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Articles & Books From Cecie Kraynak
The perfect guide for new Spanish learners and anyone looking for an expert refresher Interested in a fast and effective guide to learning Spanish that avoids fluff and focuses on key concepts that you need to know to improve your ability to speak, write, and understand the language? Spanish Essentials For Dummies, 2nd Edition walks you through Spanish fundamentals you can use for at-home, solo learning, to supplement your progress in a Spanish class, or as a companion to language instruction.
Learn to speak Latin American Spanish with confidence—the easy way Spanish For Dummies gets you started with the Spanish language, even if you've never learned a language before. The trusted Dummies language learning method is quick and practical, so you'll know what to say and do when traveling to a Spanish-speaking country or interacting with Spanish speakers in your community.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-21-2025
Speaking Spanish requires you to keep tabs on all sorts of topics: essential words and phrases, basic Spanish questions, and the proper gender of articles. Plus, if you intend to travel, you want to be able to get help and give warnings in the case of an emergency.Refer to this Cheat Sheet for your Spanish essentials.
Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022
Spanish grammar covers a lot of territory. To start writing grammatically correct sentences in the present tense, you need to know about masculine and feminine nouns, adjectives, and regular verbs in Spanish.Telling a masculine noun from a feminine noun in Spanish
In Spanish grammar, you need to be able to distinguish a noun’s gender (either masculine or feminine) so that you can use the correct gender of any article or adjective that describes it.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
As with any language, the number of Spanish words and phrases can be intimidating. If you're just beginning to explore Spanish, you can feign fluency with these essential words and phrases until your Spanish is up to snuff.
¡Hola! (¡oh-lah!) (Hello!)
Por favor. (pohr fah-bvohr.) (Please.)
Gracias. (grah-seeahs.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Emergencies can happen whether you know Spanish or not, so if you're in a Spanish-speaking area, you need to be prepared to warn others and/or get help in Spanish should an emergency situation arise. Following are some basic Spanish distress-signaling words:
¡Socorro! (¡soh-koh-rroh!) (Help!)
¡Auxilio! (¡ahoohk-see-leeoh!
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Like many things in the Spanish language, Spanish articles have either a masculine or a feminine gender that must match the masculine or feminine gender of the Spanish nouns you pair them with. (For example, you say la blusa (lah bvlooh-sah) (the blouse) but el vestido (ehl bvehs-tee-doh) (the dress). Articles in Spanish include the (a definite article) and a, an, and some (indefinite articles).
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Knowing how to ask basic questions in Spanish — or any other language — is essential in a global society. To ask for information in Spanish, use these basic Spanish question words and example questions.
¿Quién? (¿keeehn?) (Who?)
¿Qué? (¿keh?) (What?)
¿Dónde? (¿dohn-deh?) (Where?)
¿Cuándo? (¿koohahn-doh?
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
In Spanish grammar, adjectives have to agree with the nouns they modify in both gender and number, no matter what:
Gender: If a noun is feminine, like la muchacha (the girl), the adjective must be feminine, too. For example, to talk about a tall girl, you’d say la muchacha alta (the tall girl). If the girl has a brother who’s also tall, you’d say el muchacho alto (the tall boy).
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
In Spanish grammar, as in English, you conjugate verbs to reflect the tense (when the action occurred, is occurring, or will occur) and to agree with the subject in person and number. To conjugate regular Spanish verbs ending in -ar, -er, or -ir in the present tense, you drop the ending and add endings to specify the subject (in person and number) that’s performing the action.
