Spanish Story about a Rescue
Darse cuenta = to realise, to notice
Hace falta = it’s necessary to, one needs to …
Hay que = One must, it is necessary to …
Verbs in the Story:
despegar to take off
aterrizar to land
tener que to have to
darse cuenta to notice, to realise
ir to go
hacer falta to be necessary
Estar (+ gerund) to be + doing verb
Ser to be
Mirar to look
ver to see
Llegar to arrive
Empezar to start
Viajar to travel
Tener to have
Trabajar to work
Esquiar to ski
Preparar to prepare
Poder to be able to
Sometimes ‘poder’ is used as a reflexive verb in Spanish, like in this phrase in the story:
“… donde se puede aterrizar.” = where it’s possible to land.
‘Snowplough’ in Spanish:
un quitanieves = literally ‘a get rid of snow ..!’
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Translation Exercise:
Fill in the Gaps in the Translation Exercise above using the following verbs:
– Hay que tener cuidado – Me doy cuenta – Hace falta – Veo
– Preparan – Aterriza – Está nevando – Voy a esquiar
– Estoy – No puede aterrizar – Va despegar – Son – Me encantaría
– Está lloviendo – Hay que trabajar – Hay que – Va llegar
– Me doy cuenta – Hace falta – Hay que tener
Uncertain about when to use Ser or Estar? In the following resource the verbs that describe this real helicopter rescue have been changed to focus on practice using SER and ESTAR.
For practice talking about a holiday in Spain using three tenses, go to:
KS3 Spanish Holiday Practice
Index to all resources:
French Resources
Spanish Resources