THE USBORNE BEGINNER'S SPANISH DICTIONARYBEGINNER'S | SPANISH — DICTIONARY Helen Davies Illustrated by John Shackell | Designed by Brian Robertson Edited by Nicole Irving Language consultants: Jane Straker and Gloria Brass Handlettering by Jack Potter Additional designs by Kim Blundell Editorial help from Anita Ganeri-Contents Using this book Meeting people Families Appearance and personality Your body Houses and homes Dining room and living room In the kitchen In the garden Pets Getting up Clothes Going to bed Eating and drinking Buying food Pastimes Going out At the zoo and in the park In the city Shopping At the post office and bank Phonecalls and letters Out and about Driving Travelling by train Travelling by plane and boat Vacations In the countryside On the farm At work Illness and health School and education Shapes and sizes Numbers Sport Celebrations Days and dates Time Weather and seasons World and universe Politics Describing things Colors In, on, under ... Action words Grammar hints Phrase explainer English-Spanish word list Using this book This book contains over 2,000 useful Spanish words, with pictures to help you remember them. To help you identify words, nouns (naming words) are printed in roman lettering (el libro , book) and verbs (doing words), adjectives (describing words) and phrases in italics ( grande , big). Nouns Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine (this is called their gender). The Spanish word for “the” shows which gender a noun is. “The” is el when the word is masculine and la when it is feminine. In the plural el becomes los and la becomes las. Sometimes the following abbreviations are also used: (f) feminine, (m) masculine, (s) singular and (pl) plural. In Spanish, nouns that describe what people do or what they are (e.g. dancer) often have a masculine and a feminine form. When they appear in the illustrated section of the book only the form which matches the picture is given, but both masculine and feminine forms are given in the alphabetical word list at the back. Spanish words often have a mark over one of the vowels (e.g. el balcén). This is called a stress mark and shows that you should emphasize that part of the word. You can find out more about pronouncing Spanish words at the beginning of the word list on page 109. Adjectives Adjectives in Spanish change their ending depending on whether the noun they are describing is masculine or feminine. Most adjectives end in o in the masculine and the ochanges toa in the feminine. In the pictures the adjective matches the noun illustrated. However it is useful to learn both masculine and feminine forms, so both are given in the word box. When you see only one form, it means the masculine and feminine are the same. Verbs Throughout the book verbs appear in the infinitive (“to hide, to look for’ in English). In Spanish, infinitives end in either ar, er or ir, You can find out how to use verbs on page 98 and there is a list of irregular verbs on page 103.