Spanish For Dummies- It Is Not That Hard To Learn Spanish Easily
Spanish For Dummies is one of the books in the famous “For Dummies…” series. It obviously is about the Spanish language and aims to help you learn Spanish quick in an easy and entertaining manner.
Spanish For Dummies is written by those who know the language best at the Berlitz language school. The book features specific expressions and phrases that you will find helpful when on vacation, and tries to get you up and running 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, which allows you to listen Spanish spoken by native speakers.
In some way, you could say that any starter Spanish learning course as being Spanish for dummies generally. The idea is that it can take someone who has no idea of Spanish, from knowing nothing at all to being able to speak some useful expressions of Spanish.
There are a fair number of courses like that in the market nowadays. Nowadays, language courses have started concentrating on the fun element of learning a language, downplaying 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 certainly has its place. Spanish grammar is quite different from English grammar. That is why they will describe a new car as “un coche nuevo,” literally, “a car new.” There’s not much you can do about the difference other than simply learning it.
Translating literally from English to Spanish is a not a good idea. That would come out as, in our example, “un nuevo coche,” and would sound just as wrong to a Spanish person as “a car new” sounds to you! As a rough rule of thumb, put the adjective, the describing word, after the noun, the thing being described. This is the opposite of the normal rules in English.
The Spanish for dummies kind of courses tend rather to focus on the easier aspects of things. There are many Spanish terms, for example, that are very similar to their English counterparts. Most of the time, 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 are able to guess what it means), “important” becomes “importante.”
But that’s not all…
Many of the “ent” ending English words become “ente” in Spanish, such as “evidente.” A fair 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 end in “ary”? There are dozens 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 aimed at helping Spanish learners learn Spanish fast without the hassle of learning complex Spanish grammar.