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De Vacaciones: How to Talk About Your Vacation in Spanish

Talking about your vacaciones in Spanish is entertaining, and it enables your friends and family to join you in those unique experiences and memories. So, how about practicing your Spanish in this fun and endearing way? 

In this blog post, I break down all the essentials you need to master talking about your vacaciones in Spanish like a native speaker. 

Pack your bags, and let’s prepare you with the necessary vocabulary and details you’ll need to talk about your vacation in Spanish!  

Planning your Vacaciones

Have you decided on a destination? Are you organizing everything on your own or are you going through a travel agent? Are visas required? 

These are a few of the many details you need to consider for planning an unforgettable trip. When it comes to setting up your vacaciones in Spanish, there’s useful vocabulary and phrases that will come in handy. Let ‘s take a look!

Spanish Vacation Terms and Phrases

You may discuss going on a holiday in Spanish in various ways. The following forms referencing your vacaciones in Spanish are widely understood. 

They’re the first thing you should learn before going on the trip of a lifetime. Check out these frequently used phrases about traveling in Spanish.

Voy a vacacionar en un crucero. I’m vacationing on a cruise. 

Me quiero ir de vacaciones. I want to go on vacation.

Voy a viajar a Guatemala. I’m traveling to Guatemala.

Voy a hacer un viaje a México. I’m taking a trip to Mexico.

Pasaré las vacaciones en España. I’m going to spend the holidays in Spain.

Talking About Your Plans

Whether you’re planning everything on your own or you want a travel agent to set everything up, these useful phrases come in handy for you to elaborate on what you’re planning and want to do during your vacaciones in Spanish. 

Necesito ayuda planeando mis vacaciones. I need help planning my vacation. 

Yo quiero hacer un viaje. I want to take a trip.

Yo quiero visitar…(ciudad, país, o destino). I want to visit… (city, country, or destination).

Quiero viajar en avión. I want to travel by plane.

Me quiero hospedar en hotel. I want to stay in a hotel.

Yo necesito ayuda planeando mi viaje. I need help planning my trip. 

Voy a viajar por quince días. I’m traveling for fifteen days. 

Yo necesito tramitar mi visa. I need to process my visa.

Quiero tomar un crucero con todo incluido.  I want to take an all-inclusive cruise.

Estoy viajando con mi familia / amigos. I’m traveling with my family / friends. 

Me quiero ir de luna de miel. I want to go on my honeymoon. 

Tengo un presupuesto limitado para mis vacaciones. I have a limited budget for my vacation.

Necesito una reserva de hotel. I need a hotel reservation.

Necesito ayuda reservando mis boletos de avión. I need help booking my plane tickets. 

Estoy buscando un seguro de viaje. I’m looking for travel insurance.

Necesito alquilar un carro / coche. I need to rent a car.

Tengo que empacar mi maleta.  I have to pack my bag.

Quiero viajar en tren. I want to travel by train.

Quiero conocer todos los lugares posibles. I want to go to as many places as possible.

Mi viaje es para ir de compras y divertirme. My trip is for shopping and having fun.

Quiero viajar por estudios. I want to travel and study.

Mi viaje es para aprender historia. My trip is for learning history. 

Quiero hacer actividades en la naturaleza y al aire libre.  I want to do nature and outdoors activities. 

Me voy a otro país a un intercambio estudiantil.  I’m going to another country on a student exchange. 

Getting Around and Enjoying your Vacation

So you’ve laid out what you’re going to do, and you make it to the airport. Your vacaciones are about to begin! 

Knowing how to communicate the expectations for your vacaciones in Spanish is crucial! Let’s dive deep into the vocabulary and phrases to guarantee your vacation goes smoothly.

From the Airport to the Plane, Car, or Train

Here are some other phrases that will come in handy during the process of reaching your destination:

Quisiera chequear mi maleta. I would like to check my bags.

¿Cuál es la hora de llegada? At what time are we arriving?

Necesito cambiar de asiento por favor. I need to change seats please.

Tengo que imprimir mi pase de abordar. I need to print my boarding pass.

¿Me podrían subir de categoría? Can I get an upgrade?

Soy viajero frecuente. I’m a frequent flyer. 

Me mareo en el avión. I get motion sickness on planes.

Experiencing your Vacaciones in Spanish

You’ve made it to your destination and it’s time for you to fully enjoy your holiday. It’s okay if you just want to sit back and relax or maybe you want to go for a fast-paced vacation. These useful words will have you moving around like a local and discovering as much as you like. 

Phrases for Making the Most of Your Vacation

Let’s look at some phrases and sentences you can use in action throughout your vacation. These’ll be of great use for communicating any request or need you may have during your vacaciones in a Spanish-speaking country. 

Quiero ir a tomar algunas fotos. I want to go take some photos.

Voy a tomar una excursión. I’m going on a tour. 

Necesito cambiar dinero. I need to exchange money. 

Quiero visitar la playa. I want to visit the beach.

Quiero hacer una reservación para cenar. I want to make a dinner reservation.

Me quedaré en el hotel. I’m staying at the hotel.

Quiero ir a visitar los lugares turísticos. I want to go sightseeing.

Quiero aprender a bucear. I want to learn scuba diving. 

Soy vegetariana / vegana. I’m vegetarian / vegan.

Soy alérgica a… I’m allergic to…

Me gusta hacer senderismo. I like to hike. 

Quiero subir un volcán. I want to climb a volcano.

Me gustaría salir a caminar. I’d like to go for a walk. 

Quiero hacer kayak / rafting. I want to go kayaking / rafting. 

Disculpe, ¿dónde queda…? Excuse me, where’s the … located?

Necesito direcciones por favor. I need directions please. 

Quiero conocer gente. I want to meet new people. 

Voy a tomar un taxi / bus. I’m taking a taxi / bus.

¿A qué hora empieza el tour? At what time does the tour begin?

¿Qué debo llevar en el tour? What should I take on the tour?

Estoy de vacaciones. I’m on vacation. 

Remembering your Vacaciones in Spanish

If you’ve made it to this point, it means you’re ready to share with your loved ones the many experiences and lessons learned from the true wanderlust of venturing to a new destination. Use these phrases to discuss your vacaciones in Spanish, what you liked, disliked, the best venues, and useful tips you picked up!

Tengo que desempacar mis maletas. I need to unpack my bags.

Mis vacaciones fueron increíbles. My vacation was incredible. 

Mis amigos y yo la pasamos muy bien. My friends and I had a great time.

Me perdí en algunos lugares pero pedí direcciones y todo salió bien. I got lost in some places, but I asked for directions and things worked out.

Tome muchísimas fotos y videos. I took many photos and videos.

Mi lugar favorito fue… My favorite place was…

El hotel era muy bonito y cómodo. The hotel was quite nice and comfortable. 

La comida más rica que probé fue… The food I liked the most was…

Mi vuelo aterrizó a tiempo.  My flight landed on time.

No me gustó… I didn’t like…

Conocí a muchas personas. I met many people.

Me dieron la bienvenida muy amablemente. They welcomed me very kindly. 

Te traje un recuerdo especial. I brought you a special souvenir. 

Aprendí nuevas cosas. I learned new things. 

Te recomiendo visitar… I recommend you visit…

Necesito un descanso después de esas vacaciones. I need a break after that vacation. 

No puedo esperar a mis próximas vacaciones. I can’t wait for my next vacation. 

Time to Practice (Even if you’re not on Vacation)!

How are you feeling after studying these phrases and new vocabulary? ¿Estás listo para irte de vacaciones?

Now you have the necessary knowledge and basics for planning, enjoying, and remembering your vacaciones in Spanish. Whether your trip has already happened or you’re setting it up for the future, I hope you come back to this blog post to expand your vocabulary and take your conversational skills to the next level.

If you’re ready for a one-on-one conversation about your vacation, sign up for a free class with us at Homeschool Spanish Academy. Our professional, native Spanish-speaking teachers from Guatemala will improve your fluency and have you talking about your vacations and memories like a pro. 

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GCSE Spanish

Writing Essay about a Holiday for the GCSE Spanish Exam

Today you will have to write a writing essay about a holiday around 150 words . More specifically about the best holiday you ever had «las mejores vacaciones de tu vida» . This is one of the three assignments in which the structure task is organized and a perfect opportunity to prove how much Spanish you have learned .

Remember to read the  instructions carefully and follow all the instructions they will  provide you . Don’t miss anything of which you are asked to do!  Before continuing with the activity, you can  click on this link to learn some tips about how to do a writing essa y .

Write about the best holiday you ever had

Now we are going to work, the instructions are in Spanish , just as they will be in the exam.

El profesor os ha pedido, a todos los estudiantes de la clase, escribir un breve ensayo hablando sobre las mejores vacaciones de vuestra vida . Los tres mejores textos serán publicados en el blog de la escuela.

Debes mencionar:

• Dónde, cuándo y con quién fuiste.
• Cuánto tiempo pasaste allí.
• Indica al menos 3 cosas que hiciste durante esas vacaciones.
• Da una breve descripción de un lugar que viste.
• Explica por qué fueron tan especiales para ti.

Escribe aproximadamente 150 palabras en español. Responde a todos los aspectos de las preguntas.

Click the link to download the worksheet . Write your essay on it. Once you have finished, read again and review everything carefully (if you have used the right tenses, pronouns, prepositions, spelling, and word order…). Finally, if you are registered as a VIP student , send it to us to correct it by email to [email protected]. 

More about writing about a holiday in Spanish

To describe your vacation, you will need to use the preterite tense (pretérito indefinido ) , but it would be great if you also use the imperfect (pretérito imperfect) on occasion.

Click on the link to find more writing tasks to practice.

Increasing your vocabulary on the subject will also greatly help prepare your writing essay about a holiday in Spanish. I’ve included below a vocabulary infographic that will be very useful for you. If you are registered as a VIP member , you will be able to request a pdf copy of the picture and access flashcards and activities with additional vocabulary .

Learn Spanish with free, communicative lessons

Talking about Last Weekend in Spanish

Welcome to a new lesson. This time, we will cover some essential phrases and questions to talk about what you did last weekend in Spanish. You will have the chance to read and listen to many examples, and more importantly, practice with two listening activities and quizzes. Let’s start…

Talking about last weekend in Spanish (examples with the past tense)

First, the past tense will be used to talk about last weekend in Spanish – “ el fin de semana pasado ”. You should know that the past tense in Spanish has two forms, one for actions that were performed and are totally over such as “ Fui al cine ” (I went to the movies), and one for repeated or simultaneous actions like “ Miraba la televisión cuando sentí el terremoto… ” (I was watching TV when…). Essays or conversations about the weekend will often use the first structure.

We will not explain how to conjugate verbs in the past tense in Spanish in this lesson because that was covered in detail in a grammar lesson. Instead, we will present key questions and phrases that you can use to have a short, basic conversation about what you did last weekend in Spanish. For this type of conversations, it is a good idea to add sequence adverbs such as “primero”, “luego” and “por último” as they are very useful to tell stories in Spanish. Before heading to the main examples, take a look at the following set of pictures illustrating some popular weekend activities in Spanish.

What I did last weekend in Spanish

It’s time to listen to the first example. Pay attention to how this person follows the rules for the past tense to create a nice paragraph about his weekend in Spanish. The verbs in infinitive in this example are: ser, hacer, estar, arreglar, limpiar, lavar, visitar, platicar, ir, bailar, pasar, dormir y leer.

Lo que hice el fin de semana pasado

El fin de semana pasado fue muy entretenido. El sábado por la mañana, estuve en mi casa e hice los quehaceres. Arreglé mi cama, limpié mi cuarto y lavé mi ropa sucia. El sábado por la tarde visité a mis abuelos. Platicamos un rato y luego fui a comprar ropa. Por la noche, mis amigos y yo fuimos a una discoteca. Bailamos toda la noche y la pasamos muy bien. El domingo dormí hasta mediodía. Por la tarde, leí un libro y por la noche fui al cine.

What did you do last weekend in Spanish?

The second example is a short dialogue about the things someone did last weekend in Spanish. The key question in this short conversation is “¿ Qué hiciste el fin de semana (pasado) ?” (what did you do last weekend?). You could also ask what he/she did on that specific day with: “ ¿Que hiciste el sábado? ” (what did you do on Saturday?) and “ ¿Qué tal tu domingo? ” (what about Sunday?). The verbs you will see in the dialogue are: estar, tener, hacer, mirar, organizar, invitar, reventar, bailar, jugar, comer, salir, limpiar, poder and pasar .

¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana pasado?

• Carlos : Hola Alberto ¿Cómo estás?
• Alberto: Bien, ¿y tú?
• Carlos: Un poco cansado. Tuve un fin de semana muy ocupado.
• Alberto: ¿Qué hiciste el fin de semana?
• Carlos: Pues mira, el sábado fue el cumpleaños de mi hija. Organizamos una pequeña fiesta de cumpleaños. Invitamos a varios de sus amiguitos. Los niños reventaron una piñata, bailaron, jugaron varios juegos divertidos y comieron pastel claro.
• Alberto: ¿Todo salió bien?
• Carlos: Si, todo salió muy bien. Mi hija estaba feliz.
• Alberto: ¿Qué hiciste el domingo?
• Carlos: El domingo por la mañana limpiamos la casa. Por la tarde, fuimos a un parque de diversiones. Como puedes ver, tuve un fin de semana ocupado con mi familia. Eso sí, la pasamos muy bien… Dime ¿Qué tal tu fin de semana?
• Alberto: Bueno, mi fin de semana…

Listening Activity No. 1: How I spent my weekend in Spanish

Listening Activity No. 2: Talking about your weekend in Spanish

Key expressions in the conversation:.

• “ Se pasó volando ” mean “It flew by”
• “ No fue tan entretenido ” mean “It was not that fun”
• “ Tengo una idea… que te parece ?” means “I have an idea… what if we…”

You made it to the end of this lesson. We hope you now have a better idea on how to talk about your weekend in Spanish. Remember that “la práctica hace al maestro” (practice makes perfect). ¡Hasta la próxima lección!

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How to Write in Spanish: The Step-by-step Guide to Perfecting Your Writing Skills

Do you want to improve your Spanish writing skills and get even closer to fluency?

If you want to make Cervantes blush with your mastery of Spanish writing, you have come to the right place.

This step-by-step guide will show you how to write in Spanish, including information on spelling, grammar and more, as well as give you the tools to write practically anything!

Key Spanish Writing Rules

Spanish spelling, capitalization rules in spanish, spanish punctuation, spanish sentence structure, spanish abbreviations, other differences between english and spanish writing rules, how to write letters in spanish, how to write an email in spanish, how to write an essay in spanish, texting in spanish, spanish creative writing, journaling in spanish, other types of spanish writing, how to type in spanish, main differences between english and spanish keyboards, and one more thing….

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

If you want to be the next Cervantes, you should get acquainted with the main Spanish writing rules and the major differences between writing in English and writing in Spanish. Here are a few of them.

Spelling in Spanish is much more intuitive than it is in English.

This may sound almost too good to be true, but written words in Spanish are actually designed to reflect what they sound like! There are far fewer cases of silent letters, double letters or different spellings for the same sounds. Also, vowels each have their own specific sounds that don’t change, no matter what other letters surround it.

However, there are a couple of spelling “situations” that can give you a bit of a headache if you do not pay attention:

• The letter h has no sound. Regardless of its position in a word, it will always be soundless (zanahoria — carrot, hoguera  — bonfire , hueso  — bone). This letter changes the sound of the letter c when they go together (chaleco— vest , coche  — car , noche  — night), and even though it has no sound, it can change the meaning of a word (ola— wave, hola  — hello).
• There are some letter pairs that can be confusing. It would be impossible for you to learn every word containing these pairs, so the best you can do is check a dictionary in case of doubt. The letters that normally cause problems to learners of Spanish are b/v, r/rr, g/j, ll/y and the “triplets” c/k/q and c/s/z .
• Spanish uses accent marks . Accent marks may be small, but they are very important. If a word has an accent mark in Spanish, do not ignore it, because accent marks can easily change the pronunciation and meaning of words (tráfico — traffic , trafico — I smuggle , traficó — he smuggled).

If you want to improve your Spanish spelling skills, you can try some Spanish spelling games . They will make the learning process much more enjoyable, and the topic more accessible to you.

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Additionally, you may want to install a Spanish spell checker . This way you can be sure the majority of spelling errors you make while writing in Spanish will be detected and corrected.

Learning Spanish capitalization is actually pretty straightforward. You just have to remember the words that are not capitalized in Spanish.

For instance, Spanish does not capitalize, among others:

• Days of the week
• Nationalities
• Religions and their adjectives
• Social and political movements
• The pronoun yo (I) unless it is the first word in a sentence
• Book titles (except for the first word)
• Movie titles (except for the first word)
• Personal titles (except when they are the first word in a sentence)

Punctuation is another area where English and Spanish share a lot of features.

However, there are some Spanish punctuation rules that may be surprising for learners of Spanish.

These are the main ones (some of them have already been mentioned):

• Spanish has an opening question mark and an opening exclamation mark (¿,¡).
• Spanish does not capitalize the first word after a colon.
• Spanish uses the colon in the opening of letters. While English uses a comma (Dear Mrs. Petunia,), Spanish uses a colon (Estimada señora Petunia:).
• In Spanish, there is no Oxford comma at all. The last two items of a list will always be joined with a conjunction like y (and) or o (or) .
• Spanish and English write out numbers differently. In Spanish, you use a period to separate groups of thousands (e.g. 1450 or 1,450 would be 1.450 in Spanish). Spanish uses the comma as the decimal separator (so 1.5 would be 1,5 in Spanish).
• Spanish normally leaves commas, periods and other punctuation marks outside the quotation marks. (English: “I love you.” vs. Spanish “Te quiero”.).
• Dialogue formatting is very different in Spanish. The biggest difference is possibly the fact that Spanish uses a dash to open a dialogue (instead of quotation marks) and to enclose the dialogue tag (instead of commas). For example: 

English: “I love him,” she said, “I always have. “

Spanish: –Lo amo –dijo ella–. Siempre lo he amado.

Sentence structure refers to the internal organization of a language, i.e. the order we have to put elements in a sentence so that it is grammatically correct.

Many learners of Spanish think that since both Spanish and English follow the general pattern S + V + O (Subject + Verb + Object), both languages build sentences in the exact same way.

This is true sometimes, as in the following two examples:

Marta está bebiendo café. (S + V + O) Marta is drinking coffee. (S + V + O)

Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and learners of Spanish should take into account a couple of Spanish sentence structure rules if they want to come up with correct sentences, even if they are trying to produce basic Spanish sentences :

• In Spanish, you can omit the subject. If you know who you are talking or writing about, you do not need to mention that person (Tengo hambre — I am hungry). This is possible because verbs in Spanish have a different ending for each grammatical person.
• Adjectives come after the noun in Spanish. There are a few exceptions with a change in meaning, but overall, adjectives always come after the noun (la camisa blanca — the white shirt).
• Nouns and adjectives have to agree in Spanish. When you write a sentence in Spanish, you have to take a look at the nouns. Every determiner, quantifier, adjective and adverb that refers to a noun must have the same gender and number (el perro negro  — the black dog, all words masculine and singular in Spanish; las tazas rojas  — the red cups, all words feminine and plural in Spanish).
• Negation is very simple in Spanish. The majority of sentences become negative in Spanish by adding no in front of the main verb. No other changes are normally needed. You can also make negations in Spanish by using negative adverbs like nunca (never) and nadie (no one).

Abbreviations can be used in both formal and informal contexts, and even though they tend to work similarly across languages, there are a couple of things you should know about Spanish abbreviations and how to use them when writing in Spanish:

• Even though personal titles are not capitalized when written in full, their abbreviations are capitalized. For example:

señor — Sr. / Mister

señora  — Sra. / Mrs .

doctor  — Dr. / Doctor

• There are some abbreviations that appear very frequently in Spanish correspondence. For instance:

usted  — Vd. / formal you

se ruega contestación — S.R.C. / RSVP

• Ordinal numbers are gendered. They are adjectives, so they take on the gender of the noun they are referring to. Because of this, their abbreviations are also marked for gender (1º/1ª, 2º/2ª…).
• Spanish abbreviations can have a plural form. Normally, abbreviations add -s to form their plural (página — pág. / page, páginas  — págs. / pages). If the abbreviation has only one letter, they normally double it (página  — p. / page , páginas  — pp. / pages).
• Some acronyms do not accept the plural ending -s . They will still take the plural determiner if necessary (los CD  — the CDs). Oddly enough, you have to pronounce the final -s when reading/pronouncing them (los ce-dés  — the cee dees).
• There are some international abbreviations and acronyms that have their own version in Spanish. Examples of this are:

la UE  — la Unión Europea / the EU (European Union)

la ONU — la Organización de Naciones Unidas / the UN (United Nations)

• Spanish people use a lot of abbreviations when texting. (Have a look at the section on Texting in Spanish for more info.)

Although less important, there are some differences between English and Spanish you should take into account when writing in Spanish:

• We write dates differently. In Spanish, the order of writing the date is always day/month/year. So, while an American might read the date 02/07/2018 as February the 7th 2018, for a Spanish-speaking person it would be July the 2nd 2018.
• We use different measurement systems. This is something to bear in mind not only while writing, but when using Spanish in general. Not everybody knows what inches, feet, pounds or miles are (especially in Spain). Spanish-speaking countries use the metric system, so we have centimeters, meters, kilograms, kilometers, etc.

The first thing you need to do before starting to write a letter is to decide whether it has to be formal or informal.

This will have an impact not only on the body of the letter, but also (and especially) on the way you start and finish writing it.

There are a couple of well-established rules you should bear in mind when writing a letter in Spanish :

• Querido/a (Dear) is only used in informal letters, while Estimado/a (Dear) is the preferred form in formal ones.
• You normally use just the first name of the person you are writing to if the letter is informal (Querido Julián), but Señor (Mr.), Señora (Mrs.) or Señorita (Miss) and a surname if the letter is formal (Estimado Sr. González).
• Use tú (informal you) in the body of informal letters, but usted/ustedes (formal you singular/plural) in formal ones.
• When closing a letter, you can send Besos y abrazos (Hugs and kisses) in casual letters, but never in formal ones. Use Saludos (Regards) in semi-formal letters, and Cordialmente/Atentamente (Yours sincerely) in formal ones.

Knowing how to write an email in Spanish is a skill you are going to need sooner or later, because email communication, especially in a professional environment, is something most of us have to do on a daily basis.

The majority of the rules we had for writing letters also apply here.

You should make sure to use the right opening and closing in your email, and that the overall tone and the vocabulary used are appropriate to the situation.

When writing an email, especially a formal one, you will normally have to include four sections: greeting, reason for writing, body of the email and closing.

Here is a very brief example of an informal email John wrote to his friend Joanne:

¡Hola, Joanne! (Hi, Joanne!)

Reason for writing

Te escribo para preguntar si irás mañana al cumpleaños de Sonia. (I’m writing to ask if you’ll be going to Sonia’s birthday tomorrow.)

Me encantaría verte. ¡Hace tanto tiempo que no te veo! Madre mía, creo que la última vez que nos encontramos fue para Navidad. ¿Te acuerdas? (I would love to see you. I haven’t seen you in ages! Good Lord, I think the last time we ran into each other was on Christmas. Do you remember?)

Un abrazo, (Hugs,)

Starting to write essays in Spanish is possibly one of the most challenging tasks for beginner learners.

Going from simple sentences to several paragraphs requires a lot of practice, but there are tons of fixed expressions that can be used in order to make this process easier.

Depending on the type of essay you need to write, you will have to cover one or more of the following points:

Giving your opinion

This is very common in essays, especially the ones included in official Spanish exams. Make sure you use expressions that help you introduce your personal opinions, such as en mi opinión (in my opinion), me parece que (it seems to me that) or creo que (I believe that).

Agreeing and disagreeing

Another very common type of essay is the one where you are given a sentence or quotation and you have to agree or disagree with it. Useful expressions here can be estoy de acuerdo (I agree), no estoy de acuerdo (I disagree) and es falso que (it is false that).

Backing your claims

If you say that something is false or that you know for a fact something is true, you should back your claims with some evidence. Try to introduce words and expressions such as según (according to), demostrar (to demonstrate) and la fuente (the source).

A conclusion normally summarizes the main topics of the essay and answers any questions and hypotheses that were posed in the introduction. When writing your conclusion, use expressions like en conclusión (in conclusion), por esta razón (for this reason) and en resumen (in summary).

Texting in any language has its own separate set of rules.

For instance, depending on the recipient of the message, two texts can look completely different even if they include the exact same information:

Xq tki. (Because I have to go.) This is very informal, sent to a friend.

Porque tengo que irme. (Because I have to go.) This is sent in a much more formal situation, normally to someone with whom we do not have a very close relationship.

As you can see from the first example, there are a lot of abbreviations and slang words you can use while texting in Spanish , much like you would do in English.

It would be impossible to mention all of them here, but if you learn their most common traits, you will be able to text in Spanish like a pro:

• Letters are omitted. The most common feature you will see is the omission of vowels and consonants.

For example: xa — para (for), gnl — genial (great)

• The letters q and c normally become k.

For example: One of the most common examples is the expression tkm — te quiero mucho (I love you so much)

• There are some established abbreviations you will need to learn by heart. Sometimes you will only be given one letter, so knowing what it means in the world of Spanish texting will come in handy .

For example: b — bien (good), q — que/qué (that/what)

• Numbers and symbols can also be used. Just as in English, if a number comes close to the pronunciation of a part of a word, some letters will be replaced by numbers .

salu2 — saludos (regards), 100pre — siempre (always)

• Watch out for acronyms. Spanish normally uses their own versions of well-known acronyms. These acronyms are often similar to the international ones or can be understood from the context, but sometimes they will be completely different.

For example: NATO — OTAN , World Health Organization / WHO – Organización Mundial de la Salud / OMS

Creative writing is basically any kind of writing that is not professional, academic or journalistic.

Since this definition is so broad, there are also many types of writing that can fall into this category, the most common ones being poetry, novels, scripts, short stories, fairy tales and screenplays, among others.

Creative writing can be an amazing way to improve your Spanish language skills.

It forces you to think, be creative, ask questions and find answers for them. Your brain will be working hard while you write creatively, and the fact that you will be using vocabulary and grammar rules you have previously studied will make you remember them easier.

The ideal scenario for a learner of Spanish who wants to give creative writing a go would be having a native Spanish speaker that can read what the learner is writing and give detailed feedback (spelling and grammar errors and overall writing skills that could be improved).

Unfortunately, this is quite difficult to find, so the second-best option is to find resources that will help the learner get some Spanish writing practice (such as writing apps, creative writing websites, textbooks that teach writing, writing prompts, etc.).

Regardless of the way you choose to practice your creative writing skills, remember rule number one of every good writer: You have to read much more than you write!

Since there are no established rules, journaling can be a good way of practicing writing in Spanish without stress. No one except you will have access to your journal (unless you want to), so it does not matter if you make spelling mistakes or write grammatically incorrect sentences as long as you are doing it in Spanish.

If you feel that writing a journal in Spanish can be challenging, try to break your thoughts down into smaller thoughts.

There are many topics you can write about that will allow you to practice your Spanish writing skills in an undemanding way:

• Your bucket list.
• Your dreams.
• Things you are thankful for.
• Reasons for learning Spanish.
• Things that motivate you.
• Things that make you sad.
• Your goals for this week/month/year.
• Your fears.
• Your favorite places/people and why.

The list goes on and on. Write about the topics you want, whenever you want and however you want. Just remember to do it on a daily basis to be able to enjoy all the benefits journaling in Spanish can bring to you, both mentally and linguistically speaking.

There are many more types of Spanish writing, and each of them has its own intrinsic characteristics and rules.

Mentioning all of them would be impossible here, so here you have a selection of a few of them:

Recipes have a very easy structure: a list of ingredients and steps to cook the dish. You can start practicing writing recipes in Spanish by using the infinitive when you give the instructions (Pelar las patatas — To peel the potatoes), and move on to the imperative mood when you study the Spanish imperativo (Pela las patatas — Peel the potatoes).

Greeting cards

Even though we normally buy ready-made cards, adding a few words of our own could be a very nice finishing touch. If you are giving a birthday card, remember to include some wishes like ¡Feliz cumpleaños! (Happy birthday!) or ¡Te deseo mucha felicidad! (I wish you lots of happiness!).

If you want to give a Valentine’s Day card, try to make it even more personal by creating a romantic card in Spanish yourself. Do not forget to express your feelings with phrases like:

• Mi amor (My love)
• Mi cariño (My sweetheart)
• Te amo (I love you)

Notes can be written to say thank you, to ask for a favor or to remind someone to do something. They tend to be very short and to the point, including only information that is absolutely necessary. For this reason, many notes only include one or two words:

• ¡Gracias! (Thanks!)
• Para ti. (For you.)
• ¿Me echas una mano? (Will you help me?)
• Te quiero. (I love you.)
• Que aproveche. (Enjoy your meal.)
• Compra leche. (Buy some milk.)

Spanish and English keyboards are different.

Because of that, typing in Spanish can be a challenge for the first few times.

There are several ways in which you can type in Spanish on your device:

• You can install a keyboard on your device. 
• You can use Alt codes (Windows) and Opt codes (Macs). 
• You can use online tools such as TypeIt.  

If you take a look at a Spanish keyboard, you will notice some letters, characters and symbols have changed, moved or disappeared.

Let’s have a look at these changes.

Once you have your device ready to type in Spanish, you will notice some things are… different.

There are enough differences between a Spanish and an English keyboard to write a whole book, so I will only mention the three most important ones:

Accent marks

Spanish vowels can have an accent mark ( á, é,  í, ó, ú ). In order to type it, you first have to type the accent key on your keyboard (‘) and then the vowel you want to add the accent mark to.

Another letter with a mark is the Spanish letter ñ . In this case, you only have to press the (:) key, because Spanish keyboards have their own ñ key. The last mark you will need in Spanish is the diéresis (¨). In order to type it, press Shift + the (‘) key. Then type u or i.

Question and exclamation marks

One of the first interesting facts we learn about the Spanish language is that it has opening question marks and exclamation marks.

In order to type the opening question mark, press Shift and (=). The closing question mark can be typed by pressing Shift and (-). As for the exclamation marks, the opening one is very easy: just press the (=) key. The closing one can be typed by pressing Shift + 1, like on your normal keyboard.

Another change you will notice when typing in Spanish is the series of symbols you get by pressing Shift + numbers 2 to 0. Your keyboard probably has the sequence @#$%^&*() , while the Spanish keyboard will give you “·$%&/()= .

There are other differences between both keyboards, like the position of hyphens, dashes, apostrophes, colons, semi-colons, stops and commas, among others.

In the beginning, all these differences can be a little bit overwhelming, and you will probably type the wrong symbol or letter because your brain will want to do it automatically in your normal keyboard layout.

As with everything, practicing Spanish typing will be the key (no pun intended) to get you used to the new layout. There are even Spanish typing games where you can practice all you want until you feel fully comfortable using the Spanish keyboard.

I know this is a lot of information to digest, but the good news is that you now have everything you need to know about how to write in Spanish!

Thanks to writing, you will improve not only your vocabulary and grammar, but also your reading, speaking and listening skills.

So take a pencil and a piece of paper (or run that word processor you normally use) and start writing in Spanish right away!

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU .

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab .

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Tips for Writing a "What I Did on Vacation" Essay

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Are you required to write an essay about your summer vacation or your holiday break? This can be a tough assignment to tackle at first glance. But if you think about it, there are lots of interesting things that happen on your vacation that others might enjoy reading about. The key to success is to zero in on the experiences, people, or situations that made your vacation unique.

Summer vacation can be busy or lazy, funny or serious. You may have traveled with your family, worked every day, fallen in love, or coped with a difficult situation. To start your essay, you'll need to choose a topic and tone.

Family Vacation Essay Topic Ideas

If you traveled with your family, you may have some great stories to tell. After all, every family is crazy in its own way. Want some proof? How many Hollywood films have themes about family holidays or trips? Those films are popular because they enable us to glimpse inside the crazy family lives of others. Alternatively, you may have a more serious story to tell.

Consider these funny topics:

• Why I'll Never Go Back to (insert place name)
• How (insert name) Drove Me Crazy in Five Days
• Traveling to (insert city) Then and Now
• The Hazards of Traveling With a (person or thing)
• Why You Shouldn't Take a Dog to (insert place)
• I Left (insert city) But My (lost item) Stayed
• Why I Couldn't Sleep in (place name)

If your family vacation involved something more serious, think about one of these topics:

• The Love I Left Behind in (insert place)
• Saying Good-Bye to (insert person or place)
• Exploring (place's) Secrets
• An Emotional Trip

Summer Job Essay Topic Ideas

Not everyone gets to spend the summer having fun; some of us have to work for a living. If you spent your summer at a job, chances are you met a lot of interesting characters, dealt with complicated situations, or even saved the day once or twice. Here are some ideas for summer job topics:

• The Boss's Day Off
• The Customer From Hell
• What I Learned from My Customers
• Why I'll Never Go Into the ___ Business
• Six Things I Learned on the Job

How to Write the Essay

Once you've chosen your topic and your tone, think about the story you want to tell. In most cases, your essay will follow a typical story arc:

• The hook (the funny, sad, or scary sentence that grabs the reader's attention)
• The rising action (the beginning of your story)
• The climax (the most exciting moment in your story)
• The denouement (the aftermath or ending to your story)

Start by writing out the basic outline of your story. For example, "I started cleaning a guest's room and found that they'd left behind a wallet with $100 in cash. When I turned it in without taking a single dollar for myself, my boss rewarded me with a $100 gift certificate and a special award for honesty."

Next, start fleshing out the details. What was the room like? What was the guest like? What did the wallet look like and where was it left? Were you tempted to just take the money and turn in the wallet empty? How did your boss look when you handed her the wallet? How did you feel when you got your reward? How did others around you react to your honesty?

Once you've told your story in all its detail, it's time to write the hook and conclusion. What question or thought can you use to grab your reader's attention? For example: "What would you do if you found a wallet loaded with cash? That was my dilemma this summer."

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• What Did You Do This Summer?

my favorite vacation

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PenMyPaper: a student-friendly essay writing website

We, at PenMyPaper, are resolute in delivering you professional assistance to write any kind of academic work. Be it marketing, business, or healthcare sector, we can prepare every kind of draft efficiently, meeting all the points of the question brief. Also, we believe in 'research before drafting'. Any work without ample research and evidence will be a flawed one and thus we aim to make your drafts flawless with exclusive data and statistics. With us, you can simply relax while we do the hard work for you.

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A professional essay writing service is an instrument for a student who’s pressed for time or who doesn’t speak English as a first language. However, in 2022 native English-speaking students in the U.S. become to use essay help more and more. Why is that so? Mainly, because academic assignments are too boring and time-consuming. Also, because having an essay writer on your team who’s ready to come to homework rescue saves a great deal of trouble. is one of the best new websites where you get help with your essays from dedicated academic writers for a reasonable price.

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Essay writing services are legal if the company has passed a number of necessary checks and is licensed. This area is well developed and regularly monitored by serious services. If a private person offers you his help for a monetary reward, then we would recommend you to refuse his offer. A reliable essay writing service will always include terms of service on their website. The terms of use describe the clauses that customers must agree to before using a product or service. The best online essay services have large groups of authors with diverse backgrounds. They can complete any type of homework or coursework, regardless of field of study, complexity, and urgency.

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The Morning

Queen of the book club.

Sitting down for lunch with Reese Witherspoon, whose book picks have become a force in the publishing industry.

By Elisabeth Egan

I’d never eaten Nashville hot chicken before, and I’d never met Reese Witherspoon.

But there we were — she, in a blue and white pinstripe Oxford and jeans; me, in forgettable clothing, having rolled up to Witherspoon’s office with a borrowed suitcase. You can’t very well greet the actor who played Elle Woods toting luggage with a visible burn mark across the top. (Related: Never use your carry-on as an ironing board.)

I’ve been following Witherspoon’s inroads in the book world ever since I saw her in “Wild” (2014) and knew, just by the gritty, vulnerable way she embodied Cheryl Strayed that she was a fellow book lover. In 2017, Witherspoon started Reese’s Book Club, which focuses on fiction by women, about women, and reliably sends its monthly picks onto the best-seller list. Last year, print sales for the club’s selections outpaced those of Oprah’s Book Club and Read With Jenna, according to Circana Bookscan, adding up to 2.3 million copies sold.

I’ve enjoyed many of Witherspoon’s picks and interviewed a number of Reese’s Book Club’s authors — including Alka Joshi , Nina Simon and Celeste Ng — for the Book Review. I wanted to talk with her, reader to reader, and the lead-up to her 100th pick seemed like the perfect time.

Over lunch, Witherspoon told me that she likes to read in the morning, after exercising. (I read instead of exercising.) She organizes her books by color and prefers physical copies to digital ones. She wears reading glasses, 1.5 strength — a tidbit that didn’t make it into my story but gave me a certain middle age presbyopic nerd thrill. (By the way, the hot chicken was delicious.)

“I read a lot on airplanes, while I’m traveling,” Witherspoon said. “Do you know what’s interesting? It’s hard for me to read on vacation, maybe because reading is my job.”

I can relate. Many of us professional readers lament the lost luxury of enjoying books “like a normal person” instead of guzzling straight from the faucet, always a gulp away from losing the plot (literally). I know what you’re thinking: Boohoo. And you’re right!

What struck me about Witherspoon’s comment was the reminder — so obvious I didn’t even ask a follow-up question — that reading is supposed to be a hobby, belonging in the same category as listening to music, dabbling in watercolor and baking bread. Why has it become so much more complicated than other pastimes? Why do so many readers turn to the “experts” — big-name book clubs, critics, BookTok — for help figuring out what to read next? Don’t get me wrong: I love being a part of the engine that fuels these recommendations, and Witherspoon clearly does too. But I still believe in the power of standing in a bookstore or library, running your fingers over the spines.

Witherspoon said her original goals for Reese’s Book Club were to narrow the choices for busy readers and to “bring the book club out of your grandma’s living room and online.” Indeed, there are 882 comments beneath the club’s Instagram post about its May pick, “How to End a Love Story,” so she appears to have been successful in this regard.

Now, she said, “My dream is that it gets a little bit off the digital world and back into your living room.”

Even Witherspoon, doyenne of digital book clubbing, has an IRL club of her own.

I second this approach. The digital world is an excellent place to get ideas and talk (or type) about books. But, to me, the difference between scrolling through videos of book hauls and talking about a great novel with a friend is the difference between walking on a treadmill and hiking in the woods.

On my way home from Nashville, I popped into the airport outpost of Ann Patchett’s bookstore, Parnassus. I didn’t buy anything; my suitcase was already straining at the zipper from the six novels I packed for my 24-hour trip. (Recommendations for beach reads, coming soon!) I also didn’t impose my opinions on strangers, as I’m wont to do in the Hudson Booksellers at my home airport. I just stood there, flipping through paperbacks, enjoying the particular soundtrack of a store on a busy concourse. Wheels rolling, credit cards tapping, rushed customers asking where to find what they needed — Kristin Hannah, Fareed Zakaria, Sarah Maas, a book light, a birthday card, a bathroom. Over and over, the clerk murmured, “Will that be all?” and “Have a safe trip.”

Eventually, feeling like the luckiest person who ever read under the covers by flashlight, I joined the throng of travelers and headed to my gate. By the time I finished my book, I was home.

Here’s my full story on how Witherspoon built a literary empire .

Parnassus isn’t the only literary destination in Nashville. I also visited The Bookshop , in East Nashville, a small, quiet gem dominated by one of the most gorgeous literary tablescapes I’ve ever seen.

For a complete list of Reese’s Book Club’s picks, go here .

Still not sure what to read next? The New York Times Book Review can help .

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

When stars of “Bridgerton,” which returned this week for Season 3, are promoted from the supporting cast, their styles are transformed. Fans call this the “ Bridgerton glow-up .”

Alissa Wilkinson reviewed the new Amy Winehouse biopic, “Back to Black.” “Some of the movie’s choices,” she writes, “seem aimed at rewriting her history without her consent.”

The Cannes Film Festival started this week. These are the best red carpet looks .

The Times joined five British “Doctor Who” fans to watch the new season. “It’s a lot more goofy than what you traditionally get,” one viewer said .

The CBS sitcom “Young Sheldon” ended this week, despite still being popular. Aging child actors and the plot constraints of the show it spun off from help explain why .

Alice Munro

The author Alice Munro died at 92. Her short stories showed “that the humble facts of a single person’s experience, subjected to the alchemy of language and imagination and psychological insight, could provide the raw material for great literature,” Gregory Cowles writes in an appraisal .

Earlier this year, the author Ben Dolnick wrote a guide for those who want to get into Munro’s work .

King Charles III’s very red portrait, unveiled this week, was very polarizing. It wasn’t the first: Read a brief history of contentious royal paintings , including one with a shirtless Prince Phillip.

“ Yves Klein and the Tangible World ,” on display now at the Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery in Manhattan, gathers 30 large-scale pieces with roots in performance art.

Other Big Stories

A small band of New Yorkers gathered, as they do almost every spring, to throw a birthday party for their former neighbor, Katharine Hepburn .

The Japanese chef Kei Kobayashi earned three Michelin stars for a restaurant in Paris. Now, he’s expanding his ambitions back to Japan .

Barbara Hannigan, the rare artist to have a career as both a soprano and a conductor, will lead the Iceland Symphony Orchestra .

On Billie Eilish’s third album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” she takes up the craft of the love song, with her own peculiar twists.

New York has spent over $100 million subsidizing Broadway — including popular musicals like “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — to help the industry through the pandemic. Some say the program lavishes taxpayer money on shows that don’t need it .

THE LATEST NEWS

Israel-Hamas War

President Biden wants a three-way diplomatic accord among the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia. But Israeli officials are resisting their part of the deal: a cease-fire in Gaza and steps toward a Palestinian state .

In Gaza, Israeli troops recovered the bodies of three hostages whom Hamas captured during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Faculty at U.C.L.A. voted not to rebuke the university’s chancellor over how he handled counterprotesters’ attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment.

Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Alabama voted against joining the United Automobile Workers , setting back the labor union’s efforts to gain ground in the South.

The man who bludgeoned Nancy Pelosi’s husband after breaking into their San Francisco home in 2022 received a 30-year prison sentence .

TikTok added guardrails on weight- and dieting-related posts . Its algorithm will no longer shows users videos about “extended intermittent fasting,” excessive exercise and more.

CULTURE CALENDAR

By Alexis Soloski

🎥 “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Friday) Few action franchises have run so long or at such high octane as “Mad Max.” Set in a postapocalyptic Australia, the movies have spent 45 years furnishing audiences with trucks, guns, thrills and some very big booms. In 2015, the franchise gave its wasteland a feminist gloss with “Mad Max: Fury Road,” starring a ferocious Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa. And maybe we did need another hero, because that character has returned, now played by the wide-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy. In this prequel, Taylor-Joy, covered in grit, grease and dirt, plays a younger Furiosa, newly kidnapped and desperate to find her way home.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

By Melissa Clark

Potato Chip Omelet

Most three-ingredient recipes are pretty ho-hum; basic dishes to satisfy your hunger but not necessarily whet your appetite. Ferran Adrià’s potato chip omelet is a salty, crisp-edged exception. Calling for just eggs, potato chips and good olive oil, this minimalist combination is a riff on a classic Spanish tortilla, but without any chopping required. Add a sprinkle of smoked pimentón or sliced chives for color and verve, or some grated Manchego for creaminess. Or leave it be; it’s a perfectly simple dish all by itself.

REAL ESTATE

The hunt: A New Yorker took her $400,000 budget to the Hudson Valley. Which home did she choose? Play our game .

What you get for $400,000: A 1924 bungalow in Lexington, Ky.; a four-bedroom house in Blairstown, N.J.; or a Colonial Revival house in Buffalo .

For sale: The loft-style SoHo building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono once lived .

Sex and relationships: Experts say communication is essential for true intimacy. But what if your significant other won’t open up ?

Skin care: Some pimple patches are more helpful than others.

Visiting Italy? Try these essential pasta dishes , recommended by the experts.

Forget weekend escapes: How to, realistically, care for yourself as a caregiver .

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

‘do i really need a portable air purifier’.

Even if your home has a modern HVAC system, Wirecutter experts say there’s real value in having a portable air purifier, too. Running one on high for a few minutes cleans a room quickly. This can make a big difference during moments of increased air pollution — throughout a heavy pollen season or if food burns in the kitchen, for example. It can keep air squeaky clean running on auto. And during an acute weather event, like wildfire smoke invading your home , an air purifier is an important part of protecting yourself. — Annemarie Conte

GAME OF THE WEEK

English Premiere League soccer: The race for the Premiere League title comes down to the final weekend of the season. Manchester City, which has dominated English soccer in recent years, can capture its fourth straight title with a win over West Ham — a feat no Premiere League team has ever achieved . But second-place Arsenal still has a shot. If Man City loses, and Arsenal beats Everton, the London squad would win its first title in two decades. Sunday at 11 a.m. Eastern. Man City plays on NBC, and Arsenal on USA.

“City winning the league is just what happens . To be bothered by it would be like getting annoyed by the colour of the sky,” Charlie Eccleshare writes in The Athletic.

Arsenal should be proud of its performance this season , with or without a title, Art de Roché writes.

On the field, this was a banner year for the Premiere League. Behind the scenes, though, it was a mess of lawsuits, infighting and looming government regulation .

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangram was objected .

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku and Connections .

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

Correction: The sports section in Thursday’s newsletter repeated N.B.A. and N.F.L. news from the previous day’s newsletter.

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Elisabeth Egan is a writer and editor at the Times Book Review. She has worked in the world of publishing for 30 years. More about Elisabeth Egan