Ana’s Building: Spanish from the Ground Up
What can a thirty-five-storey building teach you about Spanish?
In our new Spanish Super Tutor lesson with Teacher Miguel, you’ll explore Ana’s building while practising reading comprehension, vocabulary and useful sentence structures.
There are four lifts, a reception area with classical music, friendly concierges and a terrace with views of the city.
Your task is to discover the details—and then use the language to describe a place yourself.
What Will You Learn?
Designed for IGCSE Spanish reading and vocabulary practice, this lesson brings together:
Vocabulary about buildings, furniture and homes.
Reading for specific information.
Descriptions with hay, tener and ser.
Superlatives such as el más alto.
Expressions for explaining where someone lives and what they can see.
Start by reading the story below.
Read the Story: El Edificio de Ana
El edificio donde vive Ana tiene treinta y cinco plantas.
Es el edificio más alto de la ciudad.
Tiene cuatro ascensores.
Hay una recepción con dos sofás, una mesa y revistas.
Tres porteros muy simpáticos trabajan ahí.
En la recepción siempre hay música clásica.
Los sofás de la recepción son muy cómodos.
En cada planta hay cuatro viviendas.
Ana vive en la puerta C.
Su terraza tiene vistas a la ciudad.
In the interactive lesson, you can tap each sentence to reveal its English translation.
Try reading once without the translations. On your second reading, check any sentences you found difficult.
Vocabulary: From Reception to the Terrace
How many of these words can you find in the story?
Spanish | English |
El edificio | The building |
La planta | The floor / storey |
El ascensor | The lift / elevator |
La recepción | The reception area |
El portero | The concierge / doorman |
El sofá | The sofa |
La vivienda | The home / dwelling |
La terraza | The terrace |
Las vistas | The views |
Cómodo/a | Comfortable |
A detail to notice: in this story, planta means a floor or storey of a building—not a plant.
Also, “Ana vive en la puerta C” identifies her home by its door letter. A natural English translation in this context is “Ana lives in flat C.”
Key Structures You Can Use Yourself
1. Hay: Say What Is There
Use hay for both “there is” and “there are”.
Hay una recepción. There is a reception area.
En cada planta hay cuatro viviendas. There are four homes on each floor.
Now complete:
En mi edificio hay…
2. Tener: Describe Features
The story uses tiene to explain what the building has:
Tiene cuatro ascensores.It has four lifts.
You can use the same structure to describe a home:
Mi casa tiene…
Mi piso tiene…
3. Ser + Adjective: Describe People and Things
Notice how the adjectives agree with the nouns:
Los porteros son simpáticos.The concierges are friendly.
Los sofás son cómodos.The sofas are comfortable.
Now change the second sentence to describe just one sofa:
El sofá es…
4. Superlatives: Describe the Tallest Building
Here, el + noun + más + adjective + de identifies something as having the highest degree of a quality within a group.
Try changing the adjective:
Es el edificio más moderno de la ciudad.
5. Tener Vistas a: Describe the View
Su terraza tiene vistas a la ciudad.Her terrace has views of the city.
What would your ideal terrace overlook?
El mar
La montaña
Un parque
La ciudad
Build your sentence:
Mi terraza ideal tiene vistas a…
Put Your Understanding to the Test
The programme includes several ways to revisit the language:
🏢 Explore the Building
Discover the different areas of Ana’s building interactively.
📝 Complete the Reading Quiz
Answer ten questions about the story. Pay attention to numbers, descriptions and locations.
🔀 Rebuild the Sentences
Put scrambled words into the correct order.
✏️ Become the Editor
Find and correct mistakes in sentences about the text.
🧩 Match Spanish and English
Work through three matching sets to check your vocabulary.
⚡ Take the Speed Challenge
You have 60 seconds to show what you remember!
Your Final Challenge: Describe a Building
Now move beyond Ana’s story.
Write five sentences about your home, a building you know or an imaginary place. Include:
Something it has.
Something there is or there are.
A description using ser.
Where someone lives.
A view.
Use this framework if you need help:
Mi edificio tiene…En la entrada hay…Los/Las… son…Vivo en…Mi ventana tiene vistas a…
You don’t need to live in a tower like Ana’s. A small house, a flat or an imaginary home can give you plenty to describe.
Ready to Explore?
Join Ana’s Building: Spanish from the Ground Up with Teacher Miguel at Spanish Super Tutor.
Explore every floor.
Build your vocabulary.
Strengthen your Spanish.
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