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After reading and listening to Mónica and Carlos’s stories, what advice would you offer them? Do you have any suggestions that could help them overcome their current challenges? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

B1 Buscando consejos

But, before that, take a look at this shared notebook with the most useful grammar for giving advice (the imperative, the “you should” formula and other structures):

We’ve also collected the most interesting grammar points used in the text in this other notebook that you can also test against:

¿Conoces esta expresión?

“Consejos vendo y para mí no tengo”

Literally, it means “I sell advice and don’t have any for myself”, but what we mean is something like:

“I give advice that I don’t follow myself.”
“I’m good at advising others, but not myself.”

In other words and using a common saying in English:
“I talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.”

We use it a lot in Spanish when someone tells other people what they should do, but doesn’t apply the same advice to their own life.

Consejos vendo y para mí no tengo.
I give advice that I don’t follow myself.

Let’s put it into context, imagine:

*someone always talks about healthy habits but never exercises himself;
*a manager talks about work-life balance but sends emails at midnight.
*a person who tells everyone to relax but is always stressed.
*a politician talks about honesty but is involved in a scandal.

In any of these situations, someone could say (in an ironic way…):

“Ya, ya… consejos vendo y para mí no tengo.”

Hurray for Weekend Workout Friday!

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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 Advice.

Here’s a writing challenge for our free users: My name is Lola (level A1)

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