Full Description
Do you have a working knowledge of Spanish, but want to improve? Allow this book to come to your rescue and eliminate basic errors and slips of the pen. Each one of 50 top tips for improving your spoken and written Spanish is presented and analyzed across a whole double page, with explanations as to where and why people sometimes go wrong. The tips are grouped into grammar, spelling, false friends, pronunciation and cultural faux pas sections.
Polish your Spanish with this brand new series from Teach Yourself - the No. 1 brand in language learning. 50 Ways to Improve your Spanish touches all essential bases and is divided into the following easily digestible sections:
Insights
Instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on Keith Chambers' many years of experience.
Summaries
Quick refreshers to help you remember the key facts.
Grammar
Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding.
Pronunciation
Don't sound like a tourist - polish your pronunciation before you go.
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Contents
: Meet the author
: Only got a minute?
: Only got 5 minutes?
: Only got 10 minutes?
: How to use this book
: Looking and sounding right
1: Speling errers - Avoiding mistakes in spelling
2a: It's acute! - Using accents to mark stress
2b: It's acute! - Problems with accents
3: Capital offence - When to use capital letters
4a: Say it after me - Keeping vowels clear and simple
4b: Say it after me - Concentrating on consonants
: Getting the structure right
: The right word in the right place
5: Now how cow brown - Problems with word order
: Nouns, adjectives and adverbs
6a: The cat sat on the mat - When to use the definite article
6b: The cat sat on the mat - Further uses of the definite article
7: What's the form? - Forms of the articles
8: 'A' or 'an' - Mistakes with the indefinite article
9a: A boy named Sue - Tricky genders
9b: A boy named Sue - More tips on gender
10: Don't agree to disagree! - Agreements
11: Blurred picture - Common mistakes with adjectives
12: A bit of this and that - Problems with demonstratives
13: More or less or just the same - Comparisons
14: It's very hard - muy and mucho
15: Softly softly - Easy does it with adverbs
: Conjunctions, questions and negatives
16: Yeah, but... no, but... - Using conjunctions
17: What was that? - Question words
18: How long is a piece of string? - Tricky questions
19: No means no! - Negative expressions
: Verbs and verb constructions
20: Hey, you! - Which word for 'you'?
21a: Clear and present danger - Pitfalls in present-tense usage
21b: Clear and present danger - Pitfalls in present-tense formation
22: All in the past - Preterite and imperfect
23a: Passive resistance - Replacing the passive with the reflexive
23b: Passive resistance - Replacing the passive with impersonal se
24: Coming and going - Use and misuse of the gerund
25a: I'll tell you what I want - Basic uses of the subjunctive
25b: I'll tell you what I want - Use and misuse of the subjunctive
26a: Gimme, gimme, gimme - Simple commands and requests
26b: Gimme, gimme, gimme - The 'true' imperative
27a: All together now - Basic errors in joining verbs
27b: All together now - Joining verbs with de and other prepositions
28: Liking and loving - gustar, encantar, querer
29: When I'm 64 - Looking into the future
30: It all depends - Verbs with differing constructions
31: What if? - Tenses with si
32: I'm not so sure! - Problems with expressions of doubt
: Pronouns and possessives
33: Only me! - Subject and prepositional pronouns
34: Indirect or direct? - Object pronouns
35a: You're out of order! - Personal pronouns: which comes first?
35b: You're out of order! - Personal pronouns: before or after the verb?
36: 'My' and 'mine' - Problems with possessives
: Numbers, dates and times
37: Figure it out! - Problems with numbers
38: When was that? - Days, dates and times
: Choosing the right words
39a: What will it be? - When to use ser
39b: What will it be? - When to use estar
40: Being and having - Alternatives to ser/estar
41a: Verbal gymnastics - jugar versus tocar
41b: Verbal gymnastics - pensar versus creer
42a: To have and to hold - tener versus haber
42b: To have and to hold - hay, hay que and tener que
43: Leave it out or I'll quit! - Problems with leaving
44: Getting the know-how - saber, conocer and poder
45: Propositions about prepositions - en, a, de
46: What's it all for? - por and para
47: The missing link - Unexpected uses of prepositions
48: Up the ante - Mistakes with 'before' and 'under'
49: It's behind you! - detrás, tras and después
50: Things aren't always what they seem! - False friends
: Glossary of grammatical terms
: Index
