Test Your Spanish Listening with Natural Expressions
How much Spanish can you follow without translating? Lucía tests your comprehension with natural expressions in this short lesson. Use it to notice what you already understand and what needs another listen.
Watch the lesson
Try it yourself
Play the video once without pausing and estimate how much you understood. Replay the difficult parts, write down three useful expressions, and try explaining their meaning in your own words.
Watch the original lesson on YouTube.
Reading companion: seven Spanish dad jokes
Lucía introduces seven chistes de cuñao and explains their wordplay in English. Cuñao is a colloquial pronunciation of cuñado, “brother-in-law.” She describes the comic stereotype of a know-it-all brother-in-law who tells silly, sometimes intolerant jokes, then invites you to learn vocabulary through the punchlines.
This edited companion follows the whole lesson. The Spanish dialogues are checked against the words printed in the video; English translations and explanations help you follow the puns. Reactions, repeated explanations and brief promotions are condensed.
1. Nose / no sé
A: ¿Cómo se dice nariz en inglés?
B: Nose.
A: ¿Tú tampoco? ¡Nadie lo sabe!
English translation
A: How do you say “nariz” in English?
B: Nose.
A: You don’t know either? Nobody knows!
Why it’s funny: Nariz means “nose.” Lucía plays with the written English word nose and the Spanish phrase no sé, meaning “I don’t know”: the correct answer is mistaken for an admission of ignorance. For ordinary English pronunciation, nose is one syllable; no sé consists of two Spanish words. The resemblance makes the joke work.
2. Caja fuerte
¿Qué hace una caja en el gimnasio?
Volviéndose una caja fuerte.
English translation
What is a box doing at the gym?
Becoming a strong box.
Why it’s funny: You go to the gym to get strong: ponerte fuerte. Caja fuerte means “safe” or “strongbox,” so the joke imagines an ordinary box getting strong enough to become one.
3. Como amigos
A: ¿Por qué no salís juntos?
B: Porque ella come amigos.
A: ¿Qué?
B: Me dijo: “Te quiero, pero como amigos”.
English translation
A: Why aren’t you two going out together?
B: Because she eats friends.
A: What?
B: She told me, “I love you, but as friends.”
Why it’s funny: Como can mean “as” or “like,” and it is also the first-person singular present of comer: “I eat.” The speaker misunderstands como amigos (“as friends”) as “I eat friends.” Lucía also gives the familiar phrase Te quiero, pero como amigo — “I love you, but as a friend.”
Between jokes, Lucía mentions My Daily Spanish’s free study guide and invites viewers to download it through the video description.
4. Agotados
A: Quisiera comprar un libro sobre la fatiga y el cansancio.
B: Lo siento, están agotados.
English translation
A: I’d like to buy a book about fatigue and tiredness.
B: I’m sorry, they’re sold out.
Why it’s funny: Agotado can mean “exhausted” as well as “sold out.” Here the books are sold out, but the joke imagines that books about fatigue are themselves too tired! After this example, you can use estoy agotado or estoy agotada to say “I’m exhausted.”
5. Contraje / con traje
A: El mes pasado contraí matrimonio.
B: Contraje.
A: Claro, tenía que ser formal.
English translation
A: Last month I got married. [The Spanish speaker uses an incorrect verb form.]
B: Contraje. [A correction, misheard as “with a suit”.]
A: Of course, it had to be formal.
Why it’s funny: Contraer matrimonio means “to get married.” The correct first-person singular preterite is contraje, so contraí is deliberately left in the dialogue to set up the correction. The speaker hears contraje as con traje, meaning “with a suit,” and thinks the other person is commenting on the wedding clothes.
Lucía asks you to give the video a thumbs-up, then warns that the final two jokes will put your vocabulary and irregular verbs to the test.
6. Vino
¿Cuál es el vino más amargo?
Vino mi suegra.
English translation
Which wine is the most bitter?
My mother-in-law came.
Why it’s funny: Vino means “wine,” and vino is also the third-person singular preterite of venir (“to come”): “came.” Amargo means “bitter,” and suegra means “mother-in-law.” Lucía uses the familiar mother-in-law joke: the supposedly bitter experience is the visit, not a type of wine.
7. Encantada
A: ¿Se quedará a dormir?
B: Sí.
A: Quizá debería saber que la casa está encantada.
B: Ah. Pues dígale que a mí también me hace ilusión quedarme.
English translation
A: Will you stay overnight?
B: Yes.
A: Perhaps you should know that the house is haunted.
B: Oh. Well, tell it that I’m looking forward to staying here too.
Why it’s funny: Una casa encantada is a “haunted house,” while encantado or encantada can also mean “delighted” or “pleased.” The guest interprets the house as delighted to have them stay and answers as though it were a person. Lucía also mentions encantado and encantada as greetings meaning “pleased to meet you.” In the reply, me hace ilusión means “I’m excited about it” or “I’m looking forward to it.”
Tell one of the jokes yourself
Lucía finishes by suggesting that you share these jokes with your Spanish teacher or friends. She recommends her lesson on rolling your r’s to help with your pronunciation. Pick your favorite joke, listen again, and try telling it aloud.
Grammar reference: the RAE conjugations confirm como, contraje and vino. The intentional mistake in joke five is kept because it is part of the punchline.
