English and the World · Spain · 32 · Cádiz · A1–C2 · A1–A2 free
Ten days of costumes and songs in February, a contest that lasts a month, and a city that laughs at everyone, itself included. Choose your level.
Carnival in February
Every year, in February, Cádiz has its carnival. For about ten days the whole city wears costumes and sings in the streets. The songs are funny, and they often make fun of politicians, football and everyday life.
The singers form groups. A chirigota is a small, funny group. A comparsa sings more serious and beautiful songs. A coro is a big choir: it travels through the streets on a cart, with guitars. A cuarteto has only three, four or five people, and they tell jokes.
The Gran Teatro Falla
Before the carnival, the groups sing in a big contest in the Gran Teatro Falla, a big red theatre in the old town. The contest starts in January and finishes in February, with a final that lasts all night. Many people in Spain watch it on television.
A group doesn’t only sing in the theatre. After the final, the groups go into the streets, and other groups, the “ilegales”, sing on the corners just for fun. Nobody pays: everyone listens and laughs.
🦉 Want more? Sophia explains the present simple and the present continuous in The Instant and the Standing Rule (Philo & Sophia, Lesson 1).
Language: the present simple
| Use | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| things that happen every year, habits, facts | I / you / we / they + verb | The groups sing in the streets. |
| he / she / it | verb + -s (-es after -ch, -sh, -s, -x, -o) | The city sings. The contest finishes in February. |
| negative | don’t / doesn’t + verb | A group doesn’t only sing in the theatre. |
| question | Do / Does … + verb? | Does the final last all night? |
⚠️ After doesn’t and does, no -s: it doesn’t sing, not ✗ it doesn’t sings. And have → has: Cádiz has a carnival.
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. When is the carnival?
2. What is a chirigota?
3. Where is the contest?
4. Who are the “ilegales”?
Write the verb in the present simple.
5. Every year Cádiz its carnival. (have)
6. A comparsa serious songs. (sing)
7. The contest in February. (finish)
8. The coro through the streets on a cart. (go)
Write do, does, don’t or doesn’t.
9. A cuarteto have twenty people. (negative)
10. The ilegales sing in the theatre. (negative)
11. the final last all night? (question)
12. people watch it on television? (question)
Go there!
Visit: come in February and wear a costume: everyone does! Listen to the coros on their carts near the Central Market on the Sunday, and to the chirigotas on the street corners of the old town. Outside carnival time, see the red-brick Gran Teatro Falla in the Plaza de Fragela.
Your task: write six sentences about a festival in your town in the present simple: Every year, people… The festival starts…
It tells how a port city turned its winter festival into a contest of songs, what makes a chirigota different from a comparsa, how carnival survived forty years under another name, and why the people of Cádiz still sing about their mayors, their football team and themselves, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.
It tells how a port city turned its winter festival into a contest of songs, what makes a chirigota different from a comparsa, how carnival survived forty years under another name, and why the people of Cádiz still sing about their mayors, their football team and themselves, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.