Return an Item in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to return an item in Spanish in this article and the lessons above! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• use common shopping-related vocabulary

• talk about quantity

• make comparisons

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives and Adverbs

Spanish	English
ancho	wide
apretado	tight
bastante	plenty of
defectuoso	damaged
demasiado	too much, too many
formal	formal
manchado	stained
mucho	lots of, a lot of
poco	little, few
roto	ripped, broken
todo	all (of)

examples
Voy a revisar todas las tallas. I'm going to check out all the sizes.
Tengo poco dinero. I have little money.
Este cinturón es más ancho que aquel. This belt is wider than that one over there.
Tienen bastantes tallas. They have plenty of sizes.

Ser and Estar with Adjectives

Remember that we use:

• Ser with lasting traits

examples
La camisa es demasiado formal. The shirt is too formal.

• Estar with traits that can vary over time

examples
Esta camisa está pasada de moda. This shirt is unfashionable.

Comparing Adjectives

To say that something is more or less than another thing, the following formulas are used:

Formulas for Comparisons of Inequality

More formula: más + adjective/adverb/noun + que

Less formula: menos + adjective/adverb/noun + que

examples
Este cinturón es más ancho que aquel. This belt is wider than that one over there.
Esta camiseta es menos apretada que esa. This shirt is less tight than that one.

If you want to say that something is better or worse than something else, use mejor que or peor que.

examples
Este anorak es mejor que ese. This anorak is better than that one.
Esta prenda es peor que esa. This article of clothing is worse than that one.

Adjective Phrase

Spanish	English
pasado de moda	unfashionable

examples
Esta camisa está pasada de moda. This shirt is unfashionable.

Quantity in Spanish

When we are talking about nonspecific quantities, we can use words like bastante (enough, quite [a lot of], a fair amount of, plenty of, fairly), demasiado (too, too much, too many), mucho (a lot of, [too] much, [too] many), poco (little, not much, few, not many), and todo (all [of], whole, every). Note that these words will vary depending on the number and/or gender of the word they modify.

Masculine Singular	Masculine Plural	Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural
bastante	bastantes	bastante	bastantes
demasiado	demasiados	demasiada	demasiadas
mucho	muchos	mucha	muchas
poco	pocos	poca	pocas
todo	todos	toda	todas

For example:

examples
Tienen bastantes tallas. They have plenty of sizes.
Hay demasiados colores. There are too many colors.
No tiene muchos botones. It doesn't have a lot of buttons.
Tengo poco dinero. I have little money.
Voy a revisar todas las tallas. I'm going to check out all the sizes.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el anorak	anorak
el botón	button
el cuero	leather
la devolución	return
el motivo	reason
la prenda	article of clothing

examples
Esta prenda es peor que esa. This article of clothing is worse than that one.
Quiero un pantalón de cuero. I want leather pants.
¿Puedo hacer una devolución? Can I make a return?

Articles in Place of Nouns

In Spanish, articles can be used to substitute for nouns, much like we use the word one in English.

examples
Quiero la roja. I want the red one.
Quiero uno más pequeño. I want a smaller one.

Noun Phrases

Spanish	English
la caja registradora	cash register
El Corte Inglés	El Corte Inglés
el jefe de ventas	sales manager
la tienda de deportes	sporting goods store
la tienda de mascotas	pet store
la tienda de regalos	gift store
la tienda de ropa	clothing store

examples
Quiero hablar con el jefe de ventas. I want to talk to the sales manager.
Le devuelven el dinero en la caja registradora. They'll return the money at the cash register.
Quiero ir a la tienda de deportes. I want to go to the sporting goods store.

Culture Tip: El Corte Inglés (literally, The English Cut) is a popular department store whose headquarters are located in Madrid, Spain. It can be found in many Spanish and Portuguese cities, as well as online in France, Belgium, the US, and the UK!

Capitalization in Spanish

You might have noticed that the el in El Corte Inglés is capitalized. Why? It’s a proper noun! El Corte Inglés is the name of an institution or business and, thus, we capitalize each word.

You can read more about capitalization in Spanish in this article.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Devolver

Devolver(to return) is a stem-changing verb. That means that its "stem," devo, changes to devue in all forms except for the vos, nosotros/nosotras, and vosotros/vosotras forms.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	devuelvo	I return
tú	devuelves	you return	informal singular you
vos	devolvés	you return	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	devuelve	he, she returns
usted	devuelve	you return	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	devolvemos	we return
vosotros, vosotras	devolvéis	you return	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	devuelven	they return
ustedes	devuelven	you return	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Quedar

Quedaris a regular -ar verb that means to fit.

Conjugation	Translation	Notes
me queda	it fits me
te queda	it fits you	informal singular you
te queda	it fits you	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
le queda	it fits him/her
le queda	it fits you	formal singular you
nos queda	it fits us
os queda	it fits you	informal plural you (in Spain)
les queda	it fits them
les queda	it fits you	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

If you are talking about more than one piece of clothing—or a piece of clothing treated as a plural (e.g., pantalones)—you’d say quedan.

Haber

In this skill, you also reviewed the verb haber. Haber is commonly used as an impersonal verb to state what exists.

In the present tense we use one form of the verb: hay. Note that the verb does not change in the present tense when talking about singular vs plural objects - you always use hay!

examples
Hay una tienda. There's a store.
Hay demasiados colores. There are too many colors.

Verbs in the Informal Future

To form the informal future in Spanish, we use the following formula:

ir a + infintive verb

For example:

examples
¿Vas a ir a la tienda de mascotas? Are you going to go to the pet store?

Phrases

Here are some of the phrases used in these lessons!

Spanish	English
Quiero hablar con el jefe de ventas.	I want to talk to the sales manager.
Tengo que devolver una camisa.	I have to return a shirt.

Quiz Yourself!

Want more practice with the vocabulary you learned in these lessons? Click here!

Spanish Conversation

Fantastic! Let's put the grammar and vocab from above to the test in the following example of a conversation in Spanish.

Carmen:

Teodoro, ¿vas a la tienda de ropa? Tengo que devolver una camisa.

Teodoro, are you going to go to the clothing store? I have to return a shirt.

Teodoro:

Sí, pero también quiero ir a la tienda de deportes.

Yes, but I also want to go to the sporting goods store.

Carmen:

Voy a ir a El Corte Inglés. Quiero hablar con el jefe de ventas.

I’m going to go to El Corte Inglés. I want to talk to the sales manager.

Teodoro:

¿Por qué motivo?

For what reason?

Carmen:

Esta camisa está pasada de moda, y quiero una más pequeña.

This shirt is unfashionable, and I want a smaller one.

Teodoro:

Te devuelven el dinero en la caja registradora, Carmen.

They'll return the money at the cash register, Carmen.

Want to learn more about how to return an item in Spanish? Check out the following articles!

• Clothing Vocabulary in Spanish

• Get Dressed in Spanish

• Shopping in Spanish