Today we will learn how to tell stories in Spanish. There are some nice odd idioms that are used to start or end a tale in Spanish. Learn the most common ones with El Rincón del Tándem Spanish school ?
Learning how to tell stories in Spanish is definitely a way to upgrade your Spanish speaking skills. In this post, we will talk about the most commonly used expressions that you need to master when writing or telling a tale in Spanish.
Surely, every language has it owns typical expressions used for this purpose. Spanish has many, some of them are funny, some other does not make much sense literally but sounds well because have a rhyme scheme AA.
All of them are very typical of fairy tales and their origins date back to very old times.
So, if you want to improve your storytelling skills in Spanish and get to know a bit of folklore, take a look at the list below.
- Spanish expressions to start a story
– Había una vez o Érase una vez
Once upon a time
– Se cuenta que
The story goes that
– Hace más de mil años
More than a thousand years ago
– En un lejano país
In a faraway country
– Cuentan los que lo vieron (yo no estaba, pero me lo dijeron…)
Those who saw it tells that (I wasn’t there, but they told me…)
– Cuando los animales hablaban
When the animals talked
- Spanish expressions to end a story
– Y fueron felices, y comieron perdices
This idiom is used for happy endings. The English equivalent might be “and they lived happily ever after”. Literally translated: “And they were happy and ate partridge”
– Y se acabó este cuento con pan y pimiento
Literally, “and this tale ended with bread and pepper”
– Y los cuentos se los lleva el viento
And tales are carried away by the wind
– Y como dice Don Fermín este cuento llegó a su fin
Literally “and as Don Fermín says, this story has come to an end”. Although we do not know who Don Fermín is, the sentence sounds a nice way to end the story ?
–Y colorín colorado este cuento se ha acabado
The sentence tells us the tale has ended. The phrase “colorín colorado” does not have an English translation and we do not exactly what it refers to. It is said that that is a very old expressions, probably dating back to XVII when colorín was the name used for a kind of red.
–Y todos vivieron felizmente
In the end, everything turned out well / everyone lived happily
– Esto es verdad y no miento, y como me lo contaron te lo cuento
That is true, I am not lying and I tell you the way they told me
Finally, we hope this post will help to sound like a Spanish native speaker when it comes to tell stories in Spanish ?
As usual, we encourage you to expand your vocabulary with new Spanish verbs and words.
If you want to learn Spanish from scratch or upgrade your knowledge, El Rincón del Tándem Spanish school gives you the chance to do it by having fun, here in Valencia ?
¡Hasta pronto!
