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español · English

Learn Spanish with short stories

Read Spanish books with English alongside, or English books with Spanish alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

SpanishEnglish

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.

In a village of La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen with a lance in the rack, an old shield, a skinny nag and a greyhound for the hunt.

Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lentejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda.

A stew of more beef than mutton, leftovers most nights, eggs and bacon on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays and a young pigeon as a Sunday extra took up three-quarters of his income.

Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes (1605), with our own English rendering.

Free Spanish–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Spanish, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each free one is also a free Spanish–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Spanish–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

Want to hear it too? Spanish stories with audio are narrated, free, with a speed control.

By level:

48 of 393 stories shown: the level pages above and the Spanish–English library have the rest.

Free graded readers in Spanish

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of Spanish graded readers, most of them free: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Spanish–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Spanish with English alongside

Spanish is one of the most rewarding languages to read early. Spelling follows pronunciation, and a large share of its vocabulary shares Latin roots with English, so many words are recognisable on the page long before you would catch them in speech.

What slows readers down is the grammar around those words: the subjunctive, object pronouns attached to verbs, and the two past tenses that novels switch between constantly. With the English next to each paragraph, you can see how a sentence was meant without stopping to look anything up.

Reading English books with Spanish alongside

For Spanish speakers, a parallel text is a way into books in English without reaching for a dictionary every few lines. Read the English and look across to the Spanish when an idiom or a long sentence doesn’t land.

It works for bilingual families too: one book, two languages on the same page, so a parent and a child can each follow in the language they read best.

393 English stories in the library have Spanish alongside: Aprender inglés con cuentos cortos.

Where a parallel text helps most in Spanish

Two past tenses

Stories alternate between the preterite and the imperfect, and the difference carries meaning (what happened versus what was going on). Seeing the English beside each one makes the pattern visible.

False friends

Words like embarazada, actual or librería look familiar and mean something else. The translation next to the sentence catches them before they mislead you.

Long, flowing sentences

Literary Spanish tolerates long sentences strung together with commas and relative clauses. Pairing by paragraph keeps the whole thought on screen at once.

Spanish classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Spanish–English parallel text:

  • Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes
  • Marianela, Benito Pérez Galdós
  • Rimas y leyendas, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
  • Niebla, Miguel de Unamuno

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Spanish–English stories

Where can I read Spanish stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 351 free Spanish–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a Spanish–English parallel text?

A Spanish text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Spanish story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Spanish–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every free story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment. Subscriber books download with Reader.