My Father Under the Paso (A1)
Beginner Spanish story: on Seville's Madrugá, someone looks for grey laces under a Holy Week float.
Quiero ver a mi padre en la Madrugá
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About this article
What you'll learn
Present tense and the verb querer, with Holy Week words: hermandad, paso, nazareno, capirote, costalero and torrija.
On the Madrugá in Seville, the night from Holy Thursday to Good Friday, the narrator wants to see their father. He is a costalero under the paso, so only his feet show. Nazarenos in tunics and tall capirotes walk ahead, a band plays slowly, and the float carries an image of the Virgin. Their mother mentions torrijas at home. The narrator stays until the grey laces appear.
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.
ves, escuchas y sientes
newyou see, you hear and you feel
Three tú forms in a row: ver gives ves, escuchar gives escuchas, and sentir gives sientes, with the e turning into ie.
The only place in the text that speaks to you directly, and sentir is stem-changing: siento, sientes, siente, but sentimos and sentís.
ocurre en primavera
newit happens in spring
Ocurrir means to happen and is used in the third person: ocurre, ocurren. Seasons and months take en: en primavera, en marzo.
Spanish needs no article here: en primavera, not en la primavera.
Las calles de las ciudades españolas se llenan de música y tradición
newthe streets fill with music and tradition
Llenarse de means to fill up with something. The de is obligatory: se llenan de música, never se llenan con música.
Works for any crowded place: la plaza se llena de gente.
la gente carga
newthe people carry
La gente means people but is grammatically singular, so the verb stays singular: la gente carga, la gente va, la gente come.
Saying la gente cargan is the classic mistake, because your own language treats people as plural.
se llaman costaleros
newthey are called costaleros
Llamarse is the reflexive verb used for names: me llamo, se llama, se llaman. Here it names a role.
Costaleros carry the paso from underneath and cannot see the street; a capataz outside tells them where to go.
Si visitas España en primavera
newif you visit Spain in spring
A real condition takes si + present, then present: si visitas, es. Spanish never puts a future or a subjunctive after this si.
Si visitarás and si visites are both wrong. The rule is si + present, even though your language may use a future here.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Brotherhood
la hermandad
brotherhood, confraternity
Una hermandad is a group attached to a church that looks after its images and organises its own procession. From hermano, brother.
Seville has many, and each one has its own colour of tunic, its own hour and its own route through the city.
Pointed hoods
los capirotes
capirotes
El capirote is the tall cone that holds up the hood of a nazareno and covers the face.
The point of it is anonymity: the penitent walks through the city without being recognised.
Nazarenos
los nazarenos
nazarenos
Los nazarenos are the hooded penitents who walk in the procession, many of them carrying a candle.
They walk in silence for hours, sometimes barefoot. They are not the ones carrying the paso.
Pasos (floats)
los pasos
pasos, procession floats
Un paso is the platform that carries the image. The same word also means a step, so context decides.
In Málaga they are called tronos instead, and they are bigger.
Salt cod
el bacalao
salt cod
El bacalao is cod, usually salted and dried, which is why it keeps without a fridge.
It is eaten in Holy Week because many people avoid meat on those days.
Torrijas
las torrijas
torrijas
Torrijas are slices of bread soaked in milk with egg and sugar, then fried and dusted with cinnamon.
The Holy Week sweet in Spain, and a way of using up bread that has gone stale.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Ser + adjective
La Semana Santa es una fiesta muy importante en España
Holy Week is a very important holiday
Ser is used for what something is by nature, not for a passing state: la Semana Santa es importante.
Use estar for a temporary condition: las calles están llenas hoy, but la fiesta es importante always.
Hay for existence
En Sevilla hay muchas hermandades
in Seville there are many brotherhoods
Hay says that something exists, and it never changes for number: hay una hermandad, hay muchas hermandades.
Hay introduces something new. For something already identified use está or están: la hermandad está en la iglesia.
Necesitar and para + infinitive
un solo paso necesita veinte o más personas para salir a la calle
one paso needs twenty or more people to go out into the street
Necesitar takes a noun here (necesita personas), and the purpose comes from para + infinitive (para salir). Necesitar can also take an infinitive directly: necesito descansar.
Para + infinitive answers what for. Salir a la calle is the set phrase for a procession going out.
Superlative: el/la más ... de
Sevilla tiene la Semana Santa más famosa de España
Seville has the most famous Holy Week in Spain
The superlative is el/la + noun + más + adjective + de: la Semana Santa más famosa de España. The adjective agrees, so famosa is feminine.
Note de where English says in. The text uses the pattern again in la noche más importante.
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