Spanish GCSE Reading and Grammar — Constance e Imran Episode 48 (learn through a novel)
- The story episode in Spanish.
- The translation into English.
- A grammar explanation with examples from the story.
Whitmore la felicita. Ha ganado el concurso y, obviamente, quiere saber de dónde le viene esa pasión por los libros. Constance sonríe, un poco incómoda.
Whitmore congratulates her. She has won the competition and, naturally, he wants to know where her passion for books comes from. Constance smiles, slightly uncomfortable.
—No sabría por dónde empezar. Son tantas voces… y tantas historias. Pero recuerdo a muchos autores fascinantes como Geoffrey Chaucer y la peregrinación a Canterbury en la Edad Media, cuando la gente nacía, vivía y moría en su aldea, y poco sabía de lo que había más allá de ella; tal vez algunos ni siquiera habían conocido la aldea vecina. O a Thomas More, el canciller de Inglaterra que imaginó una sociedad perfecta en su Utopía y terminó ejecutado por un rey que no soportaba que un hombre pensara distinto. Los horrores de la peste negra de 1665 descritos por Daniel Defoe, en una ciudad aterrorizada por una enfermedad producida por un enemigo invisible que desconcertaba a todos, porque nadie sabía que existían las bacterias. Y, sin embargo, aquello fue poco más que ayer en términos de la historia humana.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin. There are so many voices… and so many stories. But I remember so many fascinating authors, like Geoffrey Chaucer and the pilgrimage to Canterbury in the Middle Ages, when people were born, lived and died in their village and knew little about what lay beyond it; perhaps some of them had never even been to the neighbouring village. Or Thomas More, the Chancellor of England who imagined a perfect society in his Utopia and ended up being executed by a king who couldn’t tolerate a man thinking differently. The horrors of the Great Plague of 1665 described by Daniel Defoe, in a city terrified by a disease caused by an invisible enemy that baffled everyone because nobody knew that bacteria existed. And yet, in terms of human history, that was little more than yesterday.
Y luego están las mujeres como Jane Austen, que empezaba a ponernos como protagonistas y ya no como personajes secundarios. También me enamoré del humor y los juegos literarios con Lewis Carroll, que era matemático y amante de las paradojas, y con ellos creó la inmortal historia de Alicia como una suerte de acertijo lógico. Y de la tragedia de Oscar Wilde, que criticó a la sociedad victoriana y finalmente terminó aplastado por ella. No sé, hay tantos libros en mi cabeza… Contradictorios, polémicos. Rudyard Kipling cantando las glorias del Imperio y Joseph Conrad mostrando el lado oscuro de la gloria.
“And then there are women like Jane Austen, who began to make women protagonists rather than supporting characters. I also fell in love with the humour and literary games of Lewis Carroll, who was a mathematician and loved paradoxes, and used them to create the immortal story of Alice as a kind of logical puzzle. And with the tragedy of Oscar Wilde, the critic of Victorian society who was eventually crushed by that very society. I don’t know, there are so many books in my head… Contradictory, controversial. Rudyard Kipling singing the glories of the Empire and Joseph Conrad showing the dark side of that glory.
También me fascinó descubrir de cuántas maneras diferentes se puede escribir, por ejemplo, con Samuel Beckett, que decidió que el teatro podía romperse y volver a construirse para contar aquello que parecía imposible de contar: el absurdo de esperar, de seguir esperando, de estar vivos. O los autores que describen los grandes momentos de la historia social y política, como George Orwell, que cuenta el horror de los sistemas totalitarios y advierte que hay formas de esclavitud que comienzan mucho antes de que alguien cierre una puerta con llave.
“I was also fascinated to discover how many different ways there are to write. Samuel Beckett, for example, decided that theatre could be broken apart and rebuilt to tell what seemed impossible to tell: the absurdity of waiting, of continuing to wait, of being alive. Or the authors who describe the great moments of social and political history, like George Orwell, who tells us about the horror of totalitarian systems and warns us that some forms of slavery begin long before anyone locks a door.”
Se detiene para tomar aliento. Whitmore espera.
She stops to catch her breath. Whitmore waits.
—Debería decir algo poético para terminar —dice ella—. Pero no sé qué. Alguien me dijo o leí por ahí que la literatura es la gran conversación, opuesta a las conversaciones triviales que tenemos diariamente. Es la conversación que realmente importa. Dialogar con los libros, con los autores, con los vivos y los muertos, con gente de todas las culturas. Descubrirnos humanos en la similitud y en la diferencia. Descubrir que cada voz tiene algo que decirnos. Y que, entre tales voces, uno termina encontrando la propia.
“I should say something poetic to finish,” she says. “But I don’t know what. Someone once told me, or perhaps I read somewhere, that literature is the great conversation, as opposed to the trivial conversations we have every day. It is the conversation that really matters. A dialogue with books, with authors, with the living and the dead, with people from every culture. Discovering our shared humanity in both similarity and difference. Discovering that every voice has something to tell us. And that, among such voices, we eventually find our own.”
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This is a classic. 90% of students mix up these two words almost all the time, although they are totally different.
🔎 Pequeño refers to size or dimensions.
Un coche pequeño, una casa pequeña (opposite to “un coche grande, una casa grande”).
🔎 Poco relates to quantity, intensity or frequency.
Camino poco, trabajo poco (opposite to “camino mucho, trabajo mucho”).
➤ Poco = little / not much → emphasises that the amount is small or insufficient. It tends to have a negative meaning.
➤ Un poco de = a little / some → indicates that a certain amount exists, however small. It tends to have a more positive or neutral meaning.
For example:
Tengo poco dinero. → I have little money / I don’t have much money. → I don’t have enough money, or less than I would like.
Tengo un poco de dinero. → I have a little money / I have some money. → I do have some money, although not much.
The same distinction applies to:
Tengo poco sueño. → I’m not very sleepy. → My level of sleepiness is low.
Tengo un poco de sueño. → I’m a little sleepy. → I do feel sleepy, but only slightly.
Think this way:
💡 Poco focuses on what is lacking; un poco de focuses on what is there.
Look at our title: “Es pequeño, pero no es poco”. Suppose that I have a small car. I say “It’s small, but it’s no small thing” (to have a car). As you see, we use “small” for both in English, but Spanish is a different language: you cannot use the same word for both!
Examples from our episode:
La gente nacía, vivía y moría en su aldea, y poco sabía de lo que había más allá de ella.
People were born, lived and died in their village and knew little about what lay beyond it.
Aquello fue poco más que ayer en términos de la historia humana.
In terms of human history, that was little more than yesterday.
➤ These words are indefinite determiners that precede nouns. Sometimes they can be replaced by eso:
Tal cosa es mentira. Eso es mentira.
➤ Sometimes they are used with the meaning of “so much / to such a great degree”:
Tal valentía merecía un premio. Tanta valentía merecía un premio. (Such great courage deserved a prize).
➤ Tal can be repeated in some fixed expressions:
De tal palo, tal astilla. De tal padre, tal hijo. (It means that the child behaves like the parent).
➤ Sometimes it is used to avoid repeating information that is already known or to conceal specific information:
Tal día a tal hora lo vieron en un bar de Granada. (The specific information is concealed or deliberately left unmentioned).
➤ Sometimes it is used to refer to someone in a derogatory way:
El tal Ernesto me ha robado más de mil euros.
➤ It can also be used to refer to someone unknown to the speaker:
Esta mañana ha venido un tal Ernesto, ¿sabes quién es?
➤ Tal and tales can be used with the meaning of ‘such’, ‘similar’ or ‘like that’:
Nunca escuché tal cosa. Tales personas deberían estar en la cárcel.
Common uses
🔸 What’s going on? ¿Qué tal?
🔸 A tal punto (to such a degree): La noticia lo sorprendió a tal punto que no supo qué decir.
🔸 Como si tal cosa (as if nothing had happened, as if it didn’t matter): Me interrumpió como si tal cosa.
🔸 Con tal de que (as long as / provided that): Te perdonaré con tal de que no vuelvas a hacerlo.
Examples from our episode:
Tal vez algunos ni siquiera habían conocido la aldea vecina.
Perhaps some of them had never even been to the neighbouring village.
Entre tales voces, uno termina encontrando la propia.
Among such voices, we eventually find our own.
Find all the episodes here: Contents – GCSE Spanish
We post new episodes every week — keep up with Constance and Imran’s story!
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