Spanish Phrases For Dummies E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fremdsprachen
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 182

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Studying Spanish for school, business, or travel? Learn the fun and easy way with this portable guide that teaches everyday expressions in Spanish.

Spanish Phrasebook For Dummies covers basic language information, focusing on common phrases to help you in ordinary situations, such as chatting about family, finding your way around, and generally making small talk. From job-related expressions to translations of directions, numbers, and time, it teaches real-world language skills that you can use immediately.

If you’ve never studied Spanish before — or did a long time ago but need a refresher — Spanish Phrasebook For Dummies is for you. With guidance on pronunciation and stress, this handy book is jam-packed with plenty of grammatical examples to help you with verbs, adjectives, gender, plurals, pronouns, sentence construction, how to ask questions properly, and more.

You'll have ample opportunity to test your Spanish language skills in these scenarios:

• Counting your money
• Measuring time and keeping track of days, months, and seasons
• Introducing yourself
• Talking about the weather
• Ordering drinks, snacks, or a full meal
• Shopping in traditional markets or the grocery store
• Engaging in tourist or other fun activities
• Tending to work or other business matters
• Finding transportation and lodging
• Taking care of emergencies

With a chapter on phrases native Spanish speakers use every day and another covering phrases fluent speakers would say, you can have fun and impress your friends with this concise phrasebook.

Leseprobe

Spanish Phrases For Dummies

by Susana Wald

Spanish Phrases For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2004107388.

ISBN: 978-0-7645-7204-3

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8

1B/QS/QX/QU/IN

About the Author

Susana Wald is a writer and simultaneous and literary translator in Hungarian, Spanish, English, and French. As a publisher, she has been working with books and authors for many years. She has been a teacher in Chile and in Canada and has known the joy of learning from her students and their untiring enthusiasm and tolerance. She also is an artist and has had her work shown in many countries in Europe and in North, Central, and South America.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Compiler: Laura Peterson

Senior Project Editor: Tim Gallan

Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy

Copy Editors: Laura K. Miller, E. Neil Johnson

Assistant Editor: Holly Gastineau-Grimes

Technical Editor: Language Training Center

Editorial Manager: Christine Meloy Beck

Editorial Assistant: Courtney Allen, Melissa S. Bennett

Cartoons: Rich Tennant, www.the5thwave.com

Production

Project Coordinator: Nancee Reeves

Layout and Graphics: Stephanie Jumper, Michael Kruzil, Heather Ryan, Jacque Schneider, Julie Trippetti,

Proofreaders: Angel Perez, Brian H. Walls

Indexer: Joan Griffitts

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Brice Gosnell, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents

Title

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Chapter 1: I Say It How? Speaking Spanish

You Already Know Some Spanish

Reciting Your ABC’s

Pronunciation and Stress

¡Punctuation Plus!

Some Basic Phrases to Know

Chapter 2: Grammar on a Diet: Just the Basics

Sentence Construction

Verbs

Forming Questions

Pronouns in Hiding

That Whole Gender Thing

Make It Two (or More): Plurals

Telling Tales with Adjectives

It’s You, You Know: The Tú/Usted Issue

Chapter 3: Numerical Gumbo: Counting of All Kinds

1, 2, 3: Cardinal Numbers

Discovering Ordinal Numbers

Telling Time

Days, Months, Seasons

Counting Your Money

Chapter 4: Making New Friends and Enjoying Small Talk

Hello! Greetings and Introductions

Small-Talk Verbs

Grand Inquisitor: Questions

A Rainy Day: Talking Weather

How Is Your Family?

Chapter 5: Enjoying a Drink and a Snack (or Meal!)

Getting the Table and Meal Basics

Three Verbs Used at the Table

At the Restaurant

What’s on the Menu?

The Bill, Please

Chapter 6: Shop ’Til You Drop

Heading Out on the Town

Shopping the Traditional Market

Visiting the Supermarket

Bartering for Your Goods

Getting the Right Quantity

Comparing Better or Best

Chapter 7: Making Leisure a Top Priority

Having a Good Time

Having a Good Time at Shows and Events

Enjoying the Outdoors

Sports, Sports, Sports

Chapter 8: When You Gotta Work

Picking Up the Phone

Outside the Office

Inside the Office

Packing a PC

Chapter 9: I Get Around: Transportation

On the Go: Transportation

Passing Passport Control

Transportation Verbs

Asking for Directions

Chapter 10: Laying Down Your Weary Head: House or Hotel?

Speaking of Houses . . .

Scoping Out the Hotel

Registering for a Room

Dormir: The Sleeping Verb

Despertar: The Waking Up Verb

Chapter 11: Dealing with Emergencies

Shouting for Help

Handling Health Problems

Getting Help with Legal Problems

Dealing with Car Emergencies

Chapter 12: Favorite Spanish Expressions

¿Qué tal?

¿Quiubo?

¿Qué pasó?

¿Cómo van las cosas?

¡Del uno!

¿Cuánto cuesta?

¿A cuánto?

¡Un asalto!

¡Una ganga!

¡Buen provecho!

¡Salud!

¡Buen viaje!

Chapter 13: Phrases That Make You Sound Like a Local

¡Esta es la mía!

¿Y eso con qué se come?

Voy a ir de farra

Caer fatal

Nos divertimos en grande

Ver negro para

Pasó sin pena ni gloria

¡Así a secas!

¡La cosa va viento en popa!

Introduction

As society becomes more international in nature, knowing how to say at least a few words in other languages becomes increasingly useful. Inexpensive airfares make travel abroad a more realistic option. Global business environments necessitate overseas travel. You just may have friends and neighbors who speak other languages, or you may want to get in touch with your heritage by learning a little bit of the language that your ancestors spoke.

Whatever your reason for wanting to acquire some Spanish, this book can help. We’re not promising fluency here, but if you want to greet someone, purchase a ticket, or order off a menu in Spanish, you need look no further than Spanish Phrases For Dummies.

About This Book

This book isn’t like a class that you have to drag yourself to twice a week for a specified period of time. You can use this book however you want to, whether your goal is to know some words and phrases to help you get around when you visit the countries of Central or South America, travel to Spain, or you simply want to be able to say, “Hello, how are you?” to your Spanish-speaking neighbor. Go through this book at your own pace, reading as much or as little at a time as you like. You don’t have to trudge through the chapters in order, either; just read the sections that interest you.

If you’ve never taken Spanish lessons before, you may want to read Chapters 1 and 2 before tackling the later ones. These chapters give you some of the basics that you need to know about the language, such as how to pronounce the various sounds.

Conventions Used in This Book

To make this book easy for you to navigate, we’ve set up a couple of conventions:

Spanish terms are set in boldface to make them stand out.

Pronunciations, set in italics, follow the Spanish terms.

Stressed syllables are underlined in the pronunciation.

Memorizing key words and phrases is important in language learning, so we collect the important words in a chapter or section into a list with the heading “Words to Know.” Spanish nouns have genders, which determines which article each noun takes. In the Words to Know lists, we include the article for each noun so that you memorize it at the same time as the noun.

Also note that because each language has its own ways of expressing ideas, the English translations that we provide for the Spanish terms may not be exactly literal. We want you to know the gist of what someone is saying, not just the words that are being said. For example, you can translate the Spanish phrase de nada(deh nah-dah) literally as “of nothing,” but the phrase really means “you’re welcome.” This book gives the “you’re welcome” translation.

Foolish Assumptions

To write this book, we had to make some assumptions about who you are and what you want. Here are the assumptions that we’ve made about you:

You know no Spanish — or if you took Spanish back in school, you don’t remember a word of it.

You’re not looking for a book that will make you fluent in Spanish; you just want to know some words, phrases, and sentence constructions so you can communicate basic information in Spanish.

You don’t want to have to memorize long lists of vocabulary words or a bunch of boring grammar rules.

You want to have fun and learn a little bit of Spanish at the same time.

If these statements apply to you, you’ve found the right book!

Icons Used in This Book

You may be looking for particular information while reading this book. To make certain types of information easier for you to find, we’ve placed the following icons in the left-hand margins throughout the book:

This icon highlights tips that can make learning Spanish easier.

To ensure that you don’t forget important stuff, this icon serves as a reminder, like a string tied around your finger.

Languages are full of quirks that may trip you up if you’re not prepared for them. This icon points to discussions of these weird grammar rules.

If you’re looking for information about Spanish-speaking culture and travel, look for these icons. They draw your attention to interesting tidbits about the countries in which Spanish is spoken.

Where to Go from Here

Learning a language is all about jumping in and giving it a try (no matter how bad your pronunciation is at first). So make the leap! Start at the beginning or pick a chapter that interests you. Just make sure that you have fun!

Chapter 1

I Say It How? Speaking Spanish

In This Chapter

Recognizing the Spanish you already know

Saying it right (basic pronunciation)

Diving into some typical expressions

I f you’re familiar with the term “Latin Lover,” you may not be surprised to know that Spanish is called a Romance language. But the romance we’re talking about here isn’t exactly the Latin Lover type — unless you love to learn Latin.

Spanish (as well as several other languages, such as Italian, French, Romanian, and Portuguese) is a Romance language because its origins are in the Latin of ancient Rome. Because of that common origin, Romance languages have many similarities in grammar and the way they sound. (The fact that they all sound so romantic when spoken is purely a bonus!) For example, the word for “house,” is identical in looks, meaning, and sound whether you speak Portuguese, Italian, or Spanish.