Administrative, healthcare, and school language
Helps you communicate safely when a misunderstanding has real consequences.
A lens for moments when misunderstanding costs money, rights or health: the right to an interpreter, finding language help, decoding official letters, formal writing, and glossaries for medical, legal and contract…
- topics
- 6
- articles
- 49
- of reading
- 5.7 hours
Begin with
Interpreters and getting language help
You will know which interpreter rights actually exist in Spain, what to expect from offices and hospitals, and how to get reliable language help without relying on a child or a free machine translation.
Where you have a right to an interpreter in Spain · Do Spanish offices have to deal with you in English? · Getting an interpreter in Spanish public healthcare
More in administrative, healthcare, and school language
5 more topics in this section, about 5.7 hours of reading in all.
Reading official letters and notices
You will be able to triage any official letter or electronic notice, read the deadline correctly and recognise the common letters from the tax agency, immigration, traffic, Social Security and town halls.
What to do first when you get an official letter in Spanish · Electronic notifications (notificaciones electrónicas) you may be missing · Making sense of Spanish government websites (sede electrónica)
Writing to authorities and filling forms
You will be able to answer an official letter, complete a Spanish form without trivial errors and leave every office or call with written proof.
How to write a formal reply to an official letter · Filling in a general request form (instancia general) · Names, surnames, dates and addresses on Spanish forms
Signing contracts and documents in Spanish
You will know the clauses and terms that cost money or lock you in, what happens at a notary with limited Spanish, and what common Spanish document names mean before you sign.
Reading a Spanish contract before you sign it · Signing at a notary (notaría) with limited Spanish · Reading your employment contract (contrato) and payslip (nómina)
Medical Spanish for appointments and care
You will understand medical reports, medicine labels and consent forms in Spain, bring your history in a usable form and find language-matched care.
Spanish medical glossary for symptoms, conditions and specialists · How a Spanish health-centre visit works, from referral to sick note (baja) · Reading medicine boxes, leaflets (prospecto) and prescriptions
Police, court and legal Spanish
You will know your interpreter rights in criminal and civil proceedings, how to report a crime without Spanish and what key legal terms mean.
Your interpreter rights if you are questioned, detained or accused · Interpreters in civil, employment and family court · Police and legal Spanish glossary for the words that matter
Other sections in Language and integration
Everyday language survival
Helps you get by in everyday Spanish from day one.
Regional and co-official languages
Helps you work out how much a regional language matters where you live.
Language learning strategy
Helps you plan how to learn Spanish to the level you need.
Friendship, community, and belonging
Helps you build friendships and a local social life.
Need certainty before you act?
For important relocation decisions, speak with a qualified human specialist.
Always verify important information with the relevant official authority or a qualified adviser before acting. This website uses large language models together with various public data sources, official government documents and other established sources. Due to the amount of data on this website, some information might be wrong. Information may also be incomplete or outdated.