In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice using the Spanish verb Tener (To Have) to describe The Family. Start by reading the text in Spanish below. The English translation is provided later but please try not to look at it until you have read the Spanish version various times and tried your best to understand it.

There may be some words and phrases in the text that you are unfamiliar with, but you should be aiming to capture the main essence of what is happening. There will always be words and phrases popping up in real-life situations that you have never heard before, so it is important never to get too distracted by details.

If you want to investigate some of the words you don’t know with a dictionary that would be great, please do, but do this after trying your best to understand with what you already have in your head.

Check out this video lesson with information relevant to this topic:

El verbo Tener and the family

Image by Phillip Kofler from Pixabay

Spanish Text

José: ¿Qué haces normalmente los lunes Enrique?
Enrique: Normalmente los lunes juego al fútbol después del trabajo.
José: ¿Tienes días libres en la semana o trabajas cinco días a la semana?
Enrique: Trabajo seis días a la semana.
José: ¡De verdad! Seis días a la semana es demasiado.
Enrique: Sí, lo sé. Pero tengo mi propia empresa y necesito trabajar.
José: ¿Qué día tienes libre?
Enrique: Los domingos. A veces los viernes.
José: ¿Qué haces en tus días libres?
Enrique: Siempre paso el día con mi familia. Los domingos vamos todos a la casa de los abuelos y comemos. Más tarde, por lo general, salimos a pasear juntos o jugamos al fútbol o andamos en bicicleta.
José: Yo estoy con mi familia los sábados. Por lo general, visitamos a los abuelos también. A veces vamos a ver un partido de rugby. A mis hijos, a mi esposa y a mí nos gusta ver el rugby.
Enrique: Eso suena bien José. ¿Tienes los domingos libres también?
José: Sí, nunca trabajo los sábados ni los domingos.

English Text

José: What do you usually do on Mondays Enrique?
Enrique: Usually on Mondays I play football after work.
José: Do you have days off in the week or do you work five days a week?
Enrique: I work six days a week.
José: Really! Six days a week is too much.
Enrique: Yes, I know. But I have my own company and I need to work.
José: Which day do you have off?
Enrique: Sundays. Sometimes on Fridays
José: What do you do on your days off?
Enrique: I always spend the day with my family. On Sundays we all go to the grandparents’ house and eat. Later, we usually go for a walk together or play football or ride a bicycle.
José: I’m with my family on Saturdays. Usually, we visit the grandparents as well. Sometimes we will watch a rugby match. My children, my wife and I like to watch rugby.
Enrique: That sounds good José. Do you have Sundays free too?
José: Yes, I never work on Saturdays or Sundays.

So, how did you get on? How much did you understand of the original text before checking the translation? Please let me know in the comments section below…

Don’t worry if you didn’t understand that much, practice makes perfect! Be patient and keep reading, hearing, writing, and speaking Spanish. See you next time!