In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice more using Spanish Reflexive Verbs. 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:

Reflexive Verbs

Image by Luis Wilker WilkerNet from Pixabay

Spanish Text

Toby: Hola Alba. ¿Cómo estás?
Alba: Un poco cansada.
Toby: ¿Y eso?
Alba: Estuve despierta hasta las dos de la mañana viendo la televisión anoche.
Toby: ¡¿Te acostaste a las dos de la mañana?! ¡¿Y empezaste a trabajar a las ocho?!
Alba: En realidad me acosté más cerca de las tres de la mañana.
Toby: ¿Qué estabas viendo?
Alba: Operación Triunfo.
Toby: ¿Ese concurso de cantar?
Alba: ¡Sí, me encanta! Es lo que más me gusta de la televisión. ¡El problema son todos los anuncios que muestran a altas horas de la noche! Operación Triunfo duraría unas dos horas, pero con todos los anuncios, ¡dura en total más de tres horas! Es ridículo.
Toby: No deberían echar programas para niños hasta muy tarde. Me imagino que muchos niños también están muy cansados hoy en sus colegios.
Alba: Bueno, en realidad no es un programa para niños, pero me imagino que muchos jóvenes lo ven, sí.
Toby: ¿A qué hora te has levantado?
Alba: Me he levantado a las 7.30 esta mañana. Es una suerte que viva tan cerca. Aunque no he desayunado. Tengo mucha hambre.
Toby: Y llegaste tarde esta mañana.
Alba: No creo que nadie se haya dado cuenta, ¿tú?
Toby: Estoy bastante seguro de que el jefe lo hizo. Nunca se le escapa nada.
Alba: ¡Oh no!
Toby: Probablemente también deberías peinarte un poco.
Alba: ¿Qué le pasa a mi pelo?
Toby: Bueno, parece un poco descontrolado.
Alba: Ya. Pues tampoco tuve tiempo de lavarme los dientes.
Toby: Mmmhh vale.

English Text

Toby: Hi Alba. How are you?
Alba: A little tired.
Toby: Why?
Alba: I was up until two in the morning watching TV last night.
Toby: You went to bed at two in the morning?! And you started work at eight?!
Alba: I actually went to bed closer to three in the morning.
Toby: What were you watching?
Alba: Operación Triunfo.
Toby: That singing contest?
Alba: Yes, I love it! It’s the thing I like most on television. The problem is all the commercials they show late at night! Operación Triunfo would last about two hours, but with all the commercials, it lasts over three hours in total! It’s ridiculous.
Toby: They shouldn’t show children’s programs until so late. I imagine that many children are also very tired today in their schools.
Alba: Well, it’s not really a children’s show, but I imagine a lot of young people watch it, yes.
Toby: What time did you get up?
Alba: I got up at 7.30 this morning. It’s lucky that I live so close. I haven’t had breakfast though. I am very hungry.
Toby: And you were late this morning.
Alba: I don’t think anyone has noticed, do you?
Toby: I’m pretty sure the boss did. Nothing ever escapes him.
Alba: Oh no!
Toby: You should probably tidy your hair a bit too.
Alba: What’s wrong with my hair?
Toby: Well, it looks a little messy.
Alba: Right. Well, I didn’t have time to brush my teeth, either.
Toby: Mmmhh okay.

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!