Spanish Essentials For Dummies (eBook)

Gail Stein (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 2. Auflage
231 Seiten
For Dummies (Verlag)
978-1-394-37326-0 (ISBN)

Infos

The perfect guide for new Spanish learners and anyone looking for an expert refresher

Interested in a fast and effective guide to learning Spanish that avoids fluff and focuses on key concepts that you need to know to improve your ability to speak, write, and understand the language? Spanish Essentials For Dummies, 2nd Edition walks you through Spanish fundamentals you can use for at-home, solo learning, to supplement your progress in a Spanish class, or as a companion to language instruction.

Inside:

• Get practical tips on Spanish grammar, pronunciation, and sentence structure
• See conversational Spanish examples to amplify your learning
• Understand all the core concepts taught and tested in a typical introductory Spanish course

Perfect for Spanish students looking for a quick reference to supplement classroom or app-assisted Spanish learning, Spanish Essentials For Dummies, 2nd Edition is a great resource for everyone looking to brush up on their conversational Spanish.

Gail Stein, MA has more than 30 years' experience teaching languages in New York City public junior and senior high schools. She is also the author of Spanish Workbook For Dummies.

Cecie Kraynak, MA has taught and tutored Spanish for more than 30 years. She is the author of Spanish For Dummies, Spanish Verbs For Dummies, and Spanish All-In-One For Dummies.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Brushing Up on the Basics

IN THIS CHAPTER

Perfecting your pronunciation

Counting with cardinal and ordinal numbers

Expressing dates

Telling time

Reviewing parts of speech

Pronouncing the language correctly, knowing numbers, expressing dates, relating the time of day, and recognizing parts of speech are essential Spanish skills you need in everyday life. Surely, the ability to communicate numbers, times, and dates is completely indispensable to you on a daily basis. Determining the correct part of speech to use helps you perfect your oral and written Spanish.

Pronouncing Properly

Naturally, when you speak Spanish, you want to sound as authentic as possible. The good news is that Spanish is quite easy to pronounce because it’s a phonetic language. What does that mean? Simply say each word exactly as you see it and put on your best Spanish accent. Chances are you’ll sound more like a native speaker than you could imagine.

The Spanish alphabet contains all the letters of the English alphabet plus ñ, which follows the letter n.

Voicing vowels

Unlike in English, each Spanish vowel is pronounced consistently. This table breaks down the basics:

Vowel	English Sound	Spanish Example

a

ah as in spa

papa (pah-pah) (potato)

e

eh as in red

ella (eh-yah) (she)

i

ee as in key

idea (ee-deh-yah) (idea)

o

oh as in no

ojo (oh-hoh) (eye)

u

oo as in do

uno (oo-noh) (one)

Practicing diphthongs and vowel combinations

Confronting diphthongs, or a combination of two vowels, gets a little tricky. Use this table to put your concerns to rest:

Diphthongs/Vowels	English Sound	Spanish Example

ae, ai, ay

ahy as in eye

aeropuerto (ahy-roh-pwehr-toh) (airport) aire (ahy-reh) (air) ayudo (ahy-oo-doh) (help)

au

ow as in owl

autor (ow-tohr) (author)

ea

eh-ah

fea (feh-ah) (ugly)

ei, ey

a as in day

seis (say-s) (six) rey (rray) (king)

eo

eh-oh

leo (leh-oh) (I read)

eu

eh-oo

Europa (eh-oo-roh-pah) (Europe)

ia

ee-ah

seria (seh-ree-ah) (serious)

ie

ee-eh

siete (see-eh-teh) (seven)

io

ee-oh

avión (ah-bee-ohn) (airplane)

iu

ee-oo

ciudad (see-oo-dahd) (city)

oa, ua

wah as in watch

toalla (toh-wah-yah) (towel) agua (ah-gwah) (water)

oe, ue

weh as in wet

oeste (wehs-teh) (west) cuento (kwehn-toh) (tale)

oi, oy

oy as in boy

oigo (oy-goh) (I hear) soy (soy) (I am)

ui, uy

wee as in we

cuido (kwee-doh) (I take care of) muy (mwee) (very)

uo

woh as in woe

cuota (kwoh-tah) (quota)

Verbalizing consonants

Consonants are a snap to master because most are pronounced exactly the same as they are in English. They are b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w, y. Note the exceptions in the following table.

Castilian Spanish (spoken in Spain) pronounces the letters c before e or i and z as th. In Latin America, however, c before e and i and z are pronounced as s. The following table shows the differences.

Consonant	English Sound	Spanish Example

c

th in Spain s in Latin America k elsewhere

centro (thehn-troh) (sehn-troh) (center) cinco (seen-koh) (five) casa (kah-sah) (house)

ch

ch as in chair

chico (chee-koh) (boy)

g

h before e and i hard g elsewhere

gente (hehn-teh) (people) gira (hee-rah) (tour) gordo (gohr-doh) (fat)

h

silent

hora (oh-rah) (hour)

j

h

junto (hoon-toh) (together)

ll

y

llama (yah-mah) (llama)

ñ

ni as in onion

niño (nee-nyoh) (child)

r

slightly rolled r

oro (oh-roh) (gold)

rr

rolled 2 or 3 times at the beginning of the word and after l, n, or s

carro (kah-rroh) (car) rico (rree-koh) (rich) alrededor (ahl-rreh-deh-dohr) (around) Enrique (ehn-rree-keh) (Henry) Israel (ees-rrah-ehl) (Israel)

v

similar to b

vaca (bah-kah) (cow)

x

s followed by a consonant ks followed by a vowel

extra (ehs-trah) (extra) exacto (ehks-ahk-toh) (exact)

z

th in Spain s in Latin America

zoo (thoh)(zoo) zoo (soh) (zoo)

Understanding stress and diacritical marks

In Spanish, words are pronounced just like they sound. Take note of the following rules for how words are stressed:

• Words ending in a vowel, an n, or an s are stressed on the next to the last syllable:
  • libro (lee-broh) (book)
  • bajan (bah-hahn) (they go down)
  • cuadernos (kwah-dehr-nohs) (notebooks)
• Words ending in a consonant (except n or s) are stressed on the last syllable:
  • felicidad (feh-lee-see-dahd) (happiness)
  • hablar (ah-blahr) (to speak)
• When the preceding rules aren’t followed, use an accent:
  • canción (kahn-see-ohn) (song)

These diacritical marks help with stress and pronunciation:

• An acute accent (′), the most common, indicates that you put more stress on the vowel of the syllable containing the accent:
  • interés (een-teh-rehs) (interest)
• A tilde (~) is only placed above an n (which is...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.8.2025
• Co-Autor: Cecie Kraynak
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Wörterbuch / Fremdsprachen
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Sprachwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: beginning spanish • easy Spanish • learning spanish • spanish book • Spanish examples • spanish for beginners • spanish fundamentals • Spanish Grammar • Spanish help • spanish pronunciation • Spanish sentence structure • Spanish tips • spanish tutorial
• ISBN-10: 1-394-37326-0 / 1394373260
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-37326-0 / 9781394373260