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Nora Crosses the Street: Spanish A1 Reading

A short A1 Spanish story about Nora using a pavement, pedestrian crossing and traffic light on an imaginary walk to school.

El cruce de Nora camino a la escuela

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About this article

Level A1 Reading focus

What you'll learn

street vocabulary, sequence words, tener que, hay, present tense questions

Nora and her father follow basic DGT pedestrian guidance on a fictional walk to school. The A1 text models short present-tense sentences and three questions.

After reading

Article learning block

Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.

16 items

Phrases for training

Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.

camino a la escuela

new

on the way to school

Camino a indicates movement toward a destination.

Useful for describing a regular route.

Antes del bordillo

new

before the curb

The curb is the raised edge between the pavement and the road.

Useful for locating a stopping point.

a la izquierda

new

to the left

A la izquierda indicates a direction.

Useful for giving and following directions.

a la derecha

new

to the right

A la derecha indicates the opposite direction from left.

Useful for giving and following directions.

en línea recta

new

in a straight line

The movement continues without turning to either side.

Useful for describing a route.

Key words

Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.

Pavement

la acera

pavement

The part of an urban street intended for pedestrians.

A basic word for moving around a town.

Pedestrian crossing

un paso de peatones

a pedestrian crossing

A marked place where pedestrians cross a road.

Essential street vocabulary.

White lines

líneas blancas

white lines

Líneas is the plural of línea; blancas agrees in feminine plural.

Useful for noticing noun and adjective agreement.

Traffic light

el semáforo

traffic light

A light signal that controls when traffic or pedestrians may move.

Essential vocabulary for street crossings.

A green pedestrian figure

un peatón verde

a green pedestrian figure

Here peatón refers to the green human figure shown by the pedestrian signal.

Useful for understanding pedestrian traffic lights.

Parked cars

coches aparcados

parked cars

Vehicles that have been left standing in a parking place.

Useful for describing a street scene.

Grammar in context

Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.

Question with miras

¿Miras a los dos lados?

Do you look both ways?

The inverted opening mark and the final question mark frame a Spanish question; miras addresses tú.

Useful for asking another person about a habit.

Plural subject with van

Nora y su padre van

Nora and her father go

Nora y su padre is a plural subject, so ir takes the form van.

Useful for matching a verb to two people.

Hay for existence

Hay un paso de peatones

there is a pedestrian crossing

Hay introduces the existence of something and does not change for singular or plural.

Useful for describing what is in a place.

Obligation with tienen que

tienen que esperar

they have to wait

Tener que plus infinitive expresses an obligation; tienen agrees with the plural subject.

Useful for saying what people must do.

Negation with no

no corre

does not run

No goes directly before the conjugated verb corre.

Useful for saying that an action does not happen.

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