In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice using Los verbos Necesitar y Preferir (Need and Prefer). 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:

Los verbos Necesitar y Preferir (Need and Prefer)

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Spanish Text

Raúl: Necesito un teléfono nuevo, cariño.
Sara: ¿Estás seguro? Tu teléfono aún es muy nuevo.
Raúl: Tiene más de un año.
Sara: ¡Eso no es nada! ¿Por qué necesitas un teléfono nuevo ya?
Raúl: La tecnología cambia rápidamente. Y sabes cuánto amo la tecnología y los gadgets.
Sara: Demasiado.
Raúl: Necesito un teléfono más rápido y una cámara mejor.
Sara: La cámara de tu teléfono es increíble. No necesita tomar mejores fotos de las que ya hace.
Raúl: Ahora estoy tomando más fotos para el trabajo.
Sara: De acuerdo. Sé que estoy perdiendo el tiempo tratando de persuadirte. ¿Qué teléfono prefieres?
Raúl: Este… mira.
Sara: ¿Ese es el precio?
Raúl: Ummm. Sí.
Sara: Prefiero este. Es más barato.
Raúl: Ese teléfono tiene una cámara peor que mi teléfono actual.
Sara: ¡Entonces, quédate con tu teléfono actual!
Raúl: ¿Y ese?
Sara: ¿En serio necesitas un teléfono tan caro?
Raúl: Prefiero gastar mi dinero en tecnología. No gasto mi dinero en nada más.
Sara: Nuestro dinero.
Raúl: Tú prefieres gastar dinero en ropa. Yo prefiero gastar dinero en gadgets.
Sara: La ropa es una necesidad.
Raúl: No es necesario tener tanta ropa.

English Text

Raúl: I need a new phone, darling.
Sara: Are you sure? Your phone is still very new.
Raúl: It’ss more than a year old.
Sara: That’s nothing! Why do you need a new phone now?
Raúl: Technology changes rapidly. And you know how much I love technology and gadgets.
Sara: Too much.
Raúl: I need a faster phone and a better camera.
Sara: The camera on your phone is amazing. You don’t need to take better photos than you already do.
Raúl: Now I’m taking more photos for work.
Sara: Okay. I know I’m wasting my time trying to persuade you. What phone do you prefer?
Raúl: This one… look.
Sara: Is that the price?
Raúl: Ummm. Yes.
Sara: I prefer this one. It’s cheaper.
Raul. That phone has a worse camera than my current phone.
Sara: So, keep your current phone!
Raúl: And that one?
Sara: Do you really need such an expensive phone?
Raúl: I prefer to spend my money on technology. I don’t spend my money on anything else.
Sara: Our money.
Raúl: You prefer to spend money on clothes. I prefer to spend money on gadgets.
Sara: Clothes are a must.
Raúl: It is not necessary to have so many clothes.

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!