Theme 1.1: Identity and Relationships - Listening Comprehension
Listening comprehension for Theme 1.1 (Identity and relationships) tests whether a student can extract specific factual detail and opinions from spoken Spanish about family, friends, pets and personal descriptions, delivered at natural conversational speed by a range of Spanish and Latin American voices. The examiner is checking that a student can identify who is being talked about, note ages, numbers of siblings and physical or personality descriptions, follow a speaker between the present tense (permanent facts, e.g. 'tengo', 'es') and the preterite or imperfect (family history, e.g. 'nacimos', 'vivíamos'), and correctly resolve moments where a speaker corrects themselves or gives a negative statement that reverses an earlier one.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Use the reading time before playback to read every question, underline command words (who, how many, why, opinion) and any Spanish already printed, since printed words (names, numbers) often recur unchanged in the recording.
- Predict the theme's vocabulary before the recording starts: family nouns (mi padrastro, mi hermanastra, mi cuñado), personality adjectives (cariñoso/a, testarudo/a, generoso/a) and relationship phrases (me llevo bien/mal con, estoy muy unido/a a); write quick English glosses in the margin so you recognise them instantly when spoken.
- Track which tense a speaker is using: present tense endings (-o, -a, -amos) describe permanent facts such as who someone is now, while a preterite ending (-é, -ó) or imperfect ending (-aba, -ía) signals something from the past, such as where the family used to live; the same family member can be described in two different tenses in one recording, so note the tense with each detail, not just the detail.
- Note every number the moment you hear it: ages (tiene catorce años), how many siblings (somos cuatro hermanos) and years (nos mudamos en dos mil veintiuno) are common exam targets and are easy to mishear if you wait until the end of the sentence to write them down.
- Listen past the first clause for a negative or contrast word: no, nunca, ya no, pero and sin embargo can completely reverse the meaning of a sentence that started positively, e.g. 'Antes nos llevábamos bien, pero ahora casi no hablamos'.
- Expect accent variation: a Latin American speaker's seseo means c before e/i, z and s all sound the same, so 'hace' and a hypothetical 'ase' would sound identical, and some recordings use 'ustedes' for a group where a Peninsular speaker would say 'vosotros' for a group of friends; do not use the pronoun alone to judge formality.
- When a speaker self-corrects (tengo... digo, tenía, un perro or mi hermano, no, mi primo, se llama...), always take the corrected, final version as the answer; exam boards build in deliberate self-corrections to test this specifically.
- On the second listening, confirm names and numbers letter by letter and figure by figure against what was actually said, and check your answer still matches the question being asked, since a mark is only given for what the question asks, not any true detail you happened to catch.
Worked example
You hear Valentina describing her family. Transcript: 'Vivo con mi madre y mi padrastro en un piso en Madrid. Tengo una hermana mayor, Lucía, y un hermano menor, Mateo, que tiene ocho... perdón, nueve años. Antes vivíamos en Sevilla, pero nos mudamos hace dos años. Mi hermana y yo no nos llevamos muy bien, pero adoro a mi hermano pequeño.' Answer in English: (a) How old is Mateo? (b) Where did the family used to live? (c) How does Valentina get on with her sister?
- Reading time: underline 'how old', 'where...used to live' and 'get on with sister' in the questions, and predict the vocabulary hermano/a, antes (before) and nos llevamos (we get on).
- Listen for Mateo's age: the speaker says ocho then self-corrects to nueve with perdón - take the corrected figure, nine, not the first one.
- Listen for the imperfect tense vivíamos (we used to live) paired with the place name Sevilla, which answers where the family lived before; nos mudamos (we moved) with hace dos años confirms this is now in the past.
- Listen for the negative no nos llevamos muy bien (we do not get on very well) - the word no reverses what might otherwise sound like a neutral statement about the sister.
- Check the final answers against each question: Mateo is 9, the family used to live in Sevilla, and Valentina does not get on well with her sister, but does get on well with her little brother.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1During the reading time before a recording plays, what two things should you do with the printed questions?Show answer
Answer: Read every question and sub-question closely and underline the command words (such as who, how many, why, opinion) and any Spanish words already printed, since printed names and numbers usually recur unchanged in the recording.
Q2A speaker says 'Mi madrastra es muy cariñosa.' What does this tell you about the relationship, and what part of speech is 'cariñosa'?Show answer
Answer: It is a positive description; 'cariñosa' is a feminine adjective meaning affectionate/loving, describing the stepmother.
Q3You hear 'De pequeño, jugaba al fútbol todos los días, pero el año pasado dejé de jugar.' Which verb is imperfect and which is preterite, and what is the difference in meaning?Show answer
Answer: 'Jugaba' is imperfect (I used to play, a repeated past habit); 'dejé' is preterite (I stopped, one completed past action) - together they show a habit that has now ended.
Q4How do you know a speaker has self-corrected rather than simply adding detail, e.g. in 'Tengo un hermano... no, perdón, dos hermanos'?Show answer
Answer: A correction phrase such as 'no, perdón' (no, sorry) or 'digo' (I mean) signals the speaker is replacing what they just said, so the final figure, two brothers, is the one to record, not the first.
Q5A Latin American speaker says 'Mi tío se llama César.' Why might a student trained only on Peninsular Spanish mishear the second syllable?Show answer
Answer: Because of seseo, Latin American speakers pronounce z the same as s, so 'César' sounds like 'Seser' rather than with the 'th' sound used in most of Spain.
Q6Translate the key information in 'Mis padres se separaron cuando yo tenía siete años.'Show answer
Answer: My parents separated when I was seven years old.
Q7You hear 'Nunca discuto con mi hermana.' What would the meaning be if the speaker had instead said 'Siempre discuto con mi hermana'?Show answer
Answer: 'Nunca discuto' means 'I never argue' (a good relationship); 'siempre discuto' would mean 'I always argue' (a poor relationship) - the two are opposites, so mishearing nunca for siempre reverses the whole answer.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Spanish exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Transcript of the recording: Escucha a Pablo hablar de su familia. 'Hola, me llamo Pablo y tengo quince años. Vivo con mi padre y mi hermanastra, Rocío, que tiene once años... espera, doce años, porque cumplió años la semana pasada. Mis padres se divorciaron cuando yo tenía ocho años y desde entonces vivo con mi padre entre semana y con mi madre los fines de semana. Al principio fue difícil, pero ahora me llevo genial con mi hermanastra: es muy graciosa y siempre me hace reír. Lo único que no soporto es que nunca ordena su habitación.' Answer the following in English: (a) How old is Pablo? (1 mark) (b) How old is Rocío, and why does the speaker correct the age? (2 marks) (c) How old was Pablo when his parents divorced? (1 mark) (d) Give two details about how Pablo gets on with his stepsister now, one positive and one negative. (2 marks)
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Transcript of the recording: Escucha a Camila hablar de su mejor amiga. 'Mi mejor amiga se llama Antonella y es argentina, de Buenos Aires. La conocí hace tres años en el colegio. Es bastante baja, tiene el pelo castaño y lleva gafas. Al principio pensaba que era un poco tímida, pero en realidad es súper habladora y muy generosa: siempre comparte su almuerzo conmigo. Vive con sus padres y con dos gatos, aunque en realidad tiene tres, porque acaban de adoptar uno nuevo.' Answer the following in English: (a) Where is Antonella from? (1 mark) (b) Give two physical descriptions of Antonella. (2 marks) (c) What did Camila think about Antonella at first, and what is she really like? (1 mark) (d) How many cats does the family actually have, and why did the speaker correct the number? (1 mark)
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See real GCSE Spanish past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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