In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice using El verbo Querer (To want). 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 Querer (To want)

Image by Olya Adamovich from Pixabay

Spanish Text

Julia: Buenos días, cariño. ¿Qué quieres hacer hoy?
Pedro: Buenos días mamá. Nada. Jugar a mis videojuegos.
Julia: No vas a jugar a videojuegos todo el día, eso seguro. ¿Qué más quieres hacer?
Pedro: No mucho.
Julia: Vale, olvídalo por el momento, ¿qué quieres desayunar?
Pedro: Cereales.
Julia: La fruta primero, como siempre. ¿Qué fruta quieres?
Pedro: Quiero un plátano.
Julia: ¿Y algo con vitamina C… una naranja, un kiwi…?
Pedro: No quiero ni una naranja ni un kiwi. ¿Fresas?
Julia: No tenemos fresas. Te daré una naranja.
Pedro: No quiero una naranja. No me gustan las naranjas.
Julia: Bueno, no quiero estar esperando aquí todo el día para que tomes una decisión, aquí hay un kiwi. Tengo hambre.
Pedro: Uhhh.
Julia: Entonces, ¿qué vamos a hacer hoy? ¿Quieres dar un paseo por la montaña?
Pedro: No, por supuesto que no mamá. Sabes que no me gustan los paseos ni las montañas.
Julia: Bueno, quiero un poco de aire fresco. Vamos a salir afuera.
Pedro: Puedes salir a pasear mamá. Yo me quedaré aquí.
Julia: Eres demasiado pequeño para quedarte en casa.
Pedro: Bueno, yo no quiero hacer nada. Estoy cansado.
Julia: Vale, ¿tienes deberes que hacer?
Pedro: No.
Julia: No me mientas hijo.
Pedro: Vale, unos pocos, pero no quiero hacer deberes un sábado.
Julia: Es deberes o la montaña. ¡Tú decides!
Pedro: ¿El cine?
Julia: Si quieres ir al cine, podemos hacerlo después de haber salido a caminar.
Pedro: ¿De verdad?
Julia: ¡Sí, de verdad!
Pedro: Quiero ver esa nueva película de zombies.
Julia: ¡Ni hablar!

English Text

Julia: Good morning, darling. What do you want to do today?
Pedro: Good morning mum. Nothing. Play my video games.
Julia: You’re not going to play video games all day, that’s for sure. What else do you want to do?
Pedro: Not much.
Julia: Okay, forget it for now, what do you want for breakfast?
Pedro: Cereal.
Julia: Fruit first, as always. What fruit do you want?
Pedro: I want a banana.
Julia: And something with vitamin C… an orange, a kiwi…?
Pedro: I don’t want an orange or a kiwi. Strawberries?
Julia: We don’t have strawberries. I’ll give you an orange.
Pedro: I don’t want an orange. I don’t like oranges.
Julia: Well I don’t want to be waiting here all day for you to make a decision, here’s a kiwi. I’m hungry.
Pedro: Uhhh.
Julia: So what are we going to do today? Do you want to take a walk in the mountains?
Pedro: No, of course not, mum. You know that I don’t like walks or mountains.
Julia: Well, I want some fresh air. Let’s go outside.
Pedro: You can go for a walk, mum. I will stay here.
Julia: You are too young to stay home.
Pedro: Well, I don’t want to do anything. I’m tired.
Julia: Ok, do you have homework to do?
Pedro: No.
Julia: Don’t lie to me son.
Pedro: Okay, a little, but I don’t want to do homework on Saturday.
Julia: It’s homework or the mountains. Up to you!
Pedro: The cinema?
Julia: If you want to go to the movies, we can do it after we have gone for a walk.
Pedro: Really?
Julia: Yes, really!
Pedro: I want to see that new zombie movie.
Julia: No way!

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!