📖LearnModule 13 · Lesson 21 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, first halfUnit 5 · Las figuras retóricas
La ironía
Module 13 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C2, first half), lesson 21 of 30: Spanish irony is drier than English and rarely signposted. On this page: 10 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Spanish irony is drier than English and rarely signposted. Qué bonito — said of a mess. Muy bien — said to someone who has just broken something. No se puede afirmar que se haya esforzado.
Y también · And also
The marker is usually a mismatch between register and situation: a formal compliment about a trivial failure. Miss it and you have read the sentence backwards. Qué curioso, said flatly, is doubt, not curiosity.
Ojo · Watch out
qué bonito said of a disaster is irony; the tell is the mismatch between register and situation. Miss it and you have read the sentence backwards. esforzarse takes the subjunctive after no se puede afirmar que.
esforzarse, pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo — the table
yo me haya esforzado · tú te hayas esforzado · él/ella/usted se haya esforzado · nosotros nos hayamos esforzado · ustedes se hayan esforzado · ellos/ellas se hayan esforzado
Do it now — on paper
Say all 10 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with qué bonito.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out esforzarse, pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.