How do you keep your place in a Spanish queue if you step out?

The ticket machine, and stepping out

In supermarkets, at the meat and fish counters and in many public offices you take a number from a machine instead — coger número — and a screen shows who is being served. Where there is a machine, the ticket decides and asking who is last makes no sense. At the bakery, the kiosk or a market stall, the turn is still kept by word of mouth.

The advantage of the spoken queue is that nobody has to stand in a line. If you need to step out for a minute, tell the person behind you: ¿Me guarda la vez, por favor? Leave without a word and you lose your turn — and coming back to claim it is a quick way to start an argument.

• In supermarkets, at meat and fish counters and in many public offices you take a numbered ticket; where there is a machine, the ticket decides.
• Coger is an everyday verb in Spain; in several Latin American countries it is vulgar, so there people say tomar or sacar un número.
• If you step out, tell the person behind you; if you leave without saying anything, you lose your turn.

¿Me guarda la vez, por favor?

Could you keep my place, please?

Si se va sin decir nada, pierde la vez.

If you leave without saying anything, you lose your turn.