Level A1 · Chapter 5.5
Review 1: lessons 1 to 5
The vocabulary from the first five lessons that does not come back, the grammar of the block in one table, and two exercises.
What you will learn
- Check, word by word, how much of the vocabulary from lessons 1 to 5 you actually remember.
- Use the article, agreement, the present tense and a demonstrative inside one single sentence.
- Read the summary of the block without looking at the translation.
The story in easy Spanish
En un pueblo de la Mancha vive un hidalgo de cincuenta años.
In a village of La Mancha there lives a gentleman of fifty.
Es alto, flaco y seco, pero muy amable y sencillo.
He is tall, skinny and dried up, but very kind and plain.
En su casa están el ama, la sobrina y un mozo.
In his house are the housekeeper, the niece and a lad.
Hay una sala, un pozo y mucha paja.
There is a hall, a well and a lot of straw.
El hidalgo madruga y anda por el campo con su galgo.
The gentleman gets up early and walks the fields with his greyhound.
A veces caza, pero pasa las tardes con sus libros.
Sometimes he hunts, but he spends his afternoons with his books.
Lee todo el día y discute con el cura y el barbero.
He reads all day and argues with the priest and the barber.
Vende tierras para comprar más papeles y gasta su dinero.
He sells land to buy more paper and spends all his money.
No comprende esos libros, pero cree en gigantes y encantamientos.
He does not understand those books, but he believes in giants and enchantments.
Un día sube al cuarto oscuro y busca unas armas viejas.
One day he goes up to the dark room and looks for some old armour.
Son las armas de sus bisabuelos.
It is his great-grandparents’ armour.
Este peto tiene óxido y aquel morrión es muy simple.
This breastplate has rust on it and that headpiece over there is very plain.
El hidalgo limpia el hierro y prepara un viaje peligroso.
The gentleman cleans the iron and gets ready for a dangerous journey.
Espera un día bello y abre la puerta.
He waits for a fine day and opens the door.
Vocabulary
The person (lesson 1)
- amable
- kind
- sencillo / sencilla
- plain, simple
- peligroso / peligrosa
- dangerous
- bello / bella
- beautiful, fine
The house (lesson 2)
- la sala
- the hall, the front room
- el pozo
- the well
- los papeles
- the papers
The day in the village (lesson 3)
- tomar
- to take, to have (food)
- andar
- to walk
- cazar
- to hunt
- el galgo
- the greyhound
- preparar
- to get ready
- gastar
- to spend
- pasar
- to spend (time), to happen
The books (lesson 4)
- leer
- to read
- vender
- to sell
- creer
- to believe
- subir
- to go up
- discutir
- to argue
- el encantamiento
- the enchantment
The armour (lesson 5)
- el rincón
- the corner (inside a room)
- el óxido
- the rust
- el morrión
- the open headpiece
- el bisabuelo
- the great-grandfather
Lessons 1 to 5 in one table
Start with the vocabulary list above, not with the table. Cover the English column with your hand, read the Spanish aloud, and put a mark beside every word you cannot turn into English in about three seconds. Those marked words, and only those, are what you should look at again before you go on to lesson 6.
| point | rule | from the summary above |
|---|---|---|
| ser + complement | identity and description, what something is | Es alto, flaco y seco. |
| gender | mostly -o masculine, -a feminine. There is no neuter noun. | el pozo, la paja |
| number | vowel + -s, consonant + -es | los libros, los papeles |
| agreement | the adjective copies the gender and number of its noun | unas armas viejas |
| definite article | el, la, los, las, and Spanish uses it where English drops it | el hidalgo, las armas |
| indefinite article | un, una, unos, unas, but never after ser with a bare profession | un mozo, Es hidalgo. |
| hay | one single form for there is and there are | Hay una sala. |
| dropped subject | the ending already says who, so the pronoun is left out | Lee todo el día. |
| regular present | three families, and -er and -ir part company only in nosotros and vosotros | anda, vende, sube |
| demonstratives | three distances, matching aquí, ahí, allí | este peto, aquel morrión |
The full conjugations are in the verb tables at the back of the book, and the four verbs that refuse to follow any of this are ser, estar, haber and ir.