Free Spanish stories for beginners, level by level

A0 stories (9)

• Hola, me llamo Lucía: Lucía from Madrid introduces herself: her job, her dog and her boyfriend.
• Mi familia: Javier, nine, from Seville, describes his family, his grandparents' patio and the cat.
• En la cafetería: Two friends order breakfast in a Madrid café: coffee, juice and toast with tomato.
• Mi ciudad: Valencia: Sara presents Valencia: the beach, the old riverbed park, paella and the Fallas.
• Mi día: Gorka, a cook in Bilbao, describes his day between home, the kitchen and the river.
• En el mercado de Santiago: Saturday shopping at the old market in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.
• Una postal de Tenerife: Ana sends her mother a postcard about the weather in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.
• Un mensaje de voz: Diego leaves a voice message from Atocha station in Madrid: his train is late.
• El menú del día: Pedro and Marta read the set lunch menu in a bar in Seville and choose their dishes.

A1 stories (6)

• Planes para el sábado: Three friends on a terrace in Seville make plans for Saturday. One of them is always late.
• La semana de Amaia: A week in the life of Amaia, a student in Bilbao: metro, rain, pintxos and a weekend plan.
• El vecino del tercero (La maleta azul, episode 1): A new neighbour moves in next to Irene in Madrid. Every night at a quarter past one he goes out with a heavy blue suitcase.
• Busco piso en Valencia: Pau needs a room in Valencia. He reads an advert and visits a shared flat in Ruzafa.
• La puerta del cine (La maleta azul, episode 2): Irene and her friend Álex follow don Tomás through the night to an old, closed cinema.
• Un mes en Ciudad de México: Claudia from Madrid spends a month in Mexico City. Mexican words in the story: ustedes (also for friends, instead of vosotros), camión (bus), jugo (juice), ¿mande? (pardon?) and tomar el metro (rather than coger).

A2 stories (6)

• El proyeccionista (La maleta azul, episode 3): Irene finds an old cinema ticket on the stairs, and the baker remembers a shy young man who worked at the Cine Estrella.
• Los veranos en la aldea: A man remembers childhood summers at his grandparents' village in Galicia, and one stormy night he never forgot.
• El secreto de la maleta (La maleta azul, episode 4): Irene knocks on don Tomás's door with the ticket, and he tells her what the suitcase carries.
• Tres días en Buenos Aires: An engineer from Bilbao spends three free days in Buenos Aires. Argentine Spanish in the story: vos instead of tú (vos sos, tomá), acá (here), che (hey, mate), colectivo (bus), subte (underground), lindo (lovely), departamento (flat).
• El móvil perdido: Teresa loses her phone, with the Alhambra tickets on it, after a night of free tapas in Granada.
• El examen de conducir: A young man in Zaragoza fails his first driving test on a day of strong cierzo wind, and his grandmother has some advice.

B1 stories (5)

• La última función (La maleta azul, episode 5): On Thursday night the Cine Estrella opens for one last screening, with an unexpected guest, and Rosa brings something of her own from 1975.
• El último ferry: Marcos misses the last ferry from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, and a local woman finds a way to help. Canarian Spanish in the story: papas (potatoes), mi niño (a warm way to address someone); the silbo gomero is the island's whistled language.
• Un correo para mi hermano: Laura writes to her younger brother, who is starting university in Bilbao, with advice. Local words: sirimiri (fine drizzle), zurito (a small glass of beer), euskera (the Basque language).
• Mi abuela y el móvil: A young woman teaches her eighty-three-year-old grandmother, who lives alone in a village in Extremadura, to use a smartphone. Local word: migas (fried breadcrumbs, a typical Extremaduran dish).
• Un tinto en Medellín: A Spanish woman working in Medellín, Colombia, learns the local Spanish and spends a weekend on a coffee farm. Colombian Spanish in the story: tinto (a small black coffee), paisa (someone from the Medellín region), parce (mate), bacano (great), plata (money), mija (love, from mi hija), ¿Qué más? (a greeting, like ¿Qué tal?), bus; usted is used even with family, and many paisas say vos among friends.

B2 stories (4)

• El reloj de la estación: Short literary story: Marta returns to her village station after twenty years to meet someone who may or may not come. The ending is left open.
• Cenar a las diez: Opinion column: are Spain's late meal times the fault of the time zone, or of the working day?
• El pueblo que volvió a abrir su escuela: News feature: remote workers bring children back to a small village school in rural Spain, and not everyone is convinced it will last.
• Carta de reclamación: Formal letter of complaint to an online shop about a sofa that arrived late and damaged, with the conventions of formal written Spanish (usted/ustedes, Por la presente…, Atentamente).

C1 stories (3)

• ¿Quedamos o qué?: Colloquial dialogue among three friends in Madrid planning a Saturday: informal Spain Spanish (tío, mola, ni de coña, me da palo, finde, vermú).
• ¿Demasiados turistas?: Short essay weighing the arguments for and against limiting tourism in Spanish cities, before reframing the question.
• El grupo de los vecinos: Humorous column, heavy with irony, about the WhatsApp group of a Spanish block of flats (comunidad de vecinos).

C2 stories (2)

• Me voy a Madrid: Rioplatense dialogue (Buenos Aires): two friends talk about a move to Madrid. Features voseo (vos sabés, decime, vení), che, laburo, quilombo, re, posta, and jokes about Spain Spanish.
• La mercería: Literary vignette about the closing of an old haberdashery and its owner, with literary tenses (apenas hubo bajado, -se subjunctive).

Where can I read free Spanish stories for beginners?

SparkAI has 35 graded Spanish stories from A0 to C2, plus 7 starter readings for your first days, all free. Each has tap-to-translate, audio for any word or sentence you tap, and comprehension questions.

What level should I start reading at?

Straight away: the starter readings use only the first words you learn. Then read the A0 stories, and move up when you understand most of a page without looking things up.

Are the stories in Spain's Spanish?

Mostly: they're set around Spain, from Madrid to the Canary Islands. A few take place in Mexico, Buenos Aires and Medellín, and explain the local words and forms they use, like vos and ustedes.

What comes after the stories?

Classic books from Spain and Latin America, from B1 to C2: 21 public-domain books in the same reader.