Theme 2.4: Travel and tourism - Translation
Theme 2.4 translation covers both directions on travel and tourism: past holidays, accommodation, transport and opinions on a trip. The examiner is testing the preterite for narrating completed past events, the imperfect for background description, the distinction between por and para, and hay/había for describing what a place offered, all of which are handled differently in English and Spanish narrative.
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Method
- Identify whether a sentence narrates a single completed past action (preterite: fui, visite, comimos) or describes an ongoing background state (imperfect: había, hacía sol, estaba cansado), since travel narratives constantly mix the two.
- Translate por and para by function, not by guessing: por for duration, cause or exchange (por la costa, por dos semanas); para for purpose, destination or deadline (para visitar el museo, salimos para Madrid).
- Use hay (present) for there is/are and había (imperfect) for there was/were when describing what a place offered or contained during the trip.
- Translate superlatives with lo más + adjective + de (lo mejor del viaje means the best thing about the trip) as well as the standard el/la más + adjective (la playa más bonita).
- Recognise irregular preterites common in travel accounts: fui/fuiste/fue (ir/ser), hice (hacer), tuve (tener), estuve (estar), and do not regularise them to -e/-io endings.
- Translate accommodation and transport vocabulary precisely: alojarse (to stay), el vuelo (the flight), coger/tomar un tren (to catch a train), since these often carry marks on their own.
- Check tense consistency last: a whole narrated holiday should stay in the preterite/imperfect system throughout, not slip into the present.
Worked example
Translate into Spanish: Last summer I went to Mexico for two weeks with my family. There were lots of tourists, but the beaches were beautiful. We stayed in a small hotel near the centre, and the best thing about the trip was the food.
- Split into chunks: 'Last summer I went to Mexico for two weeks' / 'There were lots of tourists, but the beaches were beautiful' / 'We stayed in a small hotel near the centre' / 'the best thing about the trip was the food'.
- 'I went to Mexico' is a single completed action, so the preterite of ir: el verano pasado fui a México.
- 'for two weeks' expresses duration, so por: por dos semanas.
- 'There were lots of tourists, but the beaches were beautiful' describes the ongoing scene, so the imperfect: había muchos turistas, pero las playas eran preciosas.
- 'We stayed in a small hotel near the centre' is a completed action, preterite: nos alojamos en un hotel pequeño cerca del centro.
- 'the best thing about the trip was the food' uses lo más + adjective + de: lo mejor del viaje fue la comida. Full translation: El verano pasado fui a México por dos semanas con mi familia. Había muchos turistas, pero las playas eran preciosas. Nos alojamos en un hotel pequeño cerca del centro, y lo mejor del viaje fue la comida.
Practice questions
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Q1Translate into Spanish: I travelled to Argentina last year.Show answer
Answer: Viajé a Argentina el año pasado.
Q2Translate into English: Había mucha gente en la playa.Show answer
Answer: There were a lot of people on the beach.
Q3Translate into Spanish: We stayed in a hotel for a week.Show answer
Answer: Nos alojamos en un hotel por una semana.
Q4Translate into English: Fuimos al museo para ver el arte azteca.Show answer
Answer: We went to the museum to see the Aztec art.
Q5Translate into Spanish: The weather was fantastic.Show answer
Answer: Hacía un tiempo fantástico.
Q6Translate into English: Lo peor del viaje fue el vuelo.Show answer
Answer: The worst thing about the trip was the flight.
Q7Translate into Spanish: I caught the train to Barcelona.Show answer
Answer: Cogí/Tomé el tren a Barcelona.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Spanish exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Translate this passage into English: El año pasado fui de vacaciones a Perú con mis padres. Volamos durante diez horas y estábamos muy cansados cuando llegamos. Nos alojamos en un hotel pequeño por una semana, y había unas vistas increíbles de las montañas. Lo más emocionante del viaje fue visitar Machu Picchu.
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Translate this passage into Spanish: Two summers ago I went to Portugal by plane. There were lots of tourists in Lisbon, but I really liked the old streets. We stayed in an apartment near the beach for ten days. The best thing about the holiday was the seafood.
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See real GCSE Spanish past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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