GCSE Spanish: Translation into Spanish

The writing paper of the reformed GCSE in Spanish (first exams in 2026) includes a translation from English into Spanish. In AQA's paper, for example, it is a set of sentences of at least 35 words at Foundation tier and 50 words at Higher tier, worth 10 marks, and it is marked on how accurately and completely you convey every idea. Unlike free writing, a translation does not let you avoid what you find hard: every tense, every agreement and every small word has to be right, so it rewards secure grammar more than any other task.

The quiz shows you the errors that examiners see most often. Each of its twelve questions gives an English sentence and four Spanish versions, three of which contain one typical mistake: fue instead of fui, ser instead of estar, me gusta with a plural noun, an adjective in the wrong place or without agreement, tener without que, a missing personal a, the wrong past tense, he trabajado instead of ha trabajado, or the future after si. The Higher-tier questions practise desde hace and quiero que with the present subjunctive of venir. The explanation tells you exactly which rule separates the right version from the wrong ones.

The flashcards give an English phrase on the front and the correct Spanish, with the rule, on the back: I went and he went, ser and estar, gustar, adjective agreement, tener que and hay que, hay and había, the personal a, the near future, the imperfect and the perfect, jobs after ser, expressions with tener and hacer, jugar and tocar, useful prepositions, desde hace and cuando sea (Higher), and a final checklist.

The written sheet has eight original passages to translate into Spanish: four at Foundation length (about 36 words) and four at Higher length (at least 50 words), on family, where you live, school, healthy eating, your neighbourhood, work experience, friendship and technology. Each model answer gives a full Spanish translation and the points a marker would check, such as the tense of each verb, agreement and the structures that cannot be copied from English. Other accurate translations are equally correct.

Learn the flashcards, work through the quiz until you can name the error in every wrong option, then translate the passages and compare your version with the model, ticking off each key point.

• Translate English sentences of 35 to 50 words into accurate Spanish
• Choose the correct person and tense of irregular preterites such as fui, hice and tuve
• Use ser and estar, gustar and adjective agreement correctly
• Avoid typical errors: missing personal a, tener without que, the future after si
• Use desde hace, cuando sea and quiero que + subjunctive at Higher tier
• Check a Spanish translation for completeness, agreement and accents

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE modern foreign languages subject content (2022), translation from English into the language and the Spanish grammar lists, and on the writing-paper translation as described, for example, in AQA's GCSE Spanish specification (8692, version 1.0). All passages are original.