Reading Practice: Comprehension and Translation into English - My Neighbourhood
Spanish can put the wrong word in the subject's seat. Who actually likes the shops, why one small word must not be translated at all, and why two negatives make one.
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Who is doing what? 📖
This module assumes the vocabulary and the grammar. What it teaches is the particular way Spanish catches a translator out. German hides the verb at the end of the clause. **Spanish does something subtler: it hands you a sentence whose subject is not who you think it is**, and then adds a small word that looks translatable and is not. Everything below works on one short paragraph written for this module.
The verb that runs backwards 🔄
Read these two columns across. **Me gustan las tiendas** does not mean what its word order suggests, and the agreement is the clue.
Four things to watch for 🗂️
Each one appears in the passage you are about to work on:
Match each phrase to its English
- me gustan las tiendas
- no hay nada
- una calle larga
- veo a mi vecino
- I like the shops
- there is nothing
- a long street
- I see my neighbour
Where is the subject not the person? 💛
An interactive activity.
Which small word stays behind? 🅰️
An interactive activity.
Which translation is correct? ❓
How should "Me gustan las tiendas de mi calle" be translated?
- I like the shops on my street
- The shops on my street like me
- I like the shop on my street
- I liked the shops on my street
Which would lose marks? ✅
Select the TWO that would cost you marks in a translation.
- Translating "no hay nada" as "there isn't nothing"
- Translating "larga" as "large"
- Writing "I like the shops" rather than "the shops please me"
- Writing "shops" rather than "stores"
The words that look helpful 🪤
Spanish gives an English speaker a great deal for free, which is why the few that look free and are not do so much damage. **largo** is **long**. Large is **grande**. **el éxito** is **success**. An exit is **la salida**. **sensible** means **sensitive**. Sensible is **sensato**. **The check that saves you**: read the sentence back with your guess in it and ask whether it is something a person would actually say about the thing being described. "A large street" is not wrong English, which is exactly why largo is more dangerous than a word that produces nonsense.
Order the method 🪜
An interactive activity.
In the exam 🧭
An interactive activity.
Complete the translation 📝
I live in a quiet neighbourhood near the centre. I _____ the shops on my street, but there is _____ for young people in the afternoon. My street is very _____, and from my window I see _____ walking his dog every day. Last year the cinema _____, and now we go to the centre on Saturdays.
Your turn 📄
An interactive activity.