V. Don Félix está aquí
. , . , , . , . , . , .
« », . « , , ...»
«¡ , ! , . , .»
Moratín’s comedy, adapted for A2
The Maidens’ Consent El sí de las niñas
Leandro Fernández de Moratín
This is a retelling of The Maidens’ Consent (El sí de las niñas) in simple Spanish, not the original text: MovaReader turned the stage comedy into a story told in prose with dialogue, without the stage directions, the old spelling and the long tirades. If you were looking for Moratín’s play in Spanish and the complete B2 text is still too hard, this is the same story, one you can actually finish at A2. In the catalog it is A2: about 7,000 words, 9 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading. Its fourteen chapters follow the play’s three acts through one night at an inn in Alcalá de Henares.
- A2
- 6 964 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and polite usted will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (salió, esperaba, daba, tocaba), with 9 words per sentence on average, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: one night, one place, a few characters and lively dialogue in the past tenses you know; rare words are few, and the one line kept from the original is explained by the text itself.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy evening’s read; next try Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio retold for B1 (11 words per sentence, 4.5% long words) or Moratín’s original at B2.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words, as in the Spanish A2 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (9), a little shorter than the retelling of The Trickster of Seville (10) and clearly longer than in A1 adaptations (5-7). A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 67 words (1.5%): less often than in Romeo and Juliet (2.1%) or The Trickster of Seville (2.3%), because the whole story is everyday talk at a single inn. The narration runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, most of the text is dialogue in «» quotes with usted (siéntese, dígamelo, no tenga miedo), and the subjunctive is rare: after no quiero que and in a few conditions such as si fuera libre, no se casaría conmigo. The original in the catalog is B2: it has only 6 words per sentence, because the play is made of short lines, but one word in eighteen is long (5.4%) and it keeps the spelling of the 1875 edition (á for a, estraña). The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 8-12 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 6 964
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
A summer evening at an old, noisy inn in Alcalá de Henares. Wealthy Don Diego, fifty-nine years old, is quietly taking a bride to Madrid: sixteen-year-old Paquita, just brought out of her convent in Guadalajara. Her mother, the widow Doña Irene, speaks for her daughter and insists the girl is happy. But the maid Rita knows more: Paquita cries at night and remembers Don Félix, the officer who last year came at night to clap three times under the convent window and play the guitar. Paquita has written to him, and that same evening his servant Calamocha arrives at the inn, worn out from the road from Zaragoza. What happens before morning, and what a girl’s “yes” is worth, the book tells.
Compare two places
El sí de las niñas
VII. Don Diego pide la verdad
«¡! , . , . ¿ ? ¿ ?»
. «, . , . . . : , . , . , .»
Choose an underlined word.
What happened once and what kept happening
The two past tenses in this paragraph do different jobs. Acompañó, volvió, pasaron, tuvo (pretérito indefinido) name things that happened once, while daba, tocaba, escuchaban, hablaban (imperfecto) describe what happened night after night. In Rita’s line los hay buenos y malos means “there are good ones and bad ones”: los stands for los hombres.
How Don Diego asks with usted
Don Diego addresses Paquita as usted, so his requests are usted commands with the pronouns joined at the end: dígamelo, “tell me (it)”, escuche, “listen”. Los padres con juicio no mandan is in the present because it is a general truth: “sensible parents do not give orders”. Quiso mandar means “chose to give orders” on one particular occasion.
Chapters
- IUn secreto en la posada
- IITres mujeres en la escalera
- IIIDoña Irene habla por su hija
- IVCalamocha
- VDon Félix está aquí
- VIUna madre que no escucha
- VIIDon Diego pide la verdad
- VIIIEl primer amor
- IXEl tío y el sobrino
- XUna noticia terrible
- XIMúsica bajo la ventana
- XIIUna charla al amanecer
- XIIICarlos cuenta la verdad
- XIVEl sí de las niñas
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
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Reader helps in chapter XII, where Paquita answers Don Diego Si usted no lo sabe, no diga que lo sabe: the words are simple, and translating the whole sentence shows what she is really saying.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier The Maidens’ Consent El sí de las niñas Another book by the same author B2 The Maidens’ Consent El sí de las niñas The complete comedy this retelling comes from: B2, about 19,400 words. Its sentences have only 6 words, since the play is all short lines, but one word in eighteen is long and the spelling is that of the 1875 edition; once you know the plot, the original is easier to follow. B2 Don Juan Tenorio Another Spanish play in a MovaReader retelling, and again about a girl raised in a convent whose marriage her father decides. But this is Zorrilla’s Romantic drama (1844) at B1: 11 words per sentence, 4.5% long words, about 12,600 words. A natural next step. B1
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: Leandro Fernández de Moratín’s comedy The Maidens’ Consent (El sí de las niñas), first staged in 1806, retold in simple Spanish as a story with dialogue. All the scenes of the three acts remain: the inn at Alcalá de Henares, the nuns’ presents, the music under the window at night, the letter thrown in from the street and Don Diego’s talk with Paquita at dawn. Doña Irene’s speeches about her relatives, the nuns and her illnesses are shortened, part of the servants’ talk is retold in the narrator’s words, and of the original wording only the line that gave the play its title is kept, explained by the text. The complete comedy is in the catalog as a separate book, at B2.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of this adaptation in MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation, here mostly words like posada, palmadas or tordo.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 9 words on average, so you will rarely need a whole one translated, except where simple words hide irony, as in Para una visita bastan media hora y cuatro lágrimas. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 1-2 hours, reading with translations of new words rather than at a native speaker’s pace. The 14 chapters average about 500 words: the shortest is X, 297 words, the longest XIV, 820, so a chapter takes 3 to 14 minutes.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters averages 8-12 words per sentence. Only the long words vary a little: in chapters III and XIII about every 42nd word is a long one, and the short chapter X has none.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example VII, where Don Diego asks Paquita to tell him the truth.