El Museo del Prado abrió con 311 pinturas

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5 free word translations

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. 1785. .
, . , , . 19 1819.
. 311 . .
. 1819, 1.510 . .
. . .
, . . , .
, . 1656 . , . .
. . .
¿ ? ¿ ? ¿ ?

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About this article

Level A2 Reading focus

What you'll learn

museum history, abrió sus puertas, catalogue, collections, canvas, past descriptions, direct object lo

A factual A2 reading explains how Madrid's Prado building changed purpose, opened in 1819 with 311 Spanish paintings, and grew from the royal collections.

After reading

Article learning block

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

14 items

Phrases for training

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

abrió sus puertas

new

opened its doors

This expression means that a place began receiving visitors.

Useful for museums, shops, and public buildings.

durante siglos

new

for centuries

It describes an action or process that continued across many centuries.

Useful when discussing long historical periods.

Al principio

new

at first

It introduces the first stage of a story or process.

Useful for organizing a story in time.

pasó a ser

new

became

Pasar a ser marks a change from one identity or role to another.

Useful for describing historical changes.

Key words

Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.

Designed

diseñó

designed

Diseñó is the past form used for a completed act of designing.

Useful when talking about buildings and objects.

Cabinet

Gabinete

the cabinet

Here gabinete means an institution or collection for scientific study.

Helps with historical texts about science and institutions.

Catalogue

catálogo

the catalogue

A catalogue is an organized list of works or objects.

Useful in museums, libraries, and shops.

Kept

guardaba

kept

Guardaba describes what the museum kept over a period in the past.

Useful for describing collections and storage.

To collect

reunir

to collect

Reunir can mean bringing several objects together into a collection.

Useful for art, books, and groups of objects.

Canvas

lienzo

the canvas

Lienzo is the fabric support used for many paintings.

A key word in museum descriptions.

Grammar in context

Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.

Direct object pronoun lo

lo diseñó

he designed it

Lo replaces the masculine noun el edificio and goes before the verb.

It avoids repeating the same noun.

Past existence with había

había unas 1.510 obras

there were about 1,510 works

Había expresses that something existed at a time in the past.

Useful for historical descriptions.

Earlier past with habían reunido

habían reunido

had collected them

Habían reunido presents an action completed before another past moment.

It connects two moments in a historical account.

Question with qué

¿Qué cuadro quieres ver primero?

Which painting do you want to see first?

Qué asks for the identity of a thing and carries a written accent in a question.