📖LearnModule 9 · Lesson 5 of 30Independent User · CEFR B2, completedUnit 1 · La narración escrita
El retrato
Module 9 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B2, completed), lesson 5 of 30: Describing a person at B2 means going past tall and nice. 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.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
el rostro
the face
ehl RROHS-troh
el paso lento
the slow walk
ehl PAH-soh LEHN-toh
desconfiado
distrustful (m)
dehs-kohn-FYAH-doh
terco
stubborn (m)
TEHR-koh
bondadoso
kindly (m)
bohn-dah-DOH-soh
la costumbre
the habit
lah kohs-TOOM-breh
el gesto
the gesture
ehl HEHS-toh
generoso
generous (m)
heh-neh-ROH-soh
soltero
single (m)
sohl-TEH-roh
ella respondía después de un silencio
she used to answer after a silence
EH-yah rrehs-pohn-DEE-ah dehs-PWEHS deh oon see-LEHN-syoh
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
Describing a person at B2 means going past tall and nice. Physical: el rostro anguloso, los hombros anchos, un paso lento. Character: desconfiado, generoso, terco, bondadoso, soltero o casado.
Y también · And also
The best trick is to describe one habit rather than five adjectives: ella respondía después de un silencio. Una costumbre, un gesto — and the reader has the whole person. Respondía is the imperfecto of responder: the tense of what someone always did.
Ojo · Watch out
desconfiado, terco and bondadoso agree like any adjective: una mujer desconfiada, una niña terca. And el gesto is a gesture, never a jest; la costumbre is a habit, never a costume.
responder, imperfecto — the table
yo respondía · tú respondías · él/ella/usted respondía · nosotros respondíamos · ustedes respondían · ellos/ellas respondían
Do it now — on paper
Say all 10 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with el rostro.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out responder, 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.