In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice more using Regular Spanish Verbs in Present Tense. 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 these video lessons with information relevant to this topic:

Spanish verbs in Present Tense (Part 1)

Spanish verbs in Present Tense (Part 2)

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Spanish Text

María: ¿Cómo te apellidas Juan?
Juan: Fernández Silva.
María: Eso es. Conozco a tu madre y a tu padre. También a tu hermana Silvia.
Juan: ¿Conoces a mi hermana Sara?
María: ¿Sara es más joven o más mayor que Silvia?
Juan: Un poco más mayor.
María: Igual no. Soy de la edad de Silvia. Recuerdo a Silvia del colegio.
Juan: Y tú María, ¿cómo te apellidas?
María: Pérez Ruiz.
Juan: Sí, yo conozco a tu familia. Vivís en el barrio Lavapiés, ¿verdad?
María: Exactamente.
Juan: Sois una familia grande también, ¿no?
María: Sí, bastante grande. Somos diez en casa. Y tenemos más tíos y tías por Madrid.
Juan: ¡Diez en casa!
María: Trabajamos juntos también. Menos mi abuelo y mi abuela. Todos mis hermanos, yo y mi madre trabajamos en la fábrica de mi padre.
Juan: ¿Coméis juntos?
María: Sí, el desayuno, la comida y la cena, todos los días.
Juan: ¿Y cómo lo lleváis?
María: Muy bien, la verdad. Necesitamos uno o dos baños más y hacemos mucho ruido pero hay mucho amor en la casa. Hablamos mucho. ¡Gritamos mucho también!
Juan: Hay mucho ruido en nuestra casa también. Hay menos personas pero nos gusta mucho la música y escuchamos música todo rato. El problema es que a todos nos gusta música diferente. Escuchamos música heavy, clásica, jazz, tecno y flamenco al mismo tiempo. ¡Es horrible!

English Text

María: What are your surnames Juan?
Juan: Fernández Silva.
María: That’s right. I know your mother and your father. Also your sister Silvia.
Juan: Do you know my sister Sara?
María: Is Sara younger or older than Silvia?
Juan: A little older.
María: Probably not. I am Silvia’s age. I remember Silvia from school.
Juan: And you María, what are your surnames?
María: Pérez Ruiz.
Juan: Yes, I know your family. You live in the Lavapiés neighborhood, right?
Maria: Exactly.
Juan: You are a big family too, right?
María: Yes, quite big. There are ten of us at home. And we have more aunts and uncles in Madrid.
Juan: Ten at home!
María: We work together as well. Except my grandfather and my grandmother. All my brothers, me and my mother work in my father’s factory.
Juan: Do you eat together?
María: Yes, breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day.
Juan: And how do you find this?
Maria: Very good, really. We need one or two more bathrooms and we make a lot of noise, but there is a lot of love in the house. We talk a lot. We shout a lot too!
Juan: There is a lot of noise in our house too. There are fewer people but we like music very much and listen to music all the time. The problem is that we all like different music. We listen to heavy metal, classical music, jazz, techno and flamenco music all at the same time. It’s awful!

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!