English and the World · Spain · 34 · Sanlúcar · A1–C2 · A1–A2 free
A town at the mouth of a great river, ships leaving to sail around the world, horses racing on the beach at sunset, and on the other side of the water, a wild land of marshes, lynxes and flamingos. Choose your level.
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a town where the river Guadalquivir meets the sea. Many famous ships left from here. In 1519 Magellan’s five ships sailed from Sanlúcar to go around the world, and three years later one ship came back with eighteen men.
Today Sanlúcar is famous for its fish and its prawns, eaten in the restaurants by the river. Every August there are horse races on the beach. The children make little shops in the sand and play at betting on the horses.
Doñana National Park
Across the river is Doñana, one of the most important nature parks in Europe. It has marshes, sand dunes and pine forests. Thousands of geese and ducks spend the winter there, and pink flamingos stand in the water. Deer and wild boar live in the forests.
Doñana is also the home of the Iberian lynx, a beautiful wild cat with long ears. Twenty-five years ago there were very few lynxes left. Now, thanks to the work of many people, there are many more. You can visit Doñana with a guide, by boat or in a four-wheel-drive bus.
🦉 Want more? Sophia explains nouns, singular and plural, regular and irregular, in A Name for Everything (Philo & Sophia, Lesson 7).
Language: plural nouns
| Rule | Singular → plural | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| most nouns: + s | ship → ships | races, dunes, forests, ducks, prawns |
| after -s, -sh, -ch, -x: + es | lynx → lynxes | beaches, boxes, marshes |
| consonant + -y: -ies | city → cities | countries, ferries |
| -f / -fe: often -ves | wolf → wolves | leaves, lives |
| irregular | man → men, child → children, goose → geese, person → people | feet, teeth, mice |
| no change | fish → fish, deer → deer, sheep → sheep | two deer, a lot of fish |
⚠️ People is already plural: Many people visit, not ✗ many peoples visits. And we say three deer, not ✗ three deers.
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. Where is Sanlúcar de Barrameda?
2. What happens on the beach every August?
3. What is Doñana?
4. What is the Iberian lynx?
Write the plural.
5. Magellan had five . (ship)
6. There are more in Doñana now. (lynx)
7. Andalusia has many beautiful . (beach)
8. Birds come to Doñana from many . (country)
Write the plural.
9. Only eighteen came back. (man)
10. Thousands of spend the winter there. (goose)
11. The make little shops in the sand. (child)
12. We saw three in the forest. (deer)
Go there!
Visit: walk to Bajo de Guía, by the river, and eat fish and prawns. Then take the boat across the Guadalquivir to Doñana with a guide, and look for birds with binoculars. In August, watch the horse races on the beach at sunset.
Your task: write six sentences about the animals and plants near your home, using plurals: There are many birds, three deer…
It tells how ships for the Americas and the first voyage around the world set out from a sandy river mouth, how a duchess gave her name to Europe’s most famous wetland, how the Iberian lynx came back from the edge, and why the marshes are still at risk, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.
It tells how ships for the Americas and the first voyage around the world set out from a sandy river mouth, how a duchess gave her name to Europe’s most famous wetland, how the Iberian lynx came back from the edge, and why the marshes are still at risk, with grammar, practice, etymology and a visit plan.
The A1–A2 version above is free for everyone.