The neighbor's children in Spanish
A courtyard conversation about the children and their ages in Spanish. 7 phrases that the conversation is made of: «Qué grandes están tus hijos. ¿Cuántos años tienen?» — How big your children are. How old are they?; «La niña tiene ocho y el niño va a cumplir doce.» — The girl is eight, and the boy is turning twelve soon. Every line can be played right on the page. The conversation is predictable: few lines, and almost all of them repeat from one exchange to the next.
How the whole thing sounds
The situation: a courtyard conversation about the children and their ages. The conversation is short and predictable — which is exactly what makes it good for a first try: few lines, and almost all of them repeat from one exchange to the next.
- Qué grandes están tus hijos. ¿Cuántos años tienen?How big your children are. How old are they?
- La niña tiene ocho y el niño va a cumplir doce.The girl is eight, and the boy is turning twelve soon.
- Ya casi es un adolescente, entonces.So he's almost a teenager.
- Sí, y ese teléfono suyo no lo suelta nunca.Yes, and he never lets his phone out of his hands.
- Los míos igual. Cuando llegan del colegio, se sientan y no se levantan.Same at my place. They come home from school, sit down and do not get up.
- ¿Y tu hija mayor? Hace mucho que no la veo.And your older daughter? I haven't seen her in a long time.
- Ya es adulta y vive con sus abuelos, cerca del estadio.She's grown up already and lives with her grandparents, near the stadium.
Lines one by one
| Spanish | Reading | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Qué grandes están tus hijos. ¿Cuántos años tienen? | — | How big your children are. How old are they? |
| La niña tiene ocho y el niño va a cumplir doce. | — | The girl is eight, and the boy is turning twelve soon. |
| Ya casi es un adolescente, entonces. | — | So he's almost a teenager. |
| Sí, y ese teléfono suyo no lo suelta nunca. | — | Yes, and he never lets his phone out of his hands. |
| Los míos igual. Cuando llegan del colegio, se sientan y no se levantan. | — | Same at my place. They come home from school, sit down and do not get up. |
| ¿Y tu hija mayor? Hace mucho que no la veo. | — | And your older daughter? I haven't seen her in a long time. |
| Ya es adulta y vive con sus abuelos, cerca del estadio. | — | She's grown up already and lives with her grandparents, near the stadium. |
How to prepare for a conversation like this
Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.
And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.
- Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and it gets in the way badly. It is one of the most reliably measured findings in the entire field.checked many timesTeimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
- That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many timesXiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.
Frequently asked
How do you start a conversation in Spanish in this situation?
“Qué grandes están tus hijos. ¿Cuántos años tienen?” — How big your children are. How old are they?. The first line in such a conversation is almost always the same, and that is the one worth learning: the other person will carry it from there.
What if you did not understand the reply?
Say “I don't understand” and “repeat, please” — both are in the rescue set. Admitting your language is still shaky almost always makes the other person more patient.
Should you memorize the dialogue?
No. It is more useful to catch the key words by ear: the other person will say their own thing, and a memorized line will not always fit their reply.