El Cid

"El Cid" has been shared to the blog from the Spanish reading practice section of the learning library where you can find a large selection of interactive texts to help you with your reading skills. This article also has audio for you to practice your Spanish listening skills; you can find many more listening activities in the Spanish listening exercises section.


Spanish online reading and listening practice – level B1

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar lived in the 11th century and was known by the honorific title of El Cid Campeador. His story became a legend and has been an inspiration for many stories and adaptations, starting with the 12th century epic poem El Cantar de mio Cid and the most recent being a new series on Amazon Prime released at the end of 2020. El Cid means “lord” and its origin is probably from the Arabic word sayyid while campeador is a term referring to anyone who distinguishes themselves in battle (battlefield = campo de batalla) and it is often translated as “of the battlefield”.

Learn about this famous Medieval warrior with this reading and listening exercise which can help you practise relative pronouns, past tenses and past participles as adjectives. It is associated with the following studylists:

If you are interested you can view the trailer for the new series before scrolling down to the audio and text of the exercise.

Exercise: El Cid

Listen to the audio, then read the transcript. Click any phrase for the translation and links to related grammar lessons which you can add to your Kwiziq notebook to practise later.

Text by Ana Matilla and audio by Inma Sánchez.

Click any word in the text to see its translation and related grammar lessons.

Author info

Shui Ng González

Shui is Kwiziq's Content and Language Manager and Head of Spanish. She is an experienced technical writer, translator and project manager. Shui grew up bilingual English-Spanish in the UK, completing her studies in London, Madrid and Paris where she now lives. She speaks English, Spanish, French and Italian. Her love of languages and technical knowledge make her a perfect fit for Kwiziq.