The Spanish reading room
One sentence of «La tortuga gigante»
El no quería ir, porque tenía hermanos chicos a quienes daba de comer; y se enfermaba cada día más.
He did not want to go, because he had small brothers he fed; and every day he grew more ill.
Where it stands
The sentences either side of it, each with its own page.
There was once a man who lived in Buenos Aires, and he was very content because he was a healthy, hard-working man.
Pero un día se enfermó, y los médicos le dijeron que solamente yéndose al campo podría curarse.
But one day he fell ill, and the doctors told him that only by going to the country could he be cured.
Hasta que un amigo suyo, que era director del Zoológico, le dijo un día:
Until a friend of his, who was the director of the Zoo, said to him one day:
Every word in it
| As printed | Dictionary form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| El | el | he (subject pron., él) |
| no | no | no, not (adv.) |
| quería | querer | to want; to love (v.) |
| ir | ir | to go (v.) — its preterite fue, fui, fueron is shared with ser, to be, so «se fue» is «he went» and «fue una noche larga» is «it was a long night» |
| porque | porque | because (conj.) |
| tenía | tener | to have; tener que — to have to (v.) |
| hermanos | hermano | brother; hermana — sister (n., m.) |
| chicos | chico | small; boy, child (adj./n., m.) |
| a | a | to; at; on (prep.) |
| quienes | quien | who, whom (rel. pron.) |
| daba | dar | to give (v.) |
| de | de | of, from (prep.) |
| comer | comer | to eat (v.) |
| y | y | and (conj.) |
| se | se | himself, herself, themselves (reflexive); stands in for le before lo/la (se la dieron — they gave it to her); one, people (se ve — one sees) (pron.) |
| enfermaba | enfermar | to fall ill (v.) |
| cada | cada | each, every (adj.) |
| día | día | day (n., m.) |
| más | más | more, most (adv.) |
Read «La tortuga gigante» in the room Every word glossed where it stands, the English a tap away. This scene asks for no account.