Why You're Probably Saying 'Again' Wrong in Spanish: the Native Habit Most Beginners Miss

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One of the most frequent situations where beginners stumble is asking someone to repeat themselves. When you miss a word in a noisy café, your instinctive reaction might be to say ¿Puedes decir eso otra vez? (Can you say that again?).

While grammatically correct, this phrasing is needlessly wordy. In real conversations, native speakers rarely translate "say it again" literally. Instead, they switch to dedicated verbs like repetir or rely on quick conversational repairs.

If you want to use a full sentence, master the repetir conjugation in the polite imperative or conditional:

• ¿Me lo repites, por favor? (Can you repeat that for me?, informal and common).
• ¿Podría repetirlo? (Could you repeat that?, formal).
• Repítemelo más despacio. (Repeat that to me more slowly).

In real-world street interactions, speakers lean on even shorter, idiomatic prompts. In Spain, a quick ¿Cómo? or ¿Qué dices? suffices. In Mexico, the ubiquitous ¿Mande? remains standard polite etiquette when you miss what someone said. In Argentina, ¿Cómo dijiste? keeps the exchange rolling without missing a beat.

Save otra vez in conversational repair for when you genuinely want to stress frustration: ¿Otra vez? No te escuché nada. (Again? I didn't hear a word). Using it for every casual clarification makes you sound perpetually surprised.