Islands in the Sea: Spanish Reading (A1)
Carla in Madrid wants her letter to reach a friend on an island. An A1 Spanish story about the Balearics, the Canaries, and Teide.
Islas en el mar
Tap any word to see its translation
. , , . . . , , . . . .
, . . , , . . . . , . . . . .
. . . , . . : . . .
. . : , . . .
. , , . , . . .
Keep reading with translations
Create a free account: 7 days of Pro, then 20 word translations a day or a paid plan.
About this article
What you'll learn
hay and estar for place, ser for descriptions, el más grande, and se llama.
Carla lives in Madrid and writes a letter to Lucía, who is on an island. She first writes only Spain, and her mother explains that an island is land with water around it. Spain has two large groups. The Balearic Islands are in the Mediterranean: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. Mallorca is the largest, and Lucía lives there. The Canary Islands are in the Atlantic, near Africa. There are seven large islands. The largest is Tenerife. They are volcanic. Teide, on Tenerife, is a volcano and the highest mountain in Spain, more than three thousand meters high. In the Caribbean, Spanish is spoken in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Cuba is the largest Caribbean island and is not Spain. On the Canaries there is sun on many days of the year, and in winter many people travel there. The text does not describe the weather in Mallorca. Carla addresses the letter to Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain.
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.
están cerca de África
newthey are near Africa
Hay introduces something for the first time: hay siete islas. Estar says where an already known thing is: las Canarias están cerca de África. Hay goes with a new, unnamed thing; estar with one that already has a name.
The text uses hay four times and estar four times, so you can compare them all the way through.
Los pájaros vuelan sobre el mar
newthe birds fly over the sea
Volar looks like a regular -ar verb, but the o of the stem becomes ue when the stress falls on it: vuelo, vuelas, vuela, vuelan. Nosotros and vosotros keep the o: volamos, voláis.
Two more verbs in this text do the same: llueve, from llover (o to ue), and quieres, from querer (e to ie).
la gente habla español
newpeople speak Spanish
La gente means people, but it is grammatically singular in Spanish, so the verb is habla, not hablan.
Saying la gente hablan is one of the commonest beginner errors.
los peces nadan cerca de la playa
newthe fish swim near the beach
Nadar is a regular -ar verb and nadan is the ellos form. Note the noun: el pez is a fish in the sea, el pescado is fish on the plate.
Spanish keeps two separate words where English has one.
hace sol casi todo el año
newit is sunny almost all year
Spanish weather uses hacer plus a noun: hace sol, hace frío, hace viento. Rain works differently: llueve is a verb with no subject at all.
Never say es sol or está sol; the pattern is hacer plus a noun.
es la isla más grande del Caribe
newit is the biggest island in the Caribbean
The superlative is el, la, los or las plus más plus the adjective. After it Spanish uses de, not en: la isla más grande del Caribe.
The text uses this form four times: Mallorca, Tenerife, the Teide and Cuba.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
isla
isla
island
Una isla is land with water all around it. Feminine: la isla, las islas.
It names both Spanish archipelagos: las Islas Baleares and las Islas Canarias.
pájaros
pájaros
birds
El pájaro is a small bird. Note the written accent: the stress falls on the first syllable, pá-ja-ro.
A very common word that you cannot guess from English.
arena
arena
sand
La arena is sand. It is a false friend: an English arena is un estadio or una plaza in Spanish.
One of the words most likely to mislead an English speaker.
viento
viento
wind
El viento is wind. It also appears in the weather phrase hace viento, it is windy.
It pairs with hace sol in the same paragraph.
playa
playa
beach
La playa is the strip of sand at the edge of the sea. Feminine: la playa, las playas.
One of the first place words you need on the coast.
el agua
el agua
the water
Agua is feminine but takes el in the singular, because it begins with a stressed a. The plural is normal, las aguas, and the adjective stays feminine: el agua está fría.
The same rule gives el águila and el aula.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
hay: existence
En el mundo hay muchas islas
there is, there are
Hay never changes: one form for singular and plural, hay una isla and hay muchas islas. No article follows it.
One Spanish word covers what English splits into two.
ser + adjective
Algunas son muy pequeñas y otras son muy grandes
son + adjective
Son is the ellos form of ser and describes lasting qualities: son pequeñas, son grandes, son volcánicas. The adjective agrees in gender and number.
Compare estar in the same text: están en el Atlántico is location, not a quality.
llamarse
La isla más grande se llama Tenerife
to be called
Llamarse conjugates like an ordinary verb with a pronoun in front: me llamo, te llamas, se llama, se llaman.
It is the same verb you introduce yourself with: me llamo Ana.
Present regular: -ar
Muchos turistas viajan a las islas en invierno
present tense, -ar verbs
Regular -ar verbs take -an for ellos: viajar gives viajan, nadar gives nadan, and hablar gives habla in the singular.
Three verbs in this text follow the pattern: viajan, nadan, habla.
Read a book in Spanish
All A1 books
Comments
Log in to leave a comment
LoginNo comments yet. Be the first!