The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes) for Spanish learners: level, words and how to read it

What the book is about

Dr Watson tells six cases. In “Un escándalo en Bohemia” a king needs a compromising photograph back from Irene Adler, the only woman who ever beat Holmes. In “Un caso de identidad” a young typist’s fiancé vanishes on their wedding day. “El misterio del Valle Boscombe” is a murder by a country pool, and in “Las cinco pepitas de naranja” a family receives envelopes with five orange pips before each death.

In “El hombre del labio torcido” a respectable man disappears in an opium den, and “El carbunclo azul” begins with a lost Christmas goose with a stolen gem in its crop. The translator is not named: the stories were published by the Argentine newspaper La Nación.

Themes

• Observation and deduction. Holmes reads a stranger’s life from a hat, a sleeve or a pair of boots.
• Victorian London. Fog, cabs, gaslight, opium dens and Baker Street.
• Secrets of respectable people. Almost every case hides a family shame or a false identity.
• Friendship. Watson admires Holmes, and the reader sees everything through his eyes.

How hard is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to read in Spanish?

We measured how much of the book is covered by the most frequent Spanish words (character names excluded). If you know the 2,000 most common words, you will recognise about 86.3% of the words in the book, which leaves roughly 14 unknown words in every hundred. With 5,000 words it is about 8 in a hundred, and with 10,000 words about 5.

For comfortable reading without help, researchers aim for about 98% known words (more in our guide). By vocabulary alone this is a B2 book; with tap-to-translate for the words you do not know, it is readable from B1–B2. On our list it sits between La Edad de Oro, which is a little easier, and Heart (Cuore), which is a little harder.

What is hard: the 1909 spelling (á for the preposition a, fué, obscuro), some Argentine forms of the time such as descripto, and Victorian details like cochero, carruaje, chelín and yarda. Holmes’s explanations are long sentences full of reasoning. What helps: the vocabulary is the most everyday of all our translated books, Watson speaks plainly, and each story is self-contained, about 8,000 words long.

Our take: B1–B2 with tap-to-translate (B2 by vocabulary). One of the easiest books on this list and a very good first step into reading Spanish for pleasure.

Words to know before you start

These words appear often in the book but are much rarer in everyday modern Spanish. Learning them in advance makes the first chapters noticeably easier.

How to read it in Spanish

1. Start with “El carbunclo azul”. It is light, funny and only needs one evening.
2. Read the ending twice. Each story ends with Holmes explaining his reasoning; it is the best part and the densest Spanish.
3. Watch how usted works. Holmes and Watson address each other as usted, as English gentlemen would.
4. One story per evening. About an hour each.

The first line

Para Sherlock Holmes aquella mujer es la mujer. Rara vez le he oído mencionarla con otro nombre.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes

aquella mujerthat woman

phrase in context

Tap a highlighted word

“To Sherlock Holmes that woman is the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.” The opening of “A Scandal in Bohemia”, the first Holmes short story. The woman is Irene Adler, and the 1909 translator keeps Doyle’s simple, direct sentences.

Frequently asked questions