Mind the Gap “___”

Una tarde tranquila – Prepositions

Take a peaceful stroll through a quiet afternoon while practising your Spanish prepositions with this little poem. 🌳🪁

A2 Una tarde tranquila

Then, have a look at some of our free fill-in-the-blanks activities to keep improving your Spanish!

La Palabra curiosa

“sobremesa”

Do you know what sobremesa means?

No, it’s not a type of table… although mesa does mean table!

La sobremesa is the time you spend chatting, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company at the table after a meal has finished. The plates may be empty, but nobody is in a hurry to leave!

The word combines sobre (on/over) and mesa (table), which gives us a nice clue to its meaning.

In Spain and many other Spanish-speaking countries, la sobremesa is an important part of social life, especially after a relaxed meal with family or friends. It’s a time to chat, laugh, tell stories, perhaps have a coffee and simply enjoy being together.

And a good sobremesa can sometimes last even longer than the meal itself!

So, if you finish lunch at 3 p.m. but you’re still sitting around the table chatting at 5… ¡estás de sobremesa!

Nos quedamos de sobremesa casi dos horas hablando.
We stayed at the table chatting for almost two hours after the meal.

Los domingos siempre hacemos una larga sobremesa con la familia.
On Sundays, we always enjoy a long sobremesa with the family.

¿Conoces esta expresión?

¡No hay prisa!

No hay prisa literally means there’s no hurry/rush and is used to tell someone they don’t need to hurry or that something isn’t urgent. It’s a very common, natural expression in Spanish.

No hay prisa. 😎  No rush. ☕

Termina el trabajo cuando puedas, no hay prisa.

Finish the work when you can, there’s no rush.

¡Tómate otro café! No hay prisa, estamos de vacaciones.

Have another coffee! There’s no rush, we’re on holiday.

Spotlight & Updates

September comes for everyone

New game: a word search with four scenes, one for each way you are heading back this month, whether that is the nursery gate, the start of term, the first day back at the office, or retirement, where none of it applies to you any more. Forty words in each, all worth knowing.

Take me to your leader

August Leaderboard Top 3

A huge congratulations to our three leading kwizzers on the August Spanish Leaderboard! 🎉

Your hard work and brilliant Spanish skills have earned you the top spots this month.

Well done S F, Luke J and Ellie B!

¡Excelente! 🎉

Hurray for Weekend Workout Friday!

Special treat for Premium subscribers

Friday is Weekend Workout day – a special treat just for our Premium subscribers, with fresh dictations and writing challenges to boost your listening and writing skills.

This week’s theme is Entertainment.

Here’s a dictation for our free users: Los novios part 1 (B1)

Not Premium yet? Now’s a great time to upgrade! You’ll get these Weekend Workouts every week, plus unlimited kwizzes and multiple notebooks.

Note: We send dictations and writing challenges by email, which you can opt into or out of. To check your email preferences, please click on your communication preferences and make sure there’s a check next to System Communications in order to receive exercises every week.