The Common Swift in the Air | Spanish A1
An A1 Spanish reading about the common swift, its flight, migration and nests in buildings.
El vencejo común: casi siempre en el aire
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About this article
What you'll learn
Basic bird vocabulary, present-tense descriptions, time expressions and simple questions.
A factual text, with no fictional scene, about the common swift. It explains its dark body, long curved wings, aerial life, diet of flying insects, spring breeding in Spain, migration south of the Sahara and nests in building cavities.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
pasa la mayor parte de su vida en el aire
newspends most of its life in the air
Use pasar la mayor parte de su vida to say where or how an animal spends most of its life.
It helps describe an animal's typical way of life.
se parece a una golondrina
newlooks like a swallow
Parecerse a means to look like or resemble someone or something.
It is useful when comparing animals and objects.
a finales de julio
newat the end of July
A finales de names the last part of a month or period.
It helps place an event in time.
al sur del Sahara
newsouth of the Sahara
Al sur de tells us that a place is located or a movement goes south of another place.
It is useful for simple geography and travel descriptions.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Swift
vencejo
swift
A vencejo is a bird with long wings that spends much of its life flying.
This is the key bird name in the article.
Wings
alas
wings
Alas are the parts a bird uses to fly.
A basic word for describing birds.
Throat
garganta
throat
Garganta is the front part of the neck.
It appears in descriptions of people and animals.
Opening
hueco
opening; cavity
A hueco is an empty opening or space inside something.
It helps describe where some birds make nests.
Insects
insectos
insects
Insectos are small animals such as flies, mosquitoes and ants.
A common nature and animal-food word.
Nest
nido
nest
A nido is the place where a bird lays eggs and raises its chicks.
A basic word for reading about birds.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Adjectives agree
El vencejo común tiene alas largas y estrechas.
The common swift has long, narrow wings.
Largas and estrechas are feminine plural because they describe alas.
Agreement makes descriptions grammatically correct.
Present tense
Come insectos pequeños mientras vuela.
It eats small insects while it flies.
Come and vuela are present-tense forms for él or ella.
The present tense describes regular animal behaviour.
Plural present
Después, estas aves viajan al sur del Sahara.
Afterwards, these birds travel south of the Sahara.
Viajan ends in -an because the subject estas aves is plural.
This pattern helps connect a plural subject to its verb.
Question with qué
¿Qué ave ves en el cielo?
What bird do you see in the sky?
Qué asks for the identity or type of a thing.
It helps ask simple questions about what someone sees.
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