How To Say Complain In Spanish

Table of Contents

Learning to Mutter in Castilian Formal Complaining Breezy Complaining Lament Slang in Spanish I Want to Mutter in Spanish! Ready to larn more Spanish vocabulary? Check these out!

May 25, 2021 by Luis F. Dominguez Spanish Vocabulary 0 comments

Can you call up of a situation where you may need to complain in Castilian? I tin can retrieve of many: at the airport of a Spanish-speaking city, after buying a production from a Castilian-speaking online shop, or after a terrible dinner at a Mexican eating place—but to proper noun a few.

Complaining is a basic tool for communicating with others to limited what you want and hopefully get it.

Complaining is a special reaction needed in situations where yous want to keep others from abusing yous or you need to clarify what information technology is that you want past expressing what you don't like. This skill is especially important in Spanish, because when you communicate in a new language you lot want to ensure that others empathize what you want or demand.

For these reasons, in this blog post I introduce you to the globe of complaining in Spanish, where we cover the following topics:

• formal complaining
• breezy complaining
• common verbs used to complain in Spanish
• complaining phrases,
• and some slang complaint-related words.

Ready?

Learning to Complain in Castilian

Similar to English and other languages, there are different means to complain in Spanish. There's not a unmarried formula to mutter in a sentence in Spanish. You may complain orally, merely you can also write a complaint letter, fill a complaint course, or fifty-fifty use complaining slang.

Let's commencement with a situation where yous demand to issue a complaint, but the situation is very formal and yous accept to choose your words very carefully.

Formal Complaining

Ordinarily, in Spanish and English, formal lament takes place by writing either a complaint letter or filling a complaint form. Both texts are known equally queja formal or "formal complaint." Other common formal complaining translation examples are:

reclamación oficial

reclamación formal

denuncia oficial

Use these different terms to refer to a "formal complaint." Now, let'south encounter how to write ane.

You write a complaint letter of the alphabet when yous want to complain nearly a product you lot bought and didn't meet your expectations or is plain not equally advertised; you lot may also write complaint letters about public services not upwardly to standard or about an unfair situation at work.

At this point, I recommend you to read about How to Write a Formal Letter of the alphabet in Spanish. There you'll notice the format and overall procedure of writing a formal alphabetic character. A complaint alphabetic character is only a formal letter of the alphabet where the content is focused on complaining about something in a formal way.

The following is the initial paragraph of a typical complaint letter in Spanish:

Por medio de la presente, hago de su conocimiento mi inconformidad con la atención recibida en la oficina de gobierno número 3 el pasado día 20 de abril del presente año.

I hereby inform y'all of my dissatisfaction with the attention received at regime role number 3 on April 20 of this year.

Find how you have to go directly to the outcome at hand, but doing it in a very formal and convoluted manner. And so you can elaborate more about what happened that day, or about why you aren't happy with the product you bought or the service you received, but is in that first paragraph where you explicate the reason for the complaint letter.

If you want to dig deeper nigh this topic I recommend you to read this example of a full complaint letter in Spanish.

Breezy Complaining

Informal complaining is easier and I estimate it's the same in Spanish and English language. You lot do informal complaining all the time, perhaps with your parents, your partner, or perchance even at a store for a minor situation that doesn't require a formal complaint letter.

The primary affair to know nearly informal complaining in Spanish is that it occurs verbally, this means that'due south unremarkably a spoken complaint. You tin can complain well-nigh many things, the weather condition, your Spanish teacher, or considering your ice cream isn't as practiced every bit that of your brother. But you lot can't practise any of this, if yous don't know the Castilian verbs for lament and their conjugations.

Common Verbs Used to Complain in Spanish

Allow me introduce you lot to 3 of the most common verbs used to complain in Spanish.

Quejarse

Although there are other verbs that tin can as well work every bit a complaining translation, the literal term in Spanish for complaining is quejarse. Notice how this verb doesn't accept one of the traditional -ar, -er, -ir, of most Spanish verbs in infinitive. That'south because it'southward a reflexive verb, which ways that they express an activity done by the subject to the aforementioned subject area. They are also always accompanied past a reflexive pronoun.

Nowadays Tense Conjugation

yo me quejo	I complain
tú te quejas	y'all mutter
él/ella se queja	he/she complains
nosotros nos quejamos	we complain
ustedes se quejan	you complain
ellos/ellas se quejan	they complain

By Tense Conjugation

yo me quejé	I complained
tú te quejaste	you complained
él/ella se quejó	he/she complained
nosotros nos quejamos	we complained
ustedes se quejaron	y'all complained
ellos/ellas se quejaron	they complained

Complaining phrases:

Ella se quejó porque no la invitamos a la fiesta.
She complained because nosotros didn't invite her to the party.

Tú te quejas por todo.
You complain about everything.

Ayer me quejé con el director de la escuela.
Yesterday I complained with the school principal.

Reclamar

Reclamar is a Spanish verb that you tin as well utilize equally a synonym to quejarse or "to mutter." Its literal translation is "to claim," but in some contexts information technology carries a similar meaning to that of quejarse. For example, you can claim that your new phone was broken when yous opened information technology, and in that sense yous would exist making a complaint.

Nowadays Tense Conjugation

yo reclamo	I complain
tú reclamas	you complain
él/ella reclama	he/she complains
nosotros reclamamos	we mutter
ustedes reclaman	yous complain
ellos/ellas reclaman	they complain

Past Tense Conjugation

yo reclamé	I complained
tú reclamaste	you complained
él/ella reclamó	he/she complained
nosotros reclamamos	we complained
ustedes reclamaron	yous complained
ellos/ellas reclamaron	they complained

Complaining phrases:

Carlos reclamó que no le avisaron.
Carlos complained that nobody told him.

Mi esposa y yo reclamamos a la aerolínea por el pésimo servicio que nos dieron.
My wife and I complained with the airline for the terrible service provided.

Yo solo reclamo cuando es muy necesario.
I only complain when it's needed.

Protestar

Literally, protestar means "to protest," merely you can see the relationship betwixt this verb and quejarse or "to complain." When the people take to the streets to protestation about a social issue, they're actually "complaining" well-nigh the situation and demanding a solution, which is very much what quejarse means.

Present Tense Conjugation

yo protesto	I complain
tú protestas	you complain
él/ella protesta	he/she complains
nosotros protestamos	nosotros complain
ustedes protestan	you complain
ellos/ellas protestan	they complain

Past Tense Conjugation

yo protesté	I complained
tú protestaste	you complained
él/ella protestó	he/she complained
nosotros protestamos	we complained
ustedes protestaron	you complained
ellos/ellas protestaron	they complained

Complaining phrases:

Miguel y Fernando protestaron contra la nueva ley de seguridad.
Miguel y Fernando complained about the new security law.

Erika protestó por la comida.
Erika complained about the nutrient.

Protesté y me despidieron.
I complained and they fired me.

Lament Slang in Castilian

There isn't a specific slang term that directly translates as quejarse or "to mutter," but at that place are different slang words used in lament phrases. Allow's meet some of the most common:

¡Qué pesado es este maestro!
How boring is this teacher!

In this example, pesado doesn't mean "heavy" but "slow" or "annoying."

Ya me tienes hasta la coronilla.
I'thou fed-up with you lot.

The coronilla is the top of your head, so this slang phrase means to express the idea of being fed-upwards with someone or something. In Mexico, you can substitute coronilla for madre (literally "mother"), and the significant is the same, but it'southward a bit rude.

I Want to Complain in Castilian!

If you really want to mutter in Spanish I recommend you to practice all this newly acquired cognition. Introduce the three verbs used to complain in Castilian in your conversations and exercise the complaining phrases that you've only learned.

Sign up for a free course to shine your conversational skills and get better at expressing yourself to others, complain in Spanish about the things you don't like, and demand what you demand or want for yourself.

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Luis F. Dominguez

Freelance Author at Homeschool Castilian Academy

Luis F. Domínguez is a freelance writer and independent journalist interested in travel, languages, art, books, history, philosophy, politics and sports. He has written for Fodor's, Yahoo!, Sports Illustrated, Telemundo, and Villa Feel, among other brands of print and digital media in Europe and North America.

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