Spanish story with translation · B2 · 14 lines

Ese premio no existe That award doesn't exist

Comic · 8 panels

La semana pasada preparábamos el folleto digital de Hoteles Turia. Hugo estaba encantado.
Last week we were working on the digital brochure for Hoteles Turia. Hugo was thrilled.
El asistente virtual había generado todo el texto en veinte minutos. A él solo le quedaba leerlo.
The virtual assistant had generated the whole text in twenty minutes. All he had left to do was read it.

Sonia lo leyó con calma. Era bonito, pero una frase la hizo parar: «Hoteles Turia recibió el Premio Mundial del Turismo hace cinco años».
Sonia read it calmly. It was nice, but one sentence made her stop: "Hoteles Turia received the World Tourism Award five years ago."
Sonia le preguntó a Hugo de dónde salía ese premio. Hugo se quedó un momento con las manos sobre el teclado.
Sonia asked Hugo where that award came from. Hugo sat for a moment with his hands on the keyboard.

Al final contestó que no lo sabía. El asistente lo había puesto, y a él le sonaba muy bien.
In the end he answered that he didn't know. The assistant had put it there, and it sounded really good to him.
Sonia, que siempre comprueba los datos, hizo una búsqueda en internet. Yo miraba la pantalla con ella.
Sonia, who always checks the facts, did a search online. I was looking at the screen with her.

No había ningún resultado: ni una noticia, ni un enlace, ni una página del premio.
There were no results at all: not a news story, not a link, not a single page about the award.
Sonia hizo una captura de pantalla de la búsqueda y dijo: «Ese premio no existe».
Sonia took a screenshot of the search and said: "That award doesn't exist."

El algoritmo no había mentido a propósito. Simplemente había escrito lo que suena bien en un folleto.
The algorithm hadn't lied on purpose. It had simply written what sounds good in a brochure.
Un premio falso en el folleto era un problema serio. El cliente perdería la confianza en nosotros.
A fake award in the brochure was a serious problem. The client would lose trust in us.

Y lo peor: Hugo ya había programado el envío para el lunes por la mañana.
And the worst part: Hugo had already scheduled it to be sent on Monday morning.
Esa tarde no dejé que Hugo mandara el folleto. Le pedí que comprobara cada dato a mano.
That afternoon I didn't let Hugo send the brochure. I asked him to check every fact by hand.

Hugo no se enfadó. Borró la frase y citó las fuentes reales. Antes de rehacer el texto, guardó una copia de seguridad.
Hugo didn't get angry. He deleted the sentence and cited the real sources. Before redoing the text, he saved a backup.

Ahora, antes de hacer clic en «enviar», alguien lee el folleto despacio. A la larga, eso nos evita muchos disgustos.
Now, before clicking "send", someone reads the brochure slowly. In the long run, that saves us a lot of trouble.

Grammar for this text

Ana tells the story; the events are in the past.

una frase la hizo parar — hacer + infinitive also means "to make someone do something": "one sentence made her (Sonia) stop". No a, unlike obligar a; it's used when it's a situation, not a person, that makes you do it.
a él solo le quedaba leerlo — quedar + infinitive: "all he had left to do was read it". le sonaba muy bien — "it sounded really good to him".
había generado, había programado, había mentido — the past perfect: "had already done" by that point, before the other events of the story.
no dejé que Hugo mandara and le pedí que comprobara — the main verb is in the past, so after que comes the imperfect subjunctive (mandara, comprobara; unit 13 and this unit's grammar).
el cliente perdería — the conditional as a "future in the past": at that moment it could still happen (unit 15).

Names: Hoteles Turia — the agency's client (unit 14); Premio Mundial del Turismo — an award that never existed.

Words and grammar of the unit: Work with AI by the rules.

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