📖LearnModule 6 · Lesson 1 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, first halfUnit 1 · Contar — telling the past
Scene and event — the narration rule
Module 6 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B1, first half), lesson 1 of 30: Welcome to the Independent band. On this page: 8 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.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
contar
to tell (a story)
kohn-TAR
la historia
the story
lah ees-TOH-ryah
yo leía en mi cuarto
I was reading in my room
yoh leh-EE-ah ehn mee KWAR-toh
abrió la puerta
he opened the door
ah-BRYOH lah PWEHR-tah
traía un regalo
he was carrying a present
trah-EE-ah oon rreh-GAH-loh
el cuarto
the room
ehl KWAR-toh
de repente
suddenly
deh rreh-PEHN-teh
anoche
last night
ah-NOH-cheh
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
Welcome to the Independent band. Module 1 opens with the skill B1 is built on: telling what happened. The rule from the Basic summit still runs everything — the imperfecto paints the scene, the pretérito fires the events.
Y también · And also
Anoche yo leía en mi cuarto cuando mi hermano abrió la puerta. ¡Traía un regalo! Reading was the scene (leía, imperfecto); opening the door was the event (abrió, pretérito); carrying the present was scene again (traía).
Ojo · Watch out
The scene verb is imperfecto (yo leía), the event verb is pretérito (abrió). Swap them and the story changes meaning: leí (I read, done) is an event; abría (was opening) is a scene that never finishes.
leer, imperfecto — the table
yo leía · tú leías · él/ella/usted leía · nosotros leíamos · ustedes leían · ellos/ellas leían
Do it now — on paper
Say all 8 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with contar.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out leer, imperfecto 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.