When learning Spanish, you read texts, listen to dialogues and do exercises all the time, don’t you? Let’s learn to describe all these activities in Spanish. In this lesson, we will also review everything we know about verb conjugation.
Vocabulary
In this lesson, we will practice the following vocabulary. Read the words, listen to the audio and remember them:
palabra
word
vocabulario
vocabulary
libro
book
alumno / alumna
student (masc.) / student (fem.)
idioma
language
texto
text
diálogo
dialogue
frase
phrase
ejercicio
exercise
fácil
easy
difícil
difficult
nuevo
new
verdad
true
por supuesto
of course
siempre
always
a menudo
often
a veces
sometimes
todos los días
every day
hablar
to speak
leer
to read
escribir
to write
entender
to understand
hacer
to do
Dialogues
Listen carefully to the following Spanish dialogues. They will help you understand this lesson’s vocabulary in the right context:
Dialogue 1
Hola, Tamara. Estudias español, ¿verdad?
Hi Tamara. You study Spanish, right?
Sí, estudio español con una profesora. Mi profesora se llama Verónica. Es de España.
Yes, I study Spanish with a teacher. My teacher is called Verónica. She is from Spain.
¿Te gusta estudiar?
Do you like studying?
Sí, me gusta mucho. En clase leemos textos, escribimos frases y por supuesto hablamos en español.
Yes, I like it very much. At the lesson, we read texts, write phrases and, of course, speak Spanish.
El español es un idioma muy bonito.
Spanish is a very beautiful language.
Dialogue 2
Javi, ¿te gustan los idiomas?
Javi, do you like languages?
Sí. Hablo español, inglés y alemán. Y ahora estudio chino.
Yes, I do. I speak Spanish, English and German. And now I study Chinese.
¿Es un idioma difícil?
Is it a difficult language?
El chino es muy difícil, pero también es interesante. Me gusta leer y escribir en chino.
Chinese is very difficult but also interesting. I like reading and writing in Chinese.
Pues yo quiero estudiar francés. Es un idioma muy bonito.
Well, I want to study French. It’s a very beautiful language.
Mi amiga Paula es profesora de francés. ¿Quieres su teléfono?
My friend Paula is a French teacher. Would you like her phone number?
Sí, muchas gracias.
Yes, I would, thanks a lot.
Dialogue 3
Hola, Alejandro. ¿Por qué estudias polaco?
Hi, Alejandro. Why do you learn Polish?
Porque mi abuela es polaca y me gusta este idioma. En mi casa siempre hablamos en español. Pero mi abuela habla en polaco a menudo, y no entiendo nada.
Because my grandma is Polish and I like this language. At home, we always speak Spanish. But my grandma often speaks in Polish, and I don’t understand anything.
Ah, qué interesante. ¿Y estudias mucho?
Oh, how interesting. Do you study a lot?
Sí. Leo muchos textos y diálogos, hago ejercicios y escribo vocabulario nuevo. No es fácil pero, a veces, ya hablo con mi abuela en polaco.
Yes, I do. I read texts and dialogues, do exercises and write new vocabulary. It’s not easy, but sometimes, I already speak to my grandma in Polish.
¡Qué bien!
How nice!
Text
Read the following text in Spanish. You can check the English translation if you need help. Also, listen to the audio and try to understand everything:
¡Hola! Me llamo Mónica. Me gustan mucho los idiomas. Soy profesora de inglés y trabajo en una escuela de idiomas en México.
Hi! My name is Monica. I like languages a lot. I’m a teacher of English, and I work at a language school in Mexico.
Me gusta mi trabajo. Mis alumnos leen textos interesantes y hacen muchos ejercicios. En clase siempre hablamos en inglés.
I like my job. My students read interesting texts and do many exercises. In class we always speak English.
Ahora quiero estudiar un nuevo idioma. Me gusta mucho el árabe. Estudio árabe por internet. Es muy interesante.
Now, I want to study a new language. I like the Arabic language very much. I study Arabic on the internet. It’s very interesting.
Todos los días estudio un poco de árabe: escribo palabras, leo diálogos y hago ejercicios de gramática. Estudiar idiomas no es fácil, ¿verdad?
Every day, I study a bit of Arabic: I write words, read dialogues and do grammar exercises. Learning languages is not easy, right?
Spanish grammar
We will now study the grammar used in this lesson:
Spanish verb conjugation summary: the endings “-ar”, “-er”, “-ir”
Let’s review the three types of Spanish verb conjugation on the example of the verbs “hablar”, “leer” and “escribir”. Each of these verbs is a typical representative of its conjugation type.
| -ar: hablar (to speak) | -er: leer (to read) | -ir: escribir (to write) |
|---|---|---|
| yo hablo | yo leo | yo escribo |
| tú hablas | tú lees | tú escribes |
| él habla | él lee | él escribe |
| nosotros hablamos | nosotros leemos | nosotros escribimos |
| vosotros habláis | vosotros leéis | vosotros escribís |
| ellos hablan | ellos leen | ellos escriben |
Irregular verbs: entender (to understand), hacer (to do)
Don’t forget that we call “irregular” those verbs that don’t follow the usual conjugation rules. Pay attention to their special forms:
| entender (to understand) | hacer (to do) |
|---|---|
| yo entiendo | yo hago |
| tú entiendes | tú haces |
| él entiende | él hace |
| nosotros entendemos | nosotros hacemos |
| vosotros entendéis | vosotros hacéis |
| ellos entienden | ellos hacen |
Attention!
The word “mucho” changes its ending depending on the gender and number
As you already know, many Spanish words change their endings depending on whether they are masculine or feminine, singular or plural. The forms of the word “mucho” depend on the gender and number of the noun they refer to. Have a look at the examples:
- mucho trabajo – a lot of work / much work (masculine singular)
- mucha agua – a lot of water / much water (feminine singular)
- muchos textos – a lot of texts / many texts (masculine plural)
- muchas palabras – a lot of words / many words (feminine plural)
Pay attention that in Spanish, there is no difference between “much” and “many”. Both these words are translated as “mucho”.
The preposition “con” with pronouns
When using Spanish prepositions with pronouns, we have to be careful with the forms “yo” and “tú”. Usually, these are the only forms that change:
| Spanish: | English: |
|---|---|
| conmigo | with me |
| contigo | with you |
| con él | with him |
| con ella | with her |
| con nosotros | with us |
| con vosotros | with you (informal plural) |
| con ellos | with them |
| con usted / con ustedes | with you (formal singular / formal plural) |
The preposition “de”
In Spanish, the preposition “de” can be considered an equivalent of the preposition “of” in English:
- escuela de idiomas – school of languages / language school
- profesor de inglés – teacher of English / English teacher
However, the usage of this preposition doesn’t always coincide with English. You’ll soon notice that in Spanish, it’s used more often and that its meaning is wider:
- ejercicios de gramática – exercises on grammar / grammar exercises
- uno de mis amigos – one of my friends
Attention!
The mysterious word “pues”
We’ve come across the word “pues” in one of the dialogues where it was translated as “well”:
- Pues yo quiero estudiar francés. – Well, I want to study French.
The purpose of “pues” is to fill a pause while speaking. It is usually used at the beginning of the sentence to give us more time to think or to attract the listener’s attention:
- Pues ¿qué hacemos? – Well, what are we going to do?
Test
Let’s check how well you know this lesson:
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