Excuse me in Spanish: con permiso, perdón or lo siento?

Your app taught you lo siento. Locals squeezing past you on the bus say something else.

English "excuse me" does three jobs: getting through a crowd, getting someone's attention, and apologising. Spanish gives each its own phrase. Con permiso (with your permission) is for moving past, leaving a table, reaching across someone. Perdón or disculpe is for getting attention: a waiter, a stranger with directions, someone whose foot you've just found. Lo siento is for regret: bad news, a real mistake, sympathy.

Use lo siento to get past people and you're apologising for something nobody saw you do. Use con permiso and you sound like you live here. The reply to con permiso is pase or propio (go ahead), and to perdón it's usually ¿sí? or dígame.

Two levels of formality for attention: disculpe (usted) for anyone you don't know, disculpa (tú) for people your age in a casual setting. ¡Oye! is not a polite way to call a waiter, whatever the app said.

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