Spanish For Dummies- It Is Not That Hard To Learn Spanish Easily
Spanish For Dummies is one of the books in the successful “For Dummies…” series. It obviously targets the Spanish language and aims to help you learn Spanish quick in a simple and interesting.
Spanish For Dummies is written by those who know the language best at the Berlitz language school. The book features common expressions and phrases that you may find useful while you are on holiday, and aims to get you familar with the language.
The Spanish For Dummies book describes itself as being, “…the ultimate guide for speaking Spanish quick and easy.” The book is is packaged together with a CD-ROM, allowing you to listen Spanish spoken by native speakers.
In a way, you could describe any starter Spanish learning course as being Spanish for dummies generally. The concept is that it can take someone who has no idea of Spanish, from knowing nothing at all to at least speaking a few useful expressions of Spanish.
There are plenty of courses like that you’ll be pleased to hear. Nowadays, language courses have started concentrating on the fun element of language learning, paying less attention to the need for grammar, syntax and cultural nuance, and replacing them with shortcuts, tricks and tips to actually speaking the language with other native speakers.
Grammar does have its place. Spanish grammar is significantly different from English grammar. That’s why they will describe a new car as “un coche nuevo,” literally, “a car new.” There’s not much you can do about that other than just learning it.
Translating literally from English to Spanish is a very bad thing to do. That would come out as, in our example, “un nuevo coche,” and would sound just as bad to a Spanish person as “a car new” sounds to you! As a general rule of thumb, put the adjective, the describing word, after the noun, the thing being described. This is the reverse of the normal rules in English.
The Spanish for dummies type of courses tend rather to concentrate on the easier side of things. There are many Spanish words, for instance, that are very similar to their English equivalents. Usually, they change only with the endings. Words in English ending in “ant” often get translated to words ending in “ante” in Spanish. Por ejemple (that’s Spanish and I’m sure you can guess what it is in English), “important” becomes “importante.”
But that’s not all…
A fair number of the “ent” ending English words become “ente” in Spanish, such as “evidente.” A good number of the “ible” and “able” ending words stay the same in both languages: comparable, combustible. A number of Spanish words simply drop English endings, such as the “ate” ending words where “participate” becomes “participa” and “terminate” becomes “termina.”
How many English words can you think of that suffix in “ary”? There are tons and you’ve just learned as whole lot more Spanish words, because you can adapt the English to Spanish by changing the “ary” ending to an “ario” ending.
Spanish for dummies can be the title of a best selling language book, or it can simply be a way to describe a good Spanish course designed to help you learn Spanish fast without the hassle of learning complex Spanish grammar.