PersonalSpanishUnit 1CEFR A1

Unidad 1: En el Café

The Spanish A1 café unit, read against the French one already on this site. Where the two languages agree, one unit does the work of two. Where they disagree, knowing French is worse than knowing nothing, because it supplies a confident wrong answer.

LevelCEFR A1, both units

VarietiesLatin American Spanish, Mexico and Colombia as reference varieties; standard French of France

MethodConcept alignment across two units

SourcesThese two units only

The finding

10transfer safely

10mislead you

2must be learned twice

Of the 22 concepts both units teach, 10 carry over from French to Spanish unchanged. The other 12 do not, which is 55 per cent of the shared ground. A second Romance language is not half price.

If you have already done the French unit, the fastest way through this one is to read section 03, drill the 10 misleading pairs until they are automatic, and skim the rest. The 10 that transfer need no work from you. That is the whole argument for reading two units against each other rather than one after the other.

01What this is, and what it is not

A comparison of two A1 café units, not a Spanish course and not a claim about the two languages in general.

The French unit, Unité 1 : Au Café, and this one cover the same ground: the twenty or so words you need to order in a café, the polite request formulas, the article system, two dialogues and a set of drills. Because the domain, the level and the language of instruction are identical, the two units can be laid side by side and the differences are about the languages rather than about how the material happened to be written.

Everything on this page comes from those two units and nothing else. Where a claim would need a third source, it is not made. That rules out a good deal a comparative grammar would say, and it keeps every row on this page checkable against a document you can open.

02The alignment at a glance

Twenty-two concepts, each drawn as one row, coloured by whether the French form predicts the Spanish one.

Every concept both units carry, with the French form on the left and the Spanish on the right. Green where the pattern transfers (10 rows), amber where it misleads (10 rows), grey where there is nothing to carry over (2 rows).

03The alignment, pair by pair

The same 22 rows in full, each with the reason and the section of each unit it was read from.

The 22 concepts both units teach. The class is a reading, declared in `content/contrastive-a1.json`, and the build checks that every row cites both units rather than that the reading is correct.
Concept	Français	Español	Transfer
hello, good morning	bonjourinterjection	buenos díasfórmula de cortesía	Transfers
	Both units open every dialogue with the greeting before the request, and neither treats it as optional. 2; Sociolinguistic Protocol against 2; Diálogo 1
please	s'il vous plaîtcarries the addressee: vous formal, te informal	por favorinvariant	Misleads
	The French form carries the formal or informal choice inside it. Por favor does not change at all, so a French-first learner looks for a split that Spanish does not have. 2; Tu vs Vous against 2
thank you	merci beaucoup	muchas gracias	Transfers
	Intensifier plus thanks in both, in the same order. 2 against 2; Diálogo 1
goodbye	au revoir	hasta luego	Learn twice
	Nothing in one form suggests the other. Both are closing formulas and both have to be memorised on their own. 2 against Diálogo 1, support glossary
a coffee	un cafémasculine; an espresso by default in France	el cafémasculine; a filter or americano cup in Latin America, an espresso in Spain	Misleads
	The gender transfers and the word is the same. What arrives in the cup does not, and both units warn about it in opposite directions. 2; Café Vocabulary in France against 2; regional vocabulary
a tea	un thémasculine	el témasculine; the written accent is obligatory	Transfers
	Masculine in both, and the same borrowed word. The Spanish accent is the only thing to add. 2 against 2; answer key A1
an orange juice	un jus d'orangemasculine, one word everywhere	el jugo de naranjamasculine; el zumo in Spain	Misleads
	Gender and structure transfer. The lexical choice does not: Spanish splits the word by region where French does not, so one Spanish word will be wrong in half the Spanish-speaking world. 2 against 2; regional vocabulary
water	de l'eaufeminine noun; the partitive article is compulsory	el aguafeminine noun; takes el and un in the singular, las aguas in the plural	Misleads
	Both languages make water irregular and they put the irregularity in different places. French puts it in the article system, Spanish in the gender agreement, and neither predicts the other. 2; 3.3B against 2, note on el agua
sugar	du sucremasculine; partitive article compulsory	azúcarbare noun after con or sin	Misleads
	French cannot say sugar without choosing an article. Spanish takes it bare after the preposition. This is the partitive gap in its smallest form. 2; 3.3B against 2; 3.4 Trap 3
a sandwich	un sandwichmasculine, borrowed	el sándwichmasculine, borrowed; written accent, plural sándwiches	Transfers
	Borrowed into both and masculine in both. Spanish adds an accent and takes es in the plural because the word ends in a consonant. 2 against 2; 3.3 plurals
the menu	la cartefeminine	la cartafeminine	Transfers
	The cleanest pair in the set: cognate, feminine in both, same everyday use. Nothing to unlearn. 2 against Diálogo 2 glossary; regional vocabulary
the bill	l'additionfeminine	la cuentafeminine	Learn twice
	Both feminine, but the words share nothing. The matching gender is a coincidence a learner cannot rely on, and the vocabulary has to be learned twice. 2 against 2
the tip	le pourboiremasculine	la propinafeminine	Misleads
	The gender flips. This is the one item in the aligned set where carrying the French article straight across gives the wrong Spanish article. Service and Tipping against 2
the waiter	le serveurone word across France	el mesero, la meseramesero in Mexico and Colombia; mozo, garzón or camarero elsewhere	Misleads
	Both mark the server's gender on the noun, which transfers. The assumption that one word covers the whole language does not: the Spanish unit lists four regional words where the French unit needs one. Dialogue 1 against 2; regional vocabulary
I would like	je voudraisconditional of vouloir, taught as a fixed block	quisierapast subjunctive of querer, taught as a fixed block	Transfers
	The same move in both languages: politeness carried by a non-present form of the verb for wanting, and both units tell the learner to memorise it whole rather than parse the tense. 3.1; 3.2 against 3.1; 3.2
I want	je veuxthe French unit says avoid it for ordering, keep it for the negative	quierothe Spanish unit says it is perfectly normal with por favor	Misleads
	The same verb, the same meaning, and opposite advice. A French-first learner avoids the most ordinary Spanish ordering verb; a Spanish-first learner sounds blunt to a French server. 3.1 against 3.1
to have, of food and drink	prendreliterally to take	tomarliterally to take	Transfers
	Both languages use the verb for taking, and both units warn against translating the English have or drink literally. The metaphor is shared. 2; 3.2 against 2; 3.2
do you have ... ?	vous avez ... ?second person plural	¿Tiene ... ?third person singular, usted	Misleads
	Both are the polite way to ask a stranger for stock, and they sit in different persons of the verb. French politeness is a plural you, Spanish politeness a third person singular, so the conjugation slot does not transfer. 2; 3.1 against 2; 3.1
how much is it?	c'est combien ?copula plus quantity word	¿Cuánto es?copula plus quantity word	Transfers
	Structurally the same sentence in both: it is how much. Spanish adds ¿Cuánto cuesta? for a named item. 2; 3.1 against 2; 3.4 Trap 3
for here or to take away	sur place ou à emporterplace phrase, then preposition plus infinitive	¿Para aquí o para llevar?preposition plus place, then preposition plus infinitive	Transfers
	Near calques. Both build the takeaway half from a preposition and the verb for carrying. 2; Dialogue 1 against optional exposure, Mexico
to take away	à emporter	para llevar	Transfers
	Preposition plus the verb for carrying in both, in the same slot after the item. 2 against 2
with sugar, without sugar	avec du sucre; je ne prends pas de sucrerefusing needs the full negation, and the article collapses to de	con azúcar; sin azúcara matched pair of prepositions, no verb needed	Misleads
	The largest asymmetry in the pair. Spanish refuses with one word. French has to wrap the verb in ne and pas and then change the article, so a Spanish-first learner reaches for a French sin that does not exist. 3.3B; 3.4 against 2; 3.1

04Five differences that are structural

Vocabulary you can look up. These five change what a sentence has to contain, so they cost you on every sentence rather than on one word.

French makes you choose an article Spanish does not have

Français

Three sets, and the unit says French makes you choose: indefinite un, une, des for countable items; partitive du, de la, de l' for an unmeasured amount; definite le, la, les for a specific thing. Water and sugar take the partitive.

Español

Two sets: indefinite un, una, unos, unas and definite el, la, los, las. There is no partitive at all, and the unit's article section is about gender and number agreement instead.

What it costs you. A Spanish-first learner under-produces the French partitive and says a bare noun. A French-first learner over-produces de in Spanish, where nothing licenses it.

3.3 A, B and C against 3.3

Politeness sits in a different person of the verb

Français

Formal you is vous, the second person plural. The polite question is vous avez, and the politeness formula itself is s'il vous plaît.

Español

Formal you is usted, which takes the third person singular. The polite question is ¿Tiene?, the same form as he or she has.

What it costs you. A learner who has drilled one conjugation slot for politeness reaches for the wrong slot in the other language, and the error lands on every polite sentence rather than on one word.

Tu vs Vous; 3.1 against 3.2; sociolinguistic notes

Refusing something is one word in Spanish and a grammar rule in French

Français

Je ne prends pas de sucre. The verb is wrapped in ne and pas, and after the negation un, une, des, du, de la and de l' all collapse into de.

Español

Sin azúcar. A preposition, and the noun stays bare.

What it costs you. This is the cheapest sentence in Spanish and one of the first real grammar rules in French. A learner going from Spanish to French produces a bare noun and is understood but visibly wrong.

3.4 against 2; 3.1

The politeness ladders are different heights and disagree about I want

Français

Four formulas: je voudrais, je vais prendre, je prends, je veux. The unit places je veux outside ordering and keeps it for the negative.

Español

Five formulas: the bare noun with por favor, quiero, quisiera, ¿Me da?, and para mí. The unit says quiero is perfectly normal with por favor, and calls ¿Me da? extremely frequent in Mexico and Colombia.

What it costs you. The direct want verb is excluded from ordering in one unit and endorsed in the other. Transfer in either direction produces either needless stiffness or genuine bluntness.

3.1 against 3.1

Both languages make water irregular, in different places

Français

L'eau is feminine and takes the partitive de l' when you order it, because the unit treats water as an unmeasured amount rather than a countable unit.

Español

Agua is feminine but takes el and un in the singular purely for pronunciation, and the plural las aguas shows the true gender. Any adjective stays feminine: el agua fría.

What it costs you. Neither irregularity predicts the other. The only safe move is to learn each as a whole phrase, which is what both units already tell the learner to do with articles.

2; 3.3B against 2, note on el agua

05The article decision, drawn

French asks three questions before it lets you say a noun. Spanish asks two.

The article systems at the same scale. The dashed box is the branch Spanish does not have: there is no partitive, so the question French forces you to answer about every uncountable noun simply does not arise.

This is the single largest divergence in the pair, and it runs in both directions. Coming from Spanish, you will say je voudrais sucre and leave out an article French requires. Coming from French, you will reach for a Spanish partitive that does not exist and produce something like de azúcar where the language wants the bare noun after con or sin.

06Test yourself on the transfer, not the vocabulary

The vocabulary you can drill anywhere. What only two units together can drill is whether the first language is helping or lying to you.

The card below names a concept and asks what the French form predicts about the Spanish one. The forms and the reason stay dimmed until you commit to an answer, because recognising a correct answer in a list is not the same as retrieving it.

1 of 22 Score 0 of 0

If you know the French, what does hello, good morning do in Spanish?

Français: bonjour
Español: buenos días

Both units open every dialogue with the greeting before the request, and neither treats it as optional.

With scripts off this card shows the first pair and the full table in section 03 carries all 22, so nothing here is only available to a browser that runs JavaScript.

07What each unit has that the other does not

The two units are not translations of each other, and the gaps are informative in their own right.

In the Spanish unit's core, with no counterpart in the French twenty
Form	English	Why it is here and not there
disculpe	excuse me, to usted	The Spanish unit opens a request to a seated server with it. The French unit uses bonjour plus the request instead.
el café con leche	coffee with milk	Core vocabulary in the Spanish unit. The French unit's nearest item, un café crème, appears only in its enrichment table.
la empanada	a savoury pastry	The Spanish unit's food item, as the croissant and the tarte are the French unit's.
grande, pequeño	large, small	Spanish teaches size adjectives inside the unit because they agree with the noun. The French unit leaves size out of its twenty.
tener	to have, to stock	Spanish needs a separate verb for the availability question. French uses avoir, which it already teaches as a support verb.
¿La propina está incluida?	is the tip included?	The one question the Spanish unit says works in every Spanish-speaking country, because tipping is not one system. France settles it with service compris.

In the French unit's core, with no counterpart in the Spanish twenty
Form	English	Why it is here and not there
monsieur, madame	sir, ma'am	The French unit teaches them as core, because adding one to bonjour raises the register. The Spanish unit carries no equivalent in its twenty.
un croissant	a croissant	The French unit's food item.
une tarte	a tart	The French unit's second food item, and its example of a feminine countable noun.

08What would make this wrong

The honest limits, stated rather than buried.

The classification is a reading. Whether a pair transfers or misleads is my judgement about what a learner will do, not a measured fact about the languages. Someone who already speaks a third Romance language would classify several rows differently. The file is the place to disagree.

The sample is two units, not two languages. Twenty-two shared concepts in one domain at one level cannot support a claim about French and Spanish generally. The proportion that misleads would move with the domain, and almost certainly with the level.

There is no learner in the data. The piece predicts where transfer will fail. It does not observe anyone failing. A real test would be error rates from someone learning the second language after the first, and I have not run one.

Both units were written by the same hand, and so was this. If the French unit is wrong about French, this page inherits the error and presents it as a contrast. The two units are the only sources, which keeps the page checkable and also keeps its ceiling low.

Latin American Spanish against Metropolitan French. Neither unit covers its whole language. Several rows would change against Peninsular Spanish, and the units say so where they know it.

Written from content/contrastive-a1.json by build/contrastive.py. Every count on this page is computed from that file on each build, so the page cannot claim a tally the data does not carry. The companion unit is Unité 1 : Au Café.