Elena's First Gym: The Treadmill Has Two Names (A1)
Elena wants to go in and not turn back. In Spain the machine is a cinta de correr. Her cousin in Mexico calls it a caminadora. She walks, and she stays. A Spanish A1 reading.
El gimnasio
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About this article
What you'll learn
present tense, querer plus a verb, gym words: zapatillas, cinta de correr, caminadora, pesas, pádel
Elena stands at the gym door with water and a towel and does not want to leave. It is her first time. Her sister Clara brings her in the morning, because the afternoon is busy with people who come after work. In the changing room Elena puts on zapatillas, the Spanish word for these sports shoes. Clara says gimnasio comes from Greek and once meant without clothes. Today they wear shirts. The instructor Raquel asks what Elena wants. Elena wants to run, but she only knows the word her cousin Andrés in Mexico used: caminadora. Raquel says the same machine is a cinta de correr, and that she should walk first. Elena wants to step off. She sees the street door. She stays. Afterward Clara mentions pádel, a game from Mexico, for another day. Elena texts Andrés the Spanish name and plans to come back on Thursday.
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.
van al gimnasio
newthey go to the gym
A + el always contracts to al: van al gimnasio, ir al gimnasio, al principio, juegan al pádel. A + la never contracts.
One of only two contractions in Spanish (the other is de + el = del), and both run through this text.
hacer ejercicio
newto exercise
Hacer ejercicio means to work out. The noun stays singular and takes no article: hacer ejercicio, never hacer el ejercicio.
The collocation the whole article is built on, and the normal way to say you train.
Por la mañana
newin the morning
Spanish marks the part of the day with por: por la mañana, por la tarde, por la noche. In Spain por la mañana is the normal form; en la mañana is heard in Latin America.
The text uses this set six times, and it is how you say when you do anything at all.
levantan pesas
newthey lift weights
Levantan is the ellos form of levantar; las pesas are the weights themselves.
Names strength training, the counterpart to the cardio in the same paragraph.
perder peso
newto lose weight
Perder peso is to lose weight. Perder changes its stem when stressed: yo pierdo, tú pierdes.
One of the two goals the text names for going to the gym, alongside ganar músculo.
ropa cómoda
newcomfortable clothes
The adjective follows the noun and agrees with it: ropa cómoda (feminine singular), pantalones cortos (masculine plural), zapatos deportivos.
Adjective order is the opposite of English, and this one paragraph gives you three pairs.
empezar despacio
newto start slowly
Empezar despacio is the standard advice for a first session. Empezar changes its stem too: yo empiezo, tú empiezas.
Practical phrase from the first-visit section, and another stem-changing verb.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Gimnasio
gimnasio
gym
Gimnasio comes from the Greek gymnós, which means naked: that is how athletes trained in ancient Greece.
The central word of the article, and an origin you can repeat to someone tomorrow.
Mancuernas
mancuernas
dumbbells
Mancuernas are the free weights you hold, one in each hand, as opposed to a machine that holds the weight for you.
Completely opaque word: nothing in it resembles dumbbell, so it has to be learned outright.
Cinta de correr
cintas de correr
treadmill
A cinta is a belt or a ribbon, so a cinta de correr is a running belt. In Mexico the same machine is usually called a caminadora.
Gym vocabulary shifts between Spain and Latin America, and this is the clearest example in the text.
Toalla
toalla
towel
Toalla is a towel. In a gym a small one is enough, for the sweat on you and on the machine.
Everyday object with a word that gives an English speaker no clue.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Para + infinitive
Muchas personas van al gimnasio
many people go to the gym to exercise
Para + infinitive gives the purpose: para hacer ejercicio, para entrenar el cuerpo, para correr, para perder peso, para proteger los pies, para secar el sudor. The second verb is never conjugated.
The most repeated structure in the article and the standard answer to why anyone does anything.
Ser: es
El gimnasio es un lugar especial
the gym is a special place
Es + noun says what a thing is: el gimnasio es un lugar especial.
Ser for identity, against the está of «no todo el ejercicio está en el gimnasio», which marks place.
Hay: there is, there are
En el gimnasio hay diferentes tipos de máquinas
in the gym there are different kinds of machines
Hay never changes: hay diferentes tipos, hay clases de grupo, hay menos gente, hay más personas, hay pistas de pádel.
A single form for both singular and plural, and the text uses it eight times.
Ayudar a + infinitive
El ejercicio también ayuda a sentirse feliz
exercise also helps you feel happy
Ayudar takes a before an infinitive: ayuda a sentirse feliz, ayudan a conocer gente nueva. Sentirse is reflexive and stem-changing: me siento, te sientes.
Ayudar a is a fixed pattern the text uses twice, and sentirse is one more stem-changing verb.
Verbs that change their stem
cierran tarde por la noche
they close late at night
Some verbs change the vowel in their stem when it is stressed: cerrar gives cierran, volver gives se vuelve, poder gives puedes, preferir gives prefieres. The infinitive keeps the original vowel.
Someone who learned cerrar will not recognise cierran. This is the main barrier in the text, and four different verbs do it.
Impersonal se
Se necesitan zapatos deportivos
you need sports shoes
With impersonal se nobody in particular is doing the action, and the verb agrees with the thing: se necesitan zapatos (plural), se dice cinta de correr (singular). Also se llaman cintas de correr, se llaman zapatillas.
Spanish uses this where English reaches for a vague you or people, and the text has it four times.
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