Permiso

Today’s Spanish word of the day is “permiso”.

It’s a masculine noun that means “permission” or “license”.

It’s quite a common word as it has a few uses beyond the literal meaning of “permission”:

1. It can be used as a way of saying “excuse me”, for example if you need to get past someone and want to politely let them know you’re coming through.
2. It can have a similar meaning to “thank you” if you are taking something or using something that belongs to someone else. For example, if somebody lets you use their bathroom you could say “permiso” rather than “gracias”.
3. To excuse yourself from a situation and say goodbye.

These uses are all related to being expressing politeness and asking for permission.

It’s a handy word to know if you want to make sure you’re being polite when speaking Spanish!

Example sentences