BBC SPANISH PHRASE BOOK & DICTIONARY

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That’s where “Spanish Among Amigos Phrasebook” comes in. Unlike many other phrasebooks, this one doesn’t exclusively target travelers. Instead, it’s designed for anyone looking to engage in friendly, social conversations in Spanish. Most diphthongs can be approximated by blending the first vowel into the second in a single syllable. Note that you must ask for the bill. A gringo(foreigner/anglo-american) was known to have waited until 2 in the morning because he was too shy to ask:). Focus on each phrase as a unit, rather than trying to dissect every word. Grammar study isn’t our focus here. A Western Romance language, Spanish is closely related to and somewhat mutually intelligible with the other Romance languages, such as Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. English and Spanish share variants of approximately one third of their words (via Latin), although the pronunciation and spelling tend to be very different.

s like 's' in "son": sopa (soup); in Spain, it is often pronounced like a soft, palatised "sh" at the end of a word or syllable. t like 't' in "stop": tapa (top) v Pronounced the same way as b (see above): like 'b' in "elbow" at the beginning of a word and after 'n'; closer to the English 'v' sound elsewhere. To distinguish v from b when saying the name of the letter, one says "ve chica" or "be grande" to indicate which; native Spanish speakers may not hear the difference between "vee" and "bee". w like 'w' in "weight" in English words, whisky, (pronounced "WEESS-kee"). Like 'b' in "bed" in German words. This letter is never used in native Spanish words and you can live your entire life in a Hispanic country and never hear it outside of the word "whisky". x like 'x' in "flexible" ( flexible). Like 'ss' in "hiss" at beginning of a word ( xilófono, xylophone). Like a throaty 'h' in the words México, mexicano, Oaxaca, and oaxaqueño. Often found in words of indigenous American origin where it may not follow Spanish pronunciation logic. y like 'y' in "yes": payaso (clown). Like 'y' in "boy": hoy (now). Pronounced like a 'zh' [ʒ] as in 'Zhivago' or 'sh' [ʃ] as in 'show' only in Argentina and Uruguay: yo no sé (I don't know), pronounced "zhoh noh say". z like 's' in "supper" (Latin America, parts of Spain), like 'th' in "thin" (most of Spain) [θ]: zorro (fox). See c above. Learn Spanish Phrasebook is a convenient app that gives you offline access to a useful phrasebook. It’s designed primarily for people traveling in Spain, so some of the information is specific to this region. However, what really sets Lonely Planet’s phrasebooks apart from other phrasebooks is that they focus on specific regions. They go beyond the differences between Castilian and Latin American Spanish and offer Costa Rican, Mexican and Latin American. These provide regionally-specific terms and phrases (including idioms) in addition to more common travel terms. The best part of this book, though, is the opportunity it gives the reader to practice what they have been learning.

3. USEFUL PHRASES

The phrasebook is organized thematically with popular categories like conversation and directions. You can also “favorite” phrases for easy access. The table below gives examples of some of the common terms that differ between Spain and Latin America. Additionally, if the accent marks a diphthong a syllable break occurs between the two vowels of the diphthong. Spanish Among Amigos Phrasebook” focuses on common conversational phrases such as greetings, offering advice, sharing how you feel and more.

Different learners will have different specific preferences depending on what and how they wish to learn so we have compiled a handy list of the 7 best books to learn Spanish! You must ask for the bill. A gringo was known to have waited until 2 in the morning because he was too shy to ask:).The Spanish verb tense system is fairly similar to English, but all six person/number combinations take different endings in the indicative. The formal "you" ( usted(es)) takes a third-person verb. Spanish has genders, so a man says encantado and a woman says encantada. The indirect object and the animate direct object are both marked by a. Months [ edit ] NOTE All the months in Spanish are written in lower case letters. January enero ( eh-NEH-roh) February febrero ( feh-BREH-roh) March marzo ( MAR-soh) April abril ( ah-BREEL) May mayo ( MAH-joh) June junio ( HOO-nyoh) July julio ( HOO-lyoh) August agosto ( ah-GOHS-toh) September septiembre ( sehp-TYEHM-breh) October octubre ( ohk-TOO-breh) November noviembre ( noh-VYEHM-breh) December diciembre ( dee-SYEHM-breh) Seasons [ edit ] Spring primavera ( pri-ma-VEH-rah) Summer verano ( VEH-ra-no) Autumn otoño ( OH-to-NYO) Winter invierno ( in-VYEH-no) Writing Dates [ edit ]