la cuenta, por favor
“la cuenta, por favor” — the check, please in Spanish. Phrase, level A1, topic — at a café and a restaurant. In Spain nobody brings the bill unasked: you may hold the table for an hour after your coffee. In a live sentence: “Perdone, la cuenta, por favor” — Excuse me, the check, please. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 9 words in the set “at a café and a restaurant” in the Spanish course.
In short
| Written in Spanish | la cuenta, por favor |
| Translation | the check, please |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
- la cuenta, por favorthe check, please
Why it looks that way
In Spain nobody brings the bill unasked: you may hold the table for an hour after your coffee
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Perdone, la cuenta, por favorExcuse me, the check, please
Nearby words: at a café and a restaurant
Order, ask the price, ask for the bill. A short and entirely predictable conversation — a convenient place to test yourself for the first time.
- el cafécoffeeBoth the drink and the place that serves it. El is the masculine article — it also tells you the gender
- el téteaEl té with the accent is tea; te without it is 'you' as an object. The third pair after sí/si and tú/tu
- la ensaladasaladThere's sal — salt — inside it: the 'salted' one. In Spain it means vegetables with oil and vinegar, not the mayonnaise kind
- la sopasoupEstar hecho una sopa means 'soaked to the skin'. A plate of it is un plato de sopa
- quieroI wantFrom querer, which also means 'to love': te quiero is 'I love you', not 'I want you'
- el restauranterestaurantMasculine. In Spain people more often head to el bar — morning coffee, lunch, and an evening beer all happen there
- la cafeteríacafeStress on the í: kah-feh-teh-REE-ah
- el barbarIn Spain not a night spot but the everyday corner café: coffee in the morning, the set lunch at midday
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “at a café and a restaurant”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “the check, please” in Spanish?
In Spain nobody brings the bill unasked: you may hold the table for an hour after your coffee
- How do you say “cafe” in Spanish?
A place you walk into; the familiar el café is the drink in the cup. In Latin America la cafetería is often a canteen at an office or university
- How do you say “I want” in Spanish?
From querer, which also means 'to love': te quiero is 'I love you', not 'I want you'
- How do you say “salad” in Spanish?
There's sal — salt — inside it: the 'salted' one. In Spain it means vegetables with oil and vinegar, not the mayonnaise kind
- How do you say “coffee” in Spanish?
Both the drink and the place that serves it. El is the masculine article — it also tells you the gender
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “the check, please” in Spanish?
«la cuenta, por favor». In a live sentence: “Perdone, la cuenta, por favor” — Excuse me, the check, please. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1, from the set “at a café and a restaurant”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
In Spain nobody brings the bill unasked: you may hold the table for an hour after your coffee. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.