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Flirting in Spanish: 15+ Easy Phrases and Basic Vocabulary to Flirt in Spanish


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Have you ever tried flirting in Spanish?

Flirting can be as fun as it can be romantic, and you can spice it up by switching your flirting language to Spanish. There are lots of fun pick-up lines to work with!

If you want to try your hand at it, here’s a few points to get you started:

Ready? Let’s go!

Flirting in Spanish: How to Say “Flirt” in Spanish?

First thing’s first… How do you say “flirt” in Spanish?

There are a few ways. For the noun, as in “Oh, he’s such a flirt”, the word you’re looking for is coqueto/a. Sometimes you’ll even just hear flirt. But Spanish doesn’t really have the phrase Es un/a coqueto/a.

You might use coqueto/a as an adjective. Be careful, though! It doesn’t always describe people who flirt, it can also mean pretentious.

If you say Es muy coqueto con su vecina, you’re saying “He’s very flirty with his neighbour.” But if you say Es una mujer coqueta, your tone and the context of the conversation might turn it into “She’s a pretentious woman.”

But you shouldn’t worry. You won’t hear “flirt” as a noun or adjective too much in Spanish. You’re much more likely to come across the Spanish translation of the verb “to flirt”, which is coquetear.

The Spanish Verb for “to Flirt”: Coquetear

There are several verbs to say “to flirt” in Spanish, but the most common one is coquetear. It belongs to the first group of Spanish verbs, those ending in -ar.

(If you need a refresher on different types of Spanish verbs, you can read more in our Spanish verb conjugation guide.)

Coquetear has a synonym: flirtear. It’s borrowed from the English “to flirt”, which makes it pretty easy to remember.

Flirtear and “flirt” are cognates. Olly Richards talks about words like this in his Spanish Uncovered course. It’s one of our favourite resources to learn Spanish at Fluent in 3 Months, so you might want to check it out.

Let’s get back to flirting. You might also come across the verbs ligar and seducir. These words have different meanings depending on which country or Hispanic region you’re in.

Ligar, for example, holds more of a “casual kissing” connotation in some Latin American countries. In other places, ligar is the slang version of coquetear.

Seducir is stronger. You might recognize it because it looks like “to seduce”. As it has a similar strong meaning in Spanish, you wouldn’t use it to describe light flirting.

As always, my advice is to pay attention to how native speakers use these words and ask questions! If you don’t already know native Spanish speakers, you can find a tutor on Preply (our review is here).

Flirting Phrases in Spanish: The Base

Flirting is all about connecting with the other person. I’ve found that the best way to connect with someone new is by having a nice conversation.

First impressions are important, so you might want to find the right greeting. Hola works, but ¿Qué tal? (“How’s it going?”) can help you engage the conversation. If you want to sound a little bit more courteous, you can use buenos días, buenas tardes, or buenas noches, depending on the time of the day.

Need more options? I wrote a post on Spanish greetings that will help you.

But saying hi isn’t always the right way to strike a conversation. Sometimes, you might need more direct phrases. Here are some you might want to use:

  • Perdona, ¿Cómo te llamas? – “Sorry, what’s your name?”
  • Hola, soy/me llamo… – “Hi, my name is…”
  • ¿Está ocupada/libre esta silla? – “Is this seat taken?”
  • ¿Quieres bailar? – “Would you like to dance?”
  • ¿De dónde eres? – “Where are you from?”

If none of these do the trick for you, don’t worry! There are plenty more in this list of 80+ Spanish conversation starters. It also includes ice-breaker questions like ¿Te gusta viajar? (“Do you like to travel?”) and ¿Dónde creciste? (“Where did you grow up?”) to help you get to know the other person.

What if you hit it off and you would like to see them again? You can use one of these phrases:

  • ¿Te gustaría salir (conmigo) algún día? – “Would you like to go out (with me) someday?”
  • Me gustaría salir contigo. – “I would like to go out with you.”
  • Aquí tienes mi número de teléfono. – “Here’s my phone number.”
  • Quisiera conocerte mejor. – “I would like to get to know you better.”

The best part is that once you’ve learnt all these basic phrases, you can expand your vocabulary. If you’re up for it, Fi3M can help you have a 15-minute conversation in 90 days.

15 of the Best Flirting and Pick-up Lines in Spanish

Alright, that’s enough about vocabulary. Let’s get to the fun part of flirting: corny phrases and funny piropos (“pick-up lines”).

To be fair, they’re not all too bad: Spanish has some good ones.

I’ve listed here 15 of my favourite Spanish flirting phrases and pick-up lines. I’ve divided them into first-time phrases and we-already-know-each other phrases.

Remember: flirting is delicate. It’s only enjoyable if everyone involved feels comfortable. Use these phrases tactfully and you’ll be fine!

Let’s have fun!

10 Spanish Pick-up Lines to Use When You Speak to Someone for the First Time

No creía en el amor a primera vista hasta que te vi entrar – “I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I saw you come in.”

¿Crees en el amor a primera vista, o debo pasar enfrente tuyo otra vez? – “Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk in front of you again?”

¿Hablamos o seguimos jugando a mirarnos? – “Should we talk or shall we keep playing at looking at each other?”

¿Acaso me estabas mirando? Porque eso estaría súper. – “Were you by any chance looking at me? Because that would be amazing.” Super can be replaced by genial, guay, or another local word that means “great”.

¿Podrías prestarme un diccionario? Al verte me he quedado sin palabras. – “Could you lend me a dictionary? Seeing you has left me speechless.” This pick-up line only makes sense when translated literally. In Spanish, the expression for “speechless” is sin palabras (“without words”). Hence the dictionary.

Perdí mi número, ¿puedo tener el tuyo? – “I lost my number, can I get yours?”

Eres tan guapo/a que me has hecho olvidar mi piropo. – “You’re so gorgeous/handsome that you made me forget my pick-up line.” Guapo/a can be replaced with bello/a, lindo/a, hermoso/a depending on what the locals say.

Eres tan bella/o que se me olvidó lo que iba a decir. – “You’re so gorgeous that I forgot what I was going to say.”

¡Vaya! No sabía que las flores andaban. – “Goodness! I didn’t know that flowers walked.”

¿Qué hace una estrella volando tan bajo? – “What does a star like you do flying so low?”

5 Spanish Flirting Lines for When You’ve Already Known Each Other for Some Time

No sé besar, ¿(tú) podrías enseñarme? – “I don’t know how to kiss, could you teach me?”

De las veinticuatro horas que tiene el día, dieciséis pienso en ti y las otras ocho sueño contigo. – “Of the 24 hours in a day, I spend 16 thinking of you and the other 8 dreaming of you.”

Pasas tanto tiempo en mi mente, debería cobrarte alquiler. – “You spend so much time in my mind, I should charge you rent.”

Yo no tengo la culpa de que me gustes. La culpa es tuya, por tener todo lo que a mí me encanta. – “I can’t be blamed for liking you. The blame is yours for having everything I like.”

No sé si lo de la media naranja será verdad, pero yo creo que tú y yo pegamos mucho, ¿no? – “I don’t know if the soulmate thing is true, but you and I seem to fit, don’t we?” Media naranja is a Spanish way to say “soulmate”.

5+ Spanish Flirting Nicknames

If you look close enough at the phrases above, you’ll see that I mentioned a few “nicknames” to use when flirting, like bello/a.

Here are some more Spanish apodos (“nicknames”) and términos de cariño (“terms of endearment”) that you can use for flirting:

  • amor – “love”. You might have heard mi amor, but the mi makes it more personal. Depending on the region, Hispanics tend to use one more than the other for flirting. As a general rule, use mi amor for serious relationships.
  • cariño – “dear”. It sounds way less formal in Spanish. Use the -o ending for both a man and a woman.
  • cielo – literally “sky”
  • corazón – literally “heart”
  • lindo/a – “cutie”
  • guapo/a – “handsome”/“gorgeous”

Tip: You might come across the phrase Estás muy bueno/a in some Hispanic regions. It means “You’re hot”.

How to Describe the State of Your Relationship

Flirting is not about the big words yet. You need ways to tell the person how you feel without getting too deep into feelings territory.

Yes, you could learn how to use te quiero or te amo (“I love you”). But if you don’t want to get too serious too soon, I have a few phrases to share with you. They’ll help you describe how you feel about the person you’re flirting with.

The first is me caes bien. It’s “I like you”, but in a friendly way. In fact, you can use it when you make a new acquaintance. Be careful, though: it is colloquial. You can’t use it when you meet your new boss, for example.

A little higher on the romance scale is me gustas. This one also means “I like you”, but it communicates attraction. Let’s say it’s more of a ‘third date’ phrase.

Me encantas is stronger than me gustas. It literally translates to “you enchant me”, but it’s more like “I adore you”. Still, it doesn’t carry an emotional weight. In other words, it’s lower than te quiero and deals with attraction rather than emotion.

Spanish doesn’t have an expression for “catching feelings”, but you could say me estoy enamorando (de ti) to say “I am falling in love (with you)”.

Did we get too close to emotional talk? While we’re at it, we can talk about how to label relationships.

If you want to say “we’re dating”, use estamos saliendo. If you want to say “we’re in a relationship”, use estamos en una relación. And if you want to say “I have a date”, use tengo una cita.

If you’re already talking about “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”, the word you need is novio/a. Novio/a also means “fiance”, and in this case the relationship would be un noviazgo (“engagement”).

Sometimes, you might hear Spanish speakers call their partner mi pareja if they’re not married.

How to Respond to Flirting in Spanish

Flirting is a two-way street. Here are a few words and phrases you might want to use to flirt back in Spanish:

  • Gracias – “Thank you”
  • Tu también – “You too”
  • No eres tan mal tú mismo/a. – “You’re not too bad yourself.”
  • Me halagas. – “You flatter me.”
  • Me gustaría salir contigo también. – “I would like to go out with you too.”

And to close the conversation, you can use nos vemos (“see you”) or chao (“bye”)! If you want more options, you can check out this article on how to say goodbye in Spanish.

That’s Flirting in Spanish 101 for You!

Congratulations, you’re discovered the basics of flirting in Spanish!

This isn’t all that flirting in Spanish has to give, but it’s a great point to get started. Plus, if I told you all the Spanish piropos there are, there wouldn’t be any surprises when someone chats you up. And everyone loves to hear a pick-up line for the first time.

If you want to keep the conversation going smoothly, a refresher of the 101 core Spanish words might boost your confidence!

author headshot

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time globe trotter and international bestselling author. Benny believes the best approach to language learning is to speak from day one.

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

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