In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice using adjectives to describe transport in Spanish. 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:

Transport in Spanish

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Spanish Text

Gorka: Hola Juan ¿este es tu coche?
Juan: Sí Gorka, es mi coche nuevo.
Gorka: ¡Guau, es un coche chulo! ¡Amarillo! Muy caro, ¿no?
Juan: ¡Chulísimo eh! Pero sí, caro también. Estoy pagándolo a plazos. Mil euros al mes.
Gorka: ¡Mil euros al mes! ¡¡Qué me dices!!
Juan: Sí, pero mira los asientos, mira el color y la pintura, mira los neumáticos. Y es muy muy rápido.
Gorka: Seguro que sí. ¿Cuántos kilometros por galón?
Juan: Veinte.
Gorka: ¡Solo veinte! Me quedo con mi bicicleta.
Juan: Pero no puedes ir a tu trabajo en bici, ¿no? Está muy lejos.
Gorka: Bueno, al trabajo voy en autobús pero para todos los otros viajes uso mi bici. A mí me parece que los coches contaminan demasiado. Tenemos demasiados coches y los usamos demasiado.
Juan: Tienes razón tío. Pero no puedo vivir sin mi coche. Los autobuses son muy lentos y no hay suficientes. Tienes que esperar mucho tiempo. Y tampoco son muy baratos.
Gorka: Bueno, viajar en autobús es muy barato en comparación con tu coche nuevo Juan.
Juan: ¡Y tu bici Gorka! ¡¡No es una bicicleta barata!! Vale tres mil euros, ¿no?
Gorka: Sí, pero es para toda la vida y ahorro mucho dinero en gasolina y suscripción al gimnasio.
Juan: Vale Gorka. Adiós.
Gorka: Disfruta de tu coche tío. ¡Ten cuidado no te choques conmigo en la carretera!

English Text

Gorka: Hi Juan, this is your car?
Juan: Yes Gorka, it’s my new car.
Gorka: Wow, it’s a cool car! Yellow! Very expensive, right?
Juan: Super cool huh! But, yes, expensive too. I’m paying it off in instalments. One thousand euros each month.
Gorka: One thousand euros every month! You’re joking!!
Juan: Yes, but look at the seats, look at the colour and the paintwork, look at the tires. And it’s very, very fast.
Gorka: For sure. How many kilometres per gallon?
Juan: Twenty.
Gorka: Only twenty! I will stick with my bicycle.
Juan: But you cannot go to your work by bike, right? It is very far.
Gorka: Well, I go by bus to work but for all other trips I use my bike. It seems to me that cars pollute too much. We have too many cars and we use them too much.
Juan: You’re right, mate. But I cannot live without my car. Buses are very slow and there are not enough of them. You have to wait a long time. And they are not very cheap either.
Gorka: Well, travelling by bus is very cheap compared to your new car Juan.
Juan: And your bike Gorka! It’s not a cheap bicycle! It’s worth three thousand euros, right?
Gorka: Yes, but it’s for life and I save a lot of money on fuel and gym membership.
Juan: Ok Gorka. Goodbye.
Gorka: Enjoy your car mate. Be careful not to bump into me on the road!

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!