¿me lo puedes deletrear?
To say "can you spell that for me?" in Spanish, use ¿me lo puedes deletrear?
This phrase is a request for someone to provide the letters of a word one by one. In the phrase ¿me lo puedes deletrear?, the pronoun lo refers to the word or object being spelled. If the object you are asking about is feminine, you should use la instead.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of me (to me), lo (it), puedes (you can) and deletrear (to spell).
Which one should you use?
While ¿me lo puedes deletrear? and ¿Puedes deletrear eso para mí? are ways to ask someone to spell something for you, if you want to ask how a specific word is spelled in general rather than asking a person to spell a specific word for you, use ¿Cómo se deletrea?
How does it change in a sentence?
The default form ¿me lo puedes deletrear? uses the tú conjugation, which is used with friends, family or people your own age. To make the request formal, you change puedes to puede, resulting in ¿me lo puede deletrear?
Did you know?
- In many Spanish-speaking countries, people do not use the alphabet to spell words over the phone. Instead, they use a phonetic system where letters are paired with common words like A de avión or B de bueno.
- Because the Spanish alphabet traditionally included ch and ll as distinct letters, older speakers might treat these as single units when responding to ¿me lo puedes deletrear?, while younger speakers treat them as two letters.
- While English uses 'spell' to mean both naming letters and a magic charm, the Spanish deletrear is strictly related to 'letra' and carries no magical connotations.
Examples in context
- ¿Puedes deletrear 'libro' para mí?Can you spell 'libro' for me?
- No entiendo el nombre, ¿me lo puedes deletrear?I don't understand the name, can you spell it for me?
- Si es un apellido difícil, ¿me lo puedes deletrear?If it is a difficult last name, can you spell it for me?
Example conversation
Lucía is taking Daniel's email address over the phone.
- LucíaTu correo es muy largo. ¿Me lo puedes deletrear?Your email is very long. Can you spell it for me?
- DanielSí, claro. Es d-a-n-i-e-l.Yes, of course. It is d-a-n-i-e-l.
- LucíaGracias, Daniel. Ya lo tengo.Thank you, Daniel. I have it now.
- DanielDe nada, Lucía.You're welcome, Lucía.
