i don't eat that, allergies and no thanks
module: food and ordering
okay. fifteen lessons in. you can order the thing, say here or to go, ask for one more thing. now we're doing the lesson that actually matters most if you or anybody you love has a real allergy. this one's not extra credit. this is the one where wrong word, wrong second causes actual harm.
let's get into it.
why this lesson exists
most beginner classes teach food words and call it done. lists of fruit, lists of meat, muy bien, move on.
but here's the thing. you don't just need to order food. sometimes you need to refuse it, or explain why, and have the person behind the counter actually understand you're not being picky. there's a real difference between "no me gusta" (i don't like it) and "soy alérgico" (i'm allergic). one's a preference. one's a medical thing. mixing those up is how somebody ends up with peanuts in something they can't have peanuts in.
so we're going to be precise here. not perfect-accent precise. precise about the words that matter.
the core phrases
say these out loud right now, wherever you're reading this. yes, actually say them.
- no como ___ — i don't eat ___. this is your general no-thanks. no como carne. no come gluten.
- soy alérgico (if you're a guy) / soy alérgica (if you're a woman) — i'm allergic. this is the one that should make a server's face change a little. if it doesn't, that's on them, but you say it clear either way.
- soy alérgico a ___ — i'm allergic to ___. fill in the blank. a los cacahuates (peanuts), a los mariscos (shellfish), a la leche (milk), al gluten.
- ¿tiene ___? — does it have ___? ¿tiene nueces? does it have nuts?
- sin ___, por favor — without ___, please. sin queso. sin cebolla. this is your go-to for "just leave that off."
that's five phrases. that's the whole lesson, structurally. everything else is you saying these out loud enough times that they stop feeling like a foreign object in your mouth.
right word, right second
i've told this story to almost every class i've had, so some of you have heard it, but it's the one that explains why i teach this stuff the way i do.
years back on a jobsite, i had an apprentice reach for a line that was hot. i didn't have time to think through a sentence. i just yelled "cuidado" — careful. one word. he froze, hand an inch away, and that was that.
i wasn't fluent. i barely had ten words at that point. but i had the right word for that exact second, and it worked.
allergies are the same kind of thing. you don't need to explain your whole medical history to a server in flowing spanish. you need "soy alérgica a los cacahuates" to come out clean and fast when it matters, because somebody's about to hand you a plate. that's it. that's the whole point of drilling five phrases instead of memorizing two hundred food words you'll never use under pressure.
which, honestly, is my whole opinion about vocab lists in general. you can know two hundred words for fruit and still stand there useless when someone hands you a dish with something in it you can't eat. learn the ten phrases you'll actually need, in the moment you'll actually need them, and say those same ten phrases until they're automatic. that's better than breadth. every time.
practical steps, at home
- write your own allergy sentence. if you or somebody in your house has a real one, write "soy alérgico/a a ___" with the actual thing filled in. tape it in your wallet or your phone notes. don't wing it in the moment. have it ready before you need it.
- practice the question, not just the statement. "¿tiene nueces?" is the one people forget to drill. you're not just announcing your allergy, you're asking a question and needing to understand the answer — sí or no — fast. practice both directions.
- pair it with pointing. if a word's not coming to you at the counter, point at the menu item and say "¿esto tiene ___?" — does this have ___? pointing is not cheating. it's efficient.
- say it to somebody who'll correct you. i lean on my coworker javier for this kind of thing constantly. he's caught me saying something wrong more than once — one time it was downright embarrassing, a whole different lesson's worth of story — but the point stands: get a real person to check your allergy phrase before you need it for real. an app can't tell you if you sound clear. a person can.
a real caution here, not a lawyer one
if this is a real allergy — the kind that closes a throat, not the kind that's a preference — don't rely on your spanish alone in a new situation, especially early on. point at the phrase, show your phone, ask them to write down the ingredients if you're not sure you understood the answer. being wrong out loud is how you learn a language. it is not how you want to find out there were shrimp in the sauce. know the difference between practicing and betting your health on it.
before next time
practice your own allergy sentence, or write one for somebody in your house if this one doesn't apply to you directly. say it out loud ten times before we meet again. ✨