A churro at San Ginés (A1)
On Sunday morning Andrés wants a ridged churro at Chocolatería San Ginés in Madrid. An A1 story about the star tube, thick chocolate and porras.
El churro con chocolate
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About this article
What you'll learn
present tense, food and texture words, por fuera and por dentro
Andrés wants a long, freshly fried churro with chocolate. On Sunday morning he and his sister Marta go to Chocolatería San Ginés in Madrid, which is more than a hundred years old and open almost all night. He watches the dough come through a star-shaped tube, so the churro has ridges. It fries until golden, crisp outside and soft inside. Marta says the dough is flour, water and salt. Porras on the table are thicker and softer, and she sugars hers. The chocolate is thick and sweet, almost a cream, and often has a little cornstarch. Marta says many churros in Mexico have cinnamon sugar, and that nobody knows for sure where churros come from: one story tells of shepherds in the mountains of Spain, another says the recipe comes from China. Andrés dips the last piece and does not answer.
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.
Es un desayuno tradicional y delicioso
newIt is a traditional and delicious breakfast
Ser + adjective describes a stable quality. The subject is left out because es already shows who or what.
Say what a dish is like in one short sentence.
El churro tiene forma larga
newThe churro has a long shape
Spanish uses tener + noun where English often uses to be: tiene forma larga, tiene hambre, tiene cinco años.
One of the biggest differences between the two languages, and it comes up constantly.
color dorado y crujiente por fuera
newgolden colour and crispy on the outside
Ser de + colour states what colour something is. Por fuera means on the outside, and it pairs with por dentro.
Half of the pair every food description in Spanish uses.
Por dentro es suave y esponjoso
newinside it is soft and fluffy
Por dentro is the opposite of por fuera. The adjectives agree with el churro, which is masculine: esponjoso, not esponjosa.
The other half of the pair, and a clear example of masculine agreement.
Es una combinación perfecta
newIt is a perfect combination
Una combinación is feminine, so the adjective is perfecta. Nouns ending in -ción are always feminine.
The -ción rule covers hundreds of words and never fails.
Es un placer para el desayuno o la merienda
newIt is a treat for breakfast or for the afternoon snack
Para marks the purpose or the occasion. Note the articles: el desayuno, la merienda, where English uses none.
Spanish keeps the article with meals; English drops it.
La gente sumerge los churros en el chocolate
newPeople dip the churros in the chocolate
La gente is singular in Spanish, so the verb is sumerge, not sumergen. Sumergir en means to dip into.
La gente with a singular verb is a classic mistake for learners.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
el churro
churro
a stick of fried dough, typical of Spain
El churro is masculine: el churro, los churros. The person who makes them is el churrero, and the shop is la churrería.
The word the whole text is built on, plus the family of words around it.
masa frita
masa frita
fried dough
Frita is the past participle of freír used as an adjective, and it agrees with la masa: masa frita, patatas fritas.
Frito and frita appear on menus all over the Spanish-speaking world.
la churrería
churrería
a shop that makes and sells churros
The ending -ería names the shop: churrería, panadería (bakery), librería (bookshop), cafetería. Learn the pattern and you get dozens of words at once.
One suffix that unlocks the name of almost every kind of shop.
espeso
espeso
thick, dense (of a liquid)
Espeso, espesa describes a liquid that is thick, not an object that is fat. For a thick book you say grueso.
Two different words where English uses only thick.
crujiente
crujiente
crispy, crunchy
Crujiente ends in -e, so it has one form for masculine and feminine: un churro crujiente, una tostada crujiente.
Adjectives in -e never change for gender, which makes them easy.
esponjoso
esponjoso
fluffy, airy inside
Esponjoso, esponjosa comes from la esponja, a sponge. It agrees with its noun: el churro esponjoso, la masa esponjosa.
The standard word for a soft, airy inside, in any bakery.
la merienda
merienda
the afternoon snack, between lunch and dinner
Spanish meals have their own names: el desayuno, la comida, la merienda, la cena. The verb is merendar.
There is no English word for it, because the meal itself is Spanish.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
SER + adjective (description)
ser + adjetivo (descripción)
el churro ES un dulce, es delicioso
Ser in the present: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son. It says what something is and what it is like: el churro es un dulce, es delicioso, el chocolate es espeso.
The verb behind almost every description in this text.
TENER + noun (characteristic)
tener + sustantivo (característica)
el churro TIENE forma larga
Tener in the present: tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen. The e becomes ie in tienes, tiene and tienen. Tengo is irregular in a different way, with a g.
Ser and tener divide the work of description between them; mixing them up is the commonest beginner error.
Impersonal SE
los churros se comen
los churros SE comen, churros are eaten
Se + a third person verb says what people do in general, with no named subject: se comen, se sirve, se dice, se habla español. The verb agrees with the thing: se come un churro, se comen los churros.
How Spanish states a custom or a rule without saying who does it, and it is everywhere in recipes, signs and menus.
Present tense: regular and irregular
La gente come churros con chocolate caliente
la gente COME churros, el aire HUELE a azúcar
Regular present endings: comer gives como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen. But oler is irregular and adds an h: huele. Oler a means to smell of.
Shows the regular pattern and one of the irregulars the text actually uses.
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