Spanish Words

March 21, 2009

Spanish Dictionary

A Spanish dictionary has been part of a Spanish student’s required books for a long time. Things have come a long way from paging through a book looking for individual words and phrases. Today anyone can translate back and forth from English to Spanish.

Spanish Dictionary

Google has a Spanish dictionary. Its translation service can translate from many languages to many languages. Spanish is on the list. It can translate anything from a single word to a whole document. They aren’t perfect but they’re better than nothing.

For years on the Internet AltaVista and its Babel Fish have the market cornered on translation. It still has a Spanish dictionary. That is Spanish to English and English to Spanish translations. But people wondered if it was accurate because a block of text translated to Spanish then back to English was greatly altered. Some folks counted this as a positive. It became a crude tool for coming up with alternate versions of text. It also meant the translations weren’t very good.

The Spanish dictionary found at Google isn’t like this. Going from English to Spanish and then back results in the same text. Although people who want to come up with alternate versions of a phrase or paragraphs are disappointed, people who want accurate translations are happy.

There is another Spanish dictionary that isn’t a translator. Oxford has a Spanish dictionary. Not only does this dictionary translates, and also offers definitions and pronunciations of both the English and Spanish words. The word water, for instance. The result shows that the Spanish equivalent is agua. It’s an odd word in that it’s feminine, but becomes masculine when singular. Then the Oxford details many other words for water in different contexts. It’s a very useful tool.

Looking up mother in the Spanish dictionary brings us the Spanish madre. It also brings up a transitive verb version mimar. She mothers me is the transitive form. Langua materna is Spanish for mother tongue.

The online dictionary has a listing for jacket. If worn it’s chaqueta. But the jacket covering a book is sobrecubierta.

Spanish Dictionary

Oxford has the best Spanish dictionary.

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December 14, 2008

Questions To Ask Before Learning Spanish Online

Having the ability to speak Spanish allows you to take advantage of a number of opportunities. If you are fluent enough in Spanish, you’re able to open opportunities for travel, employment, friendships and professional relationships with Spanish-speaking places and people.

Of course, fluency in Spanish needs you to learn the skill first. The most recommended kind is Spanish online courses. Here are the reasons why.

Reasons You Cannot Refute

If you learn spanish online, free of charge in most cases, you gain something from nothing. You acquire beginner’s knowledge of the Spanish language from virtually nothing – just your precious time and undivided effort. This is certainly the ultimate dream of a capitalist.

You must consider these reasons, too:

• You take full control of your time. Despite of how busy you may be, you can learn spanish online free lessons whenever you feel like it and wherever there is a computer with an Internet connection.
• You’re in control of your own pace. You do not have to feel the same level of pressure that beset you when Spanish was a school requirement. You will certainly feel less pressure even when you have limited time each day to practice your Spanish.
• It is like having classroom instruction as you still get the exact modules – grammar, conversation, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, and writing. One of the primary benefits of taking online lessons is the fact that you are saved from the trouble of having to travel to and from school.

Advantages of Learning Spanish Online

As previously stated, you basically get the same instruction as in the classroom setting. You will also be able to take advantage of the following benefits, depending on your lesson:
• Conversational skills that teach you applicable sentences to say in specific cases.
• Grammar lessons to allow you to form sentences on your own.
• New Spanish words that you can add to your once-limited repertoire
• Pronunciation training that allows you to speak Spanish like a native speaker, most often in the Castellano and Latin American forms.
• Composing paragraphs and reading literary works in the Spanish language
• Listening and comprehension, which are the definitive test of your Spanish language skills

These courses are normally covered by instant messaging, chat rooms, audio conferencing and video conferencing, which basically match the interactive nature in classroom instructions.

How to Choose an Online Spanish Course

There are a few points to consider before deciding to learn Spanish online. The most important of these are:
• What’s your present level of Spanish-speaking ability? If you are lucky, you will be able to find a course that offers free evaluation of your present skills.
• What type of schedule are you going to devote to the program? Some lessons provide fixed interactivity while others allow you to choose your own time and pace.
• Do you prefer a native speaker or one who uses Spanish as a second language as a teacher? You can then select a course that matches your teacher preference.
• How much money are you prepared to pay for this endeavor? In many cases, only the beginner courses are for free, the rest needs payment of a considerable amount of money.

To conclude, when you choose to learn spanish online lessons, you get more than you bargained for in a very positive light.

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