Published by Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Westerhill Road Bishopbriggs Glasgow G64 2QT Third Edition 2020 Published as Collins Very First Spanish Dictionary 2009, 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Text © HarperCollins Publishers 2009, 2014, 2020 Illustrations © Maria Herbert-Liew 2020 ISBN 978-0-00-831272-5 Collins® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Limited www.schools.collinsdictionary.com www.collins.co.uk/dictionaries Typeset by QBS Learning Printed and bound in the UK by Martins the Printer Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Publisher. This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the Publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Entered words that we have reason to believe constitute trademarks have been designated
Very First Spanish Dict_Prelims.indd 2
as such. However, neither the presence nor absence of such designation should be regarded as affecting the legal status of any trademark. The contents of this publication are believed correct at the time of printing. Nevertheless, the Publisher can accept no responsibility for errors or omissions, changes in the detail given or for any expense or loss thereby caused. HarperCollins does not warrant that any website mentioned in this title will be provided uninterrupted, that any website will be errorfree, that defects will be corrected, or that the website or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs. For full terms and conditions please refer to the site terms provided on the website. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. If you would like to comment on any aspect of this book, please contact us at the given address or e-mail dictionaries@harpercollins.co.uk.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank those authors and publishers who kindly gave permission for copyright material to be used in the Collins Corpus. We would also like to thank Times Newspapers Ltd for providing valuable data.
Managing Editor: Maree Airlie
Artwork and Design: Maria Herbert-Liew
For the Publisher: Kerry Ferguson Michelle I’Anson
Audio pronunciation for every Spanish word and sentence at collins.co.uk/homeworkhelp.
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Contents How to use your dictionary
5
Word classes
6
Colours Los colores
9
Shapes Las formas
9
Numbers Los números
10
The days of the week Los días de la semana
11
The months of the year Los meses del año
11
Seasons Las estaciones del año
12
The weather El tiempo
13
Dictionary A to Z
14
Conversations Las conversaciones
56
Things I like to do Las cosas que me gusta hacer
58
The park El parque
60
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The seaside La costa
61
Vehicles Los vehículos
62
Food and drink La comida y la bebida
64
Clothes La ropa
66
Parts of the body Las partes del cuerpo
67
Family La familia
68
Animals Los animales
70
Wild animals Los animales salvajes
72
Mythical creatures Las criaturas míticas
74
Spanish-English Index
75
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How to use your dictionary bed la cama
a b
1
The headword is the word you are looking up.
c d
2
e
bedroom la habitación (las habitaciones pl )
f g
3
h i j
4
k
The coloured tab shows you which letter you are looking at. The main Spanish translation is in pink. If there are other forms of the translation, these are also shown.
l
before antes de
m
before three o'clock antes de las tres
n
5
o
Examples show you how the word is used in a sentence.
p q
bicycle la bicicleta
r s t u v w x
6
Colourful illustrations make the book fun to use.
y z 15
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5
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Word classes Nouns
When a noun is used with another word or words, this can be called a noun phrase.
A noun is a word that is used for talking about a person or thing. Nouns are sometimes called “naming words” because they are often the names of people, places and things, for example:
She was wearing a beautiful red dress. All the children were sleeping.
man noun park noun bird noun computer noun
Some Spanish nouns are:
la manzana (meaning apple) el caballo (meaning horse) el agua f (meaning water) La botella está vacía. (meaning The bottle is empty.)
Nouns are very often found after the words a and the or words like our, my or his. We watched a cartoon on the laptop. My brother is playing in the park.
Proper nouns are the names of people, places, days and months and always start with a capital letter.
Emma noun London noun Friday noun June noun John lives in Glasgow. He went home on Friday.
In Spanish, nouns can be masculine (m) or feminine ( f ). This is shown by el or la in front of the noun.
la manzana la shows that it’s a feminine noun el caballo el shows that it’s a masculine noun If the Spanish word has los or las in front of it, this means that the word is plural (there is more than one of it).
los libros mpl (meaning books) las habitaciones fpl (meaning rooms)
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Verbs A verb is a word that you use for saying ng what someone or something does. Verbs are often called “doing words” because they talk about an action that someone or something is doing, for example:
eat verb cry verb talk verb Verbs are often found after nouns, or words like she, they or it.
You can make the past tense of many verbs by adding d or ed to the end of the verb, for example: walk walked dance danced Sometimes you need to double the last letter before adding the ed ending in the past tense, for example: stop stopped hug hugged Some verbs have a completely different way of making the past tense, for example:
The dog barks at the cat. She eats sandwiches for lunch.
go went sing sang
When you want to talk about something that you are doing right now (in the present), you use the present tense of the verb.
Some Spanish verbs are:
The children are talking to each other. She does her homework before dinner. When you want to talk about something that you did earlier (in the past), you use the past tense of the verb. Anna cried when she fell off her bike. The beetle ran across the floor.
dar (meaning give) querer (meaning want) escribir (meaning write) Dame el libro, por favor. (meaning Give me the book, please.) ¿Quieres un helado? (meaning Do you want an ice cream?)
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Adjectives An adjective is a word that tells you more about a person or thing. Adjectives are often called “describing words” because they describe what something looks, feels, or smells like, for example:
big adjective soft adjective nice adjective Adjectives are very often found before a noun, or after the verb to be. She lives in a big house. The caterpillar is long and green. When you want to talk about something that is more than something else, you can use an adjective in different forms, usually ending in er or est.
Some Spanish adjectives are:
bueno (meaning good) amable (meaning kind) fácil (meaning easy) Está contenta. (meaning She’s happy.) In Spanish, adjectives can change depending on whether the noun they describe is masculine or feminine. un libro bueno (meaning a good book) una buena idea (meaning a good idea) un tenedor limpio (meaning a clean fork) una camisa limpia (meaning a clean shirt )
bigger, biggest soft, softer nicer, nicest I have the nicest sister in the world! Yesterday was the wettest day of the year.
Adverbs An adverb is a word that tells you more about how someone does something, for example:
An example of a Spanish adverb is:
rápido (meaning fast)t Pueden correr rápido. rápido p . (meaning They can run fast.)
happily adverb slowly adverb well we ll adverb Adverbs are very often found after verbs verbs, s, or sometimes before adjectives. y along the path. The snail moved slowly Th game game was was really real re ally ly y eexciting! xcit xc itin ing! g! The
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Colours Los colores
amarillo, amarilla
naranja
rojo, roja
azul
verde
blanco, blanca
negro, negra
rosa
gris
el círculo
el cuadrado
el triángulo
el rectángulo
la estrella
el rombo
Shapes Las formas
9
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Numbers Los números 0 cero
30
treinta
1 uno
40
cuarenta
2 dos
50
cincuenta
3 tres
60
sesenta
4 cuatro
70
setenta
5 cinco
80
ochenta
6 seis
90
noventa
7 siete
100
cien
8 ocho
1000
mil
9 nueve 10 diez 11 once 12 doce 13 trece 14 catorce 15 quince 16 dieciséis 17 diecisiete 18 dieciocho 19 diecinueve 20 veinte
10
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The days of the week Los días de la semana Monday
el lunes
Tuesday
el martes
Wednesday
el miércoles
Thursday
el jueves
Friday
el viernes
Saturday
el sábado
Sunday
el domingo
The months of the year Los meses del año January
enero
February
febrero
March
marzo
April
abril
May
mayo
June
junio
July
julio
August
agosto
September
septiembre
October
octubre
November
noviembre
December
diciembre
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Seasons Las estaciones del año
spring la primavera
summer el verano
autumn el otoño
winter el invierno 12
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The weather El tiempo It’s cloudy. Está nublado.
It’s hot. Hace calor.
It’s raining. Llueve.
It’s windy. Hace viento.
It’s snowing. Nieva.
It’s cold. Hace frío.
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