Day 6
La víspera
The night before. A suspiciously perfect shirt raises one question about machine five that Lucía avoids answering.
Read the whole lesson
The conversation: La víspera (The night before)
A suspiciously perfect shirt raises one question about machine five that Lucía avoids answering.
- Lucía
- ¿A qué hora empiezas a trabajar mañana?What time do you start work tomorrow?
- Marta
- A las ocho. Tengo sueño.At eight. I’m sleepy.
- Lucía
- ¿Tienes lista la camisa?Do you have the shirt ready?
- Marta
- Sí. Está limpia y doblada.Yes. It’s clean and folded.
- Lucía
- Y planchada.And ironed.
- Marta
- ¿La máquina cinco también plancha?Does machine five iron too?
- Lucía
- No.No.
- Marta
- Entonces…Then…
- Lucía
- Tengo sueño. Buenas noches, Marta.I’m sleepy. Good night, Marta.
Notes
1. ¿A qué hora…?
Use ¿A qué hora…? to ask when something happens. The answer changes at one o’clock:
- *A la una* — at one
- *A las ocho* — at eight
Use *a las* for every hour except one.
2. Empiezas a trabajar mañana
Use empezar a plus an infinitive for starting an action; the present can describe an arranged near future.
3. Tengo sueño
Word for word, tengo sueño says “I have sleep,” a pattern you will meet again in tengo hambre (“I’m hungry”).
4. ¿Tienes lista la camisa?
Use tener + describing word + thing to say that you have something in a particular state: tienes lista la camisa. Lista matches the feminine noun camisa; a masculine noun uses listo.
5. Limpia, doblada y planchada
Spanish can place several descriptions together: limpia, doblada y planchada. They all end in -a because they describe la camisa, and y appears before the final description.
Los horarios de las comidas · Spanish mealtimes
In Spain, lunch and dinner are often later than many visitors expect. Restaurants commonly serve lunch around 13:00–16:00 and dinner around 20:00–22:30.
Those are typical service hours, not a rule for every household. When staying with someone, ask ¿A qué hora cenamos? (What time do we have dinner?)