MEXICAN SPANISH → ENGLISH

No funciona mi tarjeta.

My key card isn’t working.

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MEANING & CONTEXT

The words, and when to use them

“No funciona mi tarjeta.” means “My key card isn’t working.” in Mexican Spanish. At a hotel, clarify la tarjeta de la habitación if the context is unclear.

Situation: Hotel Check-In and Checkout

Register: Neutral. Gender form: neutral.

In a conversation

No funciona mi tarjeta. No puedo abrir el cuarto.
My key card isn’t working. I can’t open the room.

Every classification is a doorway

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Topics

Find phrases for everyday situations and conversations. A phrase can belong to several topics.

Getting Around Mexico Hotel Check-In and Checkout Travel and Directions

Difficulty

Poquito’s learning difficulty bands reflect length, vocabulary, grammar and idiom. These are editorial estimates, not CEFR levels.

Beginner

Filters

Usefulness

Essential, High and Normal describe the practical value of learning a phrase. Usefulness is independent of difficulty.

High

Conversation builder

Expressions marked as helpful for opening or extending a conversation.

Situation specific

Separate broadly reusable expressions from phrases tied to particular situations.

Yes

Your favorites and memorization

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Memorization uses your latest Spanish-first rating.

Why this difficulty rating?

Length 9 points: 4 spoken Spanish words.
Vocabulary 2 points: Editorial estimate based on vocabulary needed for the situation.
Grammar 6 points: Editorial estimate based on the sentence pattern, verb forms and pronouns.
Idiom 0 points: Meaning is direct in the named situation.
Reuse -2 points: 1 vocabulary families appear in at least four earlier cards.

Keep the conversation going

Explore related topic →

Is there a hotel nearby?¿Hay un hotel cerca?
“¿Hay un hotel cerca?” means “Is there a hotel nearby?” in Mexican Spanish. Ask whether a hotel exists nearby during travel.
EasyNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →
I need a room.Necesito una habitación.
“Necesito una habitación.” means “I need a room.” in Mexican Spanish. Ask for accommodation at a hotel.
BeginnerHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
What time is check-in?¿A qué hora puedo registrarme?
“¿A qué hora puedo registrarme?” means “What time is check-in?” in Mexican Spanish. Ask when you can check in at a hotel.
EasyHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
There’s no hot water.No hay agua caliente.
“No hay agua caliente.” means “There’s no hot water.” in Mexican Spanish. Use this at a hotel front desk or at home when the hot water isn’t working.
BeginnerHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
Is there an elevator?¿Hay elevador?
“¿Hay elevador?” means “Is there an elevator?” in Mexican Spanish.
BeginnerEssentialEnglish first →Spanish first →
It’s under my name.Está a mi nombre.
“Está a mi nombre.” means “It’s under my name.” in Mexican Spanish. Use this when the reservation is under your own name.
EasyHighEnglish first →Spanish first →

Technical Specs

Formality and register

How a phrase addresses someone: Neutral, Familiar (tú), or Formal (usted). Politeness also depends on wording and context; tú can be polite.

Neutral

Conversation role

What the phrase does in a conversation. A phrase can have several standardized roles, such as asking, answering or sharing information.

Warn or report a problem

Situations

The specific setting recorded by the editorial review. Not every phrase has a named situation.

Hotel Check-In and Checkout

Gender forms

Explore the grammatical gender forms recorded for each phrase. Grammatical gender is different from the speaker’s identity.

neutral

Who or what gender refers to

Find whether gender wording relates to the speaker, listener, noun or object.

Not recorded

Learning collections

The fixed introductory collection and editorial Core or Expansion placements.

Core

Vocabulary families

Browse recorded word families shared by phrases. These editorial family labels may not be dictionary headwords.

funciona tarjeta

Vocabulary familiarity

Everyday, less common and specialized vocabulary, considered separately from grammatical difficulty.

Everyday

Reusability

Editorial score for how broadly an expression can be reused; higher scores indicate more reuse.

Coverage gap value

Editorial estimate of how much the phrase adds to the collection’s practical coverage.

Ambiguity risk

Editorial score for how strongly meaning can depend on context; higher values indicate more ambiguity.

Confusion risk

Editorial estimate of the chance of confusing the expression with another; higher values indicate more risk.

Spanish word count

Explore shorter and longer expressions using the recorded Spanish word count.

4–6

Usefulness score

The detailed editorial usefulness score, distinct from the three usefulness labels.

Difficulty score

Scores run from 5 to 100. These ten-point ranges show the finer distribution within difficulty bands.

11–20

Vocabulary contribution

Recorded number of vocabulary-family contributions; it is not a learner’s vocabulary size.

Review dates

When the recorded editorial review was performed.

2026-11-11

Editorial quality

Recorded review status and quality classification.

Reviewed for Spanish (Mexico)

Source batches

Editorial import batches where source information is recorded.

Not recorded

Review methods

How the recorded editorial ratings were assigned. These are assessments rather than measured learning outcomes.

Editorial estimate for Mexican Spanish using phrase length, vocabulary, structure and context.

Difficulty rubric versions

The version of the editorial difficulty rubric used for a phrase.

Introductory speakers

The speaker roles recorded for the fixed introductory dialogue.

Not recorded

Length difficulty factor