Rocket Spanish Newsletter Series:
"El Agua" (Water)

Conversation Practice

Hello! Are you ready to see what Carlos and Carmona are up to? Today, Carlos and Carmona are ready to venture out into the streets … not before finding out that their hotel room doesn’t have all the amenities they expected.

Carlos joins Carmona in the bathroom and examines the water taps. They are marked with an ‘F’ and a ‘C.’ Carmona turns on the water tap marked ‘F’ and shows Carlos that there’s no hot water.

Carlos searches for a hot water switch above the shower (la ducha), then turns both taps on and lets them run. He nods knowingly at Carmona as the water from the ‘C’ tap starts to steam.

Now, play the conversation again as you follow along in English.

It is very important to know the difference between agua caliente (hot water) and agua fría (cold water) when you’re taking a bath! Hot water is a commodity in many Latin American countries. Always ask if your room has hot water, if you don’t see it advertised (¿Tiene agua caliente?). Sometimes the only hot water in the room will be in the shower, where an electric showerhead attachment will heat the water as it flows from the tap. Other times, there will be a gas hot water heater for every room or group of rooms (called a calefón in South America).

A few hours later, Carlos and Carmona are refreshed and ready to explore the city. Carlos packs a small backpack with his camera, maps, and guidebook. He is filling his water bottle with water from the tap when Carmona stops him.

Carlos nods and pours out the water.

Water in most Latin American countries isn’t safe to drink from the tap. If you are traveling, you should only drink bottled water (agua embotellada) or boiled water (agua hervida). That is why hot beverages like tea are safer than juice, since freshly made juices may be made with unsafe water.

Here is Carlos and Carmona’s conversation in English:

Carlos puts his empty water bottle aside and straps on his backpack. He remembers to put his arms through the straps so that the backpack rests on his chest instead of on his back, just as their tour guide told them to do. Quito is a beautiful modern city, but like many places around the world there are always pickpockets.

Carlos and Carmona take to the streets. The Avenida Amazonas, where their hotel is located, is a beautiful street full of many shops for tourists, offering eco-tours of the Amazonía, biking around Baños, bathing in the hot springs of Papallacta, even mountaineering to the top of the great Chimborazo, the closest point on Earth to the sun.

They stop at a stand along the street to buy a bottle of water.

Carbonated mineral water, or water with gas (con gas), is a popular beverage in many Latin American countries. In Ecuador, the most popular brand is Guitig. The plant where the water is bottled from natural mountain springs is a tourist attraction.

Here is Carlos’s conversation in English.

Bottled water in hand, Carlos and Carmona survey the options available to them.

Hand in hand, Carlos and Carmona head off to the Casa de la Cultura museum for an afternoon of culture.

Let’s take a look at that conversation again, this time in English. Remember to play back the conversation in Spanish so that you can associate the sounds with their English meanings.

As Carlos and Carmona explore the pre-Colombian, Incan, and Spanish colonial artifacts in the museum, take some time to think about the following vocabulary that you’ve learned in this newsletter.

That’s it for now! Make sure to study what you have learned, because in the next newsletter I'll have a quiz for you to practice what you've learned.

Until then! ¡Hasta entonces!

Mauricio Evlampieff
Rocket Spanish

P.P.S. Did You Like What You Heard? I have an entire book full of every nitty-gritty detail you need to know about the Spanish language. Rocket Spanish gives you a complete course giving you the blow by blow of Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and everyday use. No matter what your learning style, I have something for you. Whether you prefer to listen to Spanish, read a book, do exercises, or play vocabulary-building games, Rocket Spanish is for you! Visit my site today to learn more.

» Click Here To Visit Rocket Spanish

P.P.P.S Here’s a quick grammatical note. Have you ever wondered why you often see el or la, los or las in front of Spanish words? All four words mean the same thing: the. For example, el museo = the museum. Las iglesias = the churches.

It’s one of the many quirks in Spanish that you can’t just always say el to mean the. For example, you could NEVER say el iglesias. The word iglesias gives you all the clues you need to choose which form of the to use. That’s because the word iglesias is feminine and plural, corresponding to the feminine plural form of the: las.

In Spanish, every noun has a gender. That means that everything is either masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns often end in –o while feminine nouns often end in –a. For example, el museo (the museum) is masculine while la iglesia (the church) is feminine.

Spanish also distinguishes whether a noun is singular or plural ... in other words, whether there’s just one thing or many things. For example, the word churches is plural while the word church is singular.

Once you know whether a noun is masculine or feminine AND whether it is singular or plural, you can choose the precise form of the to describe it.

Was that complicated or what? Unfortunately, Spanish has many more grammatical quirks that you’d never dream of in English. If you’re determined to learn Spanish, you’ll find that grammar will form an important part of your study, and you can find everything you need to know in my Rocket Spanish grammar guides!

P.P.P.P.S Take a moment to answer the exercises below.

Exercise 1
Match the Spanish word with its English description.

Exercise 2
¿Qué quieres hacer? What do you want to do? Fill in the blanks in the following story.

Estoy de vacaciones en Lima, Perú. Me gustaría _________________ (go on a tour), ¿pero dónde? Me gustaría ______ (see) la Amazonía y las montañas nevadas de los Andes. También, quiero ____________ (go shoppping) y visitar algunas _________ (churches) y un _________ (museum). ¡De verdad, quiero hacer todo!

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