Knowing the intercultural particularities of verbal politeness is fundamental to achieve an adequate development of communicative competence and good social relations in interaction with people from other cultures. thus, it is not strange that reference documents for the teaching of languages such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the Reference Framework for the Plural Approaches of Languages and Culture or the Plan Curriculum of the Cervantes Institute, as a specific reference of Spanish as a foreign language, refers to the appropriate use of pragmatic verbal politeness strategies. This article has a double aim: on the one hand, it tries to highlight the relevance of including in the didactic programs a space for reflection on the pragmatic competence that makes it possible to explicit the rules of politeness of the own culture and in other cultures; on the other hand, it tries to highlight the contributions of these reference documents regarding the teaching-learning of effective strategies that allow an appropriate use of politeness in intercultural contexts