I. Una pelea en Verona
, . . .
«, , », . « .»
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. .
An A2 adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy
Romeo and Juliet Romeo y Julieta
William Shakespeare
This is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s play in simple Spanish, not the original text: a MovaReader adaptation that turns the tragedy into a story told in the past tenses. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,200 words, 9 words per sentence on average. 10 chapters follow the scenes of the play in order, from the street fight in Verona to the tomb of the Capuletos.
- A2
- 5 210 words
- 1 hour
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (llegó, dijo, vivían, estaba), and a sentence has 9 words on average, against 5-7 in the A1 books.
A1A2
This text
You can manage it at A2: sentences are short, the scenes are mostly dialogue, and the story keeps to the past tenses you know, with plain words like espada, boda or tumba.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 the retelling reads with room to spare: in an hour or so you get through the whole tragedy before moving on to the longer B1 retellings of 11-12 words per sentence. Full Spanish texts start at B2 in the catalog.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words: the story is told in the past, with events in the pretérito indefinido and background in the imperfecto, and a large share of the text is short lines of dialogue in quotation marks. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 48 words, and the ones that repeat are plain: respondió, desterrado, demasiado. The difficulty is even: each of the 10 chapters has 8.8-9.4 words per sentence. The A1 books in the catalog have 5-7 words per sentence, like Rapunzel with 6; the A2 books have 9-10, like Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella; at B1 it is 11-12, like Les Misérables and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Full texts in Spanish start at B2: Unamuno’s Mist has 13 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 210
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1
- hour of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
In Verona, the Montesco and Capuleto families have hated each other for so long that nobody remembers why. After a street fight, Prince Escala warns that the next one will cost a life. Romeo, a young Montesco, is sad because Rosalina does not love him, until his friends take him in a mask to a Capuleto feast and he sees Julieta. That night he climbs the wall of her garden, and the next day Fray Lorenzo marries them in secret, hoping that their love will end the feud. But a hot day, a quarrel in the square and a duel bring blood and a banishment, and Julieta’s father promises her to Count Paris. The friar has a plan, but it depends on a letter. How it all ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Romeo y Julieta
IV. En el balcón
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«, , ¿ ?», . « . , , .»
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« », . «¿ ? , , . ¿ ? .»
Choose an underlined word.
Who is speaking
Here the line comes first and the speaker after it: «Mira, Sansón...», dijo Gregorio. The verb of speech (dijo, contestó, preguntó) sits after the closing quotation mark, and each new speaker starts a new paragraph. If you lose track, look for the name after the line.
Commands with tú
Olvida, deja and jura are commands to a person you call tú: the verb loses its final -s of the present (olvidas becomes olvida). Julieta speaks to Romeo this way, in a few quick orders. The narration around them uses the imperfect, oía, miraba, hablaba, to paint the scene.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Reader translates whole sentences, and here that helps most with the lines where Julieta speaks like a poet, as on the balcony: Una rosa tendría el mismo olor con otro nombre.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
A learner adaptation, not the original: MovaReader retold William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet (first printed in 1597; Shakespeare died in 1616) as a story in simple Spanish. The language and form have changed: the verse play became narrated prose in the past tenses, 9 words per sentence on average, 10 chapters and about 5,200 words. The scenes keep their order: the fight in Verona, Romeo’s sadness for Rosalina, the Capuleto feast, the balcony, the secret wedding, Mercucio and Teobaldo, the banishment, Paris and the wedding plan, the potion, the letter that does not arrive and the tomb. Minor characters and scenes are cut or merged. The retelling follows the play as it is published on Project Gutenberg (ebook 1513).
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audio version of this adaptation: MovaReader gives you the text, which you read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word and its translation appears next to it; here that will mostly be words such as espada, destierro or veneno.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
The Reader plan translates whole sentences. In this retelling they are short, 9 words on average, so you will seldom need one: mostly the lines where the characters speak like poets, as in Mi único amor viene de mi único odio, or Una rosa tendría el mismo olor con otro nombre. The free plan also translates single words, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole adaptation takes about 1-1.5 hours at the pace of someone who still translates new words. A chapter averages about 520 words, or 5-9 minutes of reading, so one evening easily covers the whole story.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: the 10 chapters average 8.8-9.4 words per sentence, so there is no easier stretch. Only long words vary: chapter I, the street fight, has almost none (0.6%), and chapter VI, the duel, the most (3.2%, about one in 31).
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in: the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so next time you carry on from there. The contents on this page also take you straight to any chapter, say IV, “En el balcón”, where Romeo speaks to Julieta in her garden at night.