Las Fallas and La Tomatina: Two Valencian Festivals
Nuria prefers the Fallas in March, Héctor the Tomatina in August. An A1 Spanish reading about two real festivals in the Valencia region.
Dos amigos y dos fiestas valencianas
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Two friends from Valencia each choose a different festival. The text describes the Fallas in March, where almost every figure is burned but the one chosen by public vote goes to a museum, and La Tomatina in Buñol on the last Wednesday of August, where the tomato has to be squashed before it is thrown. It ends with three questions for the reader.
A Nuria le gustan las Fallas. Es la fiesta más importante de la ciudad y llega en marzo. Durante unos días hay figuras enormes en muchas plazas. Muchas figuras son cómicas: hablan de política y de las noticias del año.
La última noche queman casi todas las figuras en la calle. Pero hay una excepción. Antes de esa noche, el público vota por su muñeco favorito, y ese muñeco no va al fuego: va a un museo de la ciudad.
A Héctor le gusta más otra fiesta: la Tomatina. Es en Buñol, un pueblo pequeño cerca de la ciudad de Valencia. Cada año, el último miércoles de agosto, llegan miles de personas a la plaza del pueblo. Unos camiones traen los tomates y empieza la batalla.
Hay una regla importante: antes de lanzar, cada persona aplasta el tomate con la mano. Así el tomate es blando y no hace daño. La batalla dura una hora. Después, el agua limpia las calles del pueblo.
A muchos turistas les encanta esta batalla de agosto. Buñol es un pueblo tranquilo casi todo el año, pero ese miércoles las calles están rojas.
Nuria y Héctor viven cerca de las dos fiestas: una con fuego en marzo y otra con agua en agosto. Ellos no tienen los mismos gustos, pero sí tienen suerte.
¿Te gustan las fiestas con mucha gente en la calle? ¿Qué fiesta prefieres, la de marzo o la de agosto? ¿Hay una fiesta especial en tu ciudad?
About this article
What you'll learn
The gustar and encantar construction with le and les, third person plural with no subject, «antes de» plus infinitive, and festival vocabulary from Valencia.
Two friends from Valencia each choose a different festival. The text describes the Fallas in March, where almost every figure is burned but the one chosen by public vote goes to a museum, and La Tomatina in Buñol on the last Wednesday of August, where the tomato has to be squashed before it is thrown. It ends with three questions for the reader.
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.
no hace daño
newit does not hurt
Spanish says «hacer daño» (to do harm) where English uses the single verb «hurt». The subject here is «el tomate», so the verb is singular: «hace».
Everyday way to say that something is harmless.
sí tienen suerte
newthey really are lucky
Spanish says «tener suerte» (to have luck), not «to be lucky». The accented «sí» adds emphasis and is a different word from «si» (if).
Two things in one short line: a fixed expression with «tener», and emphatic «sí».
el último miércoles de agosto
newthe last Wednesday of August
A day of the week takes the article «el»: «el último miércoles». Days of the week are written in lower case in Spanish.
Standard way to name a date that comes back every year.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Squashes
aplasta
squashes, crushes flat
From «aplastar» (to squash flat). «Cada persona aplasta» is the third person singular of the present tense.
The rule of the festival depends on this verb: squash the tomato first.
«un muñeco»
muñeco
a figure, a doll
«Muñeco» is a doll or figure. At Las Fallas it names the individual figures that make up the big monuments.
You need this word to follow what exactly is saved from the fire.
Soft
blando
soft to the touch
«Blando» is the opposite of «duro» (hard). It is not English «bland»; food with no taste is «soso».
A false friend that changes the meaning of the whole sentence.
People
gente
people
«Gente» is grammatically singular even though it means many people: «mucha gente», never «muchas gentes».
The agreement trips up learners whose own language treats people as plural.
Trucks
camiones
lorries, trucks
The singular «camión» carries a written accent; the plural «camiones» loses it, because the stress now falls on the second to last syllable.
An accent that disappears in the plural is a common spelling mistake.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Gustar: the thing liked is the subject
A Nuria le gustan las Fallas
Nuria likes the Fallas
Spanish does not say «Nuria likes X». It says «X pleases Nuria». «Las Fallas» is the subject, so the verb is plural «gustan», and Nuria appears as the pronoun «le».
Get this inversion backwards and every sentence with «gustar» comes out wrong.
«A + person» and «le» go together
A Héctor le gusta más otra fiesta
Héctor prefers a different festival
The pronoun «le» stays even when the person is already named: «A Héctor le gusta». Here the subject is «otra fiesta», singular, so the verb is «gusta».
Dropping «le» once the name is mentioned is the most common mistake with this verb.
«Les» when the people are plural
A muchos turistas les encanta esta batalla de agosto
many tourists love this August battle
When the people are more than one, the pronoun is «les»: «A muchos turistas les encanta». «Encantar» works exactly like «gustar» but is stronger, so it never takes «muy».
One sentence gives you the plural pronoun and the strongest verb of the family.
Third person plural with no subject
queman casi todas las figuras
they burn almost all the figures
Spanish uses the third person plural with no subject where English uses the passive: «queman las figuras» means «the figures are burned». Nobody in particular is named.
This form is everywhere in news and descriptions, and it looks like a sentence with a missing subject.
«Antes de» plus the infinitive
antes de lanzar
before throwing
After «antes de» Spanish uses the plain infinitive, never a conjugated verb: «antes de lanzar», «antes de comer».
Lets you put two actions in order inside one short sentence.
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