllable
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  el salmón

  salmon

  Smoked is salmón ahumado. The color is also salmón — what English calls salmon pink
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  la gamba

  shrimp

  In Spain it's la gamba, in Latin America el camarón. The big king-size one is el langostino
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  los mariscos

  seafood

  Always plural, and fish is not included: that's el pescado, a separate section of the menu
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  la ciruela

  plum

  A prune is la ciruela pasa — literally a plum dried in the sun
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  la frambuesa

  raspberry

  Price tags often file it not under its own name but in the shared basket of frutos rojos — red berries
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  el melón

  melon

  A false friend for English eyes: watermelon is not melón but la sandía. Melon with ham is the classic Spanish appetizer
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  la granada

  pomegranate

  The same word as the city Granada and a hand grenade; only context tells them apart
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  la piña

  pineapple

  Literally 'pinecone': a pinecone is also la piña. In Argentina the pineapple is el ananá
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  la mandarina

  mandarin

  The fruit is feminine. The language and the official are el mandarín, stressed on the end
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  el kiwi

  kiwi (fruit)

  Said kee-WEE, with a w glide in the middle. The same word names the bird and the New Zealander
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  el aguacate

  avocado

  A Nahuatl word. Spain and Mexico say el aguacate; Chile and Peru say la palta
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  las pasas

  raisins

  Always plural. Pasa means 'dried': hence also ciruela pasa, a prune
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  el higo

  fig

  Fresh is el higo, dried is el higo seco. The tree has a name of its own: la higuera
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  el pimiento

  bell pepper

  The vegetable you slice into a salad. Ground black pepper is another word and another gender: la pimienta
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  el calabacín

  zucchini

  A diminutive of the pumpkin, la calabaza. In Mexico the same vegetable is la calabacita
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  la remolacha

  beet

  In Spain it's sold pre-boiled, vacuum-packed. In Mexico the same vegetable is el betabel
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  el rábano

  radish

  Stress on the first syllable. Me importa un rábano — 'I couldn't care less'
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  las hierbas frescas

  fresh herbs

  Spanish counts the herbs by name — parsley, dill, cilantro — and keeps the general label plural
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  el eneldo

  dill

  Rare in Spanish cooking: look for it among the spices, not at the fresh herb counter
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  el perejil

  parsley

  In recipes it goes without an article: con perejil. Cilantro is el cilantro, and mixing the two up stings
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  el jengibre

  ginger

  Both g's are the soft 'h' sound: hen-HEE-breh. Ginger cookies are galletas de jengibre
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  el maíz

  corn

  Spelled with an accent on the i and said in two syllables. An ear of corn is la mazorca, el elote in Mexico
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  las espinacas

  spinach

  Spanish keeps spinach plural: las espinacas están buenas, not está buena
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  el bollo

  bun

  A soft, slightly sweet roll to go with coffee. The plain bread roll at lunch is el panecillo
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  el pastel

  pie

  In Spain el pastel is a pie and the birthday cake with candles is la tarta. In Mexico it's the other way round: el pastel is the cake
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  el pastelito

  pastry

  A diminutive of pastel — the single-serving sweets you pick up one by one at the shop; they're also called los dulces
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  la rosquilla

  doughnut

  The homemade kind, fried in a ring. The factory-glazed one is el dónut, la dona in Mexico
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  la bollería

  pastries

  A collective: buns, croissants, and puff-pastries all at once. It labels the aisle in the supermarket
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  la mermelada

  jam

  Spanish draws no line between jam and preserves. The orange kind is la mermelada de naranja
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  el sirope

  syrup

  The syrup for pancakes and coffee. The medicinal kind is another word: el jarabe
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  las palomitas

  popcorn

  Literally 'little doves', in full palomitas de maíz. In Argentina they say los pochoclos
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  las patatas fritas de bolsa

  potato chips

  Without de bolsa the same words mean french fries. In Latin America it's las papas fritas
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  el chicle

  chewing gum

  From the Nahuatl chictli, 'sap'. To chew gum is mascar chicle
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  la limonada

  lemonade

  Homemade water with lemon and sugar. The sweet bottled soda is el refresco
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  el agua mineral

  mineral water

  Agua is feminine, but the article is masculine el — a shield against the stressed a. The adjective stays feminine all the same: fría
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  el agua con gas

  sparkling water

  At the bar they ask it short: ¿con gas o sin gas? — and a two-word answer is enough
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  el cóctel

  cocktail

  Stress on the first syllable; the plural is los cócteles. A milkshake is el batido
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  el cacao

  cocoa

  The powder and the drink made from it. The thick hot chocolate in a cup is el chocolate caliente — something else
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  el café soluble

  instant coffee

  Spain says soluble; Latin America says instantáneo. Around the house people often just say Nescafé
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  la bolsita de té

  tea bag

  La bolsita is a diminutive of la bolsa, 'bag'. Loose-leaf tea is el té a granel
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  el agua hirviendo

  boiling water

  Literally 'boiling water'. Cooled, once-boiled water is agua hervida — and that's no longer on the boil
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  el alcohol

  alcohol

  The h in the middle is silent: al-co-OL. The same word covers the spirit in the medicine cabinet
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  la bebida

  drink

  From the verb beber, 'to drink'. On menus the section is headed exactly that: Bebidas
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  el zumo

  juice

  In Spain the z is a soft th as in think; in Latin America a plain s: SOO-moh
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  el vino

  wine

  Spelled exactly like vino, 'he came', from venir — only the sense of the sentence tells the two apart
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  tapa

  tapa

  The word means 'lid': legend has it a slice of bread covered the glass to keep flies out
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  pincho

  skewer snack

  From pinchar, 'to skewer'. In Basque they're pintxo, spelled with tx
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  caña

  small draft beer

  Bigger sizes are doble or jarra; in Madrid the tiniest one is simply corto
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  vermut

  vermouth

  On tap from the barrel it's vermut de grifo, prized above the bottled kind
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  menú del día

  set lunch menu

  Asked in one word: ¿tienen menú? — and that means precisely the lunch of the day
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  tortilla de patatas

  potato omelette

  The Mexican tortilla is a different thing altogether: over there it's a corn flatbread
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  gazpacho

  cold tomato soup

  The thick Cordoba cousin is salmorejo, served topped with egg and ham
• ▶
  jamón ibérico

  Iberian ham

  The carver is a cortador and trains for years: machine slicing wrecks the flavor
• ▶
  churros

  fried dough sticks

  The thick ones are porras; the chocolate served with them should be thick enough to stand a spoon in
• ▶
  sidra

  cider

  The pourer is an escanciador, and the pouring itself is escanciar
• ▶
  turrón

  nougat

  A strict split: duro is with whole nuts, blando is ground
• ▶
  roscón de Reyes

  Three Kings cake

  In Spain the gift-bringers are the Magi on January 6, not Santa on the 1st
• ▶
  cava

  sparkling wine

  Cava means cellar: the name comes from where it is aged, chosen to avoid quarrels over words
• ▶
  horchata

  tiger nut drink

  The Mexican horchata is made from rice — same name, different raw material

How it sounds in a sentence

A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.

• Un café, por favor

  One coffee, please
• Un té con limón, por favor

  A tea with lemon, please
• ¿Me pone un vaso de agua?

  Could I have a glass of water?
• Compro pan todas las mañanas

  I buy bread every morning
• El queso manchego es de oveja

  Manchego cheese is made from sheep's milk
• No como carne, soy vegetariana

  I don't eat meat, I'm vegetarian

What is worth knowing about these words

el café — coffee. Both the drink and the place that serves it. El is the masculine article — it also tells you the gender

el té — tea. El té with the accent is tea; te without it is 'you' as an object. The third pair after sí/si and tú/tu

el agua — water. The word is feminine, but it takes the article el — simply easier to say before the stressed a

el pan — bread. The root of panadería, 'bakery' — the sign everyone hunts for each morning

Test yourself

First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.

Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.

A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.

• Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many times
  Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
• This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many times
  Mawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.

Next

• All topics of the Spanish language4061 words by topic and letter
• Greetings and goodbyes10 words
• Numbers and counting57 words
• At a café and a restaurant9 words
• Shopping and money99 words
• Asking the way18 words