How to Use a Spanish-English/English-Spanish Dictionary
Here is some information which should be of help as you look for and
start using such a reference tool.
start using such a reference tool.
- Organization of the individual entries: In any good dictionary, when
a given word has numerous possible meanings, these possibilities are various
meanings of a given word are separated into groups. Knowing how your dictionary
organizes them can save you work and time. Some ways in which possible meanings
are grouped:- Part of speech. In both Spanish and English, a
group of letters may be two different words, or two different parts of speech.
Determine how your dictionary handles these cases. For example, start
can be both a noun (at the start of the race ... vs. the race
will start ...). Your “Spanish” sentence may turn out to be gibberish
if you insert the wrong part of speech in it. How does your dictionary tell you
this information? Typically,the entry for start in your dictionary will
have: a section for nouns and another section for verbs, or perhaps several
individual sections depending on whether you are looking for a transitive or
intransitive verb
Learn to recognize the abbreviations your dictionary uses for the various
parts of speech. Hopefully they will be the same for both the
English-to-Spanish and the Spanish-to-English halves of your dictionary; check
to see. Some typical
abbreviations:- adj for adjectives (easy, fácil; marvellous,
maravilloso). [More on adjectives
below.]
- adv for adverbs (quickly, rápidamente; never,
nunca).
- conj for conjunctions (pero, but; when,
cuando)
- interj for interjections (ugh, uf; crash,
cataplum).
- n for nouns (window, ventana; dictionary,
diccionario). [More on nouns
below.]
- prep for prepositions (with, con; behind,
detrás de).
- pron for pronouns (she, ella; I, yo).
- v for verbs (speak, hablar; live, vivir).
[More on verbs
below.]
[If you don't understand the difference between the
various parts of speech, learn them now; you might start
with the handout Parts of Speech.]
- adj for adjectives (easy, fácil; marvellous,
- Similarity of meanings. Widely different types of meanings may be
indicated by the use of numbers (1, 2, 3, ...) or letters (a, b, c, ...).
Within a certain category punctuation is also important; words which are very
close in meaning might be separated by a comma, whereas a semicolon may
indicate the start of a new, somewhat different set of meanings.
- Field/context. Better dictionaries frequently offer additional
information to help you identify the proper word, giving the situation in which
it might be applied. Sometimes words will be grouped by field, such as
automotive, general, medical, military, politics, sports, technical, etc.;
other times these labels and other helps will given immediately before or after
individual expressions in other types of listings.
- Sample. Look at the following entry to see how it gives the various
meanings; determine which words would be appropriate for: 1) a joke I
heard last night; 2) don't joke with me; 3) they played a
joke on me; [Note: This was taken from a Harper
Collins unabridged edition, but I have taken taken out some material including
all the examples, reducing the entry by almost two thirds.]
joke1n (hoax etc) broma f, burla
f; (witticism, story) chiste m; (person) hazmerreír
m.
2vi bromear; hablar en broma; (tell ~s)
contar chistes.
- Part of speech. In both Spanish and English, a
- More on verbs. Verbs are quite problematic for
beginning and intermediate students of language. First of all, you won't find a
dictionary, even an unabridged one, that offers all the verb forms for each
Spanish verb. For example, you will almost certainly not find forms such as
hechizo, hechice, hechizaste, hechizarán or
hechizaran; at this point you should be able to recognize that these are
all forms of the verb hechizar, and you must look up that infinitive
form hechizar to try to determine find out what is the basic meaning.
Better dictionaries will list certain irregular forms such as: quepo
(the present indicative yo-form of caber, but not the subjunctive
forms quepas, etc.) and puse (the preterit yo-form
poner, but not the other preterit or subjunctive forms based on the
preterit such as pusieron, pusieras). [Comment: If your dictionary does not list the forms quepo and
puse, you should probably buy one that does.] Despite
this limitation, your dictionary should be able to give you a great deal of
useful information:
- Whether the verb is used transitively,
intransitively, and/or reflexively. In English you may not even take into
consideration characteristics such as these when choosing a verb, but in
Spanish it can be crucial:
- Transitive verb (frequently used abbreviation: vt for verbo
transitivo). This means that the verb can —and ordinarily must— take a
direct object. For example, numerous verbs like bañar, afeitar,
maquillar, and mover are ordinarily used transitively: I can shave
(afeitar) a peach perhaps, or a man in my barber's chair, or myself, but
ordinarily I need to shave something or somebody to use the verb
afeitar.
- Intransitive verb (frequently abbreviated vi for verbo
intransitivo). Intransitive verbs, or verbs used intransitively, don't take
a direct object. For example chocar can mean to hit, strike, for
example with a car, but is used intransitively with this meaning. One can't
simply translate literally The car hit the building; you would
have to use something like El coche chocó con el edificio.
- Reflexive verb (frequently abbreviated vr, for verbo
reflexivo). The vast majority of verbs listed as vr are technically
not reflexive verbs, but verbs which may be used reflexively. Some change
meaning, or at least seem to do so, when used in this way; for example
establecer means to establish, but when used reflexively
(establecerse), it can mean to settle [We settled in
Fort Wayne], or start a business. Another common usage was referred
to in section A above, namely allowing a transitive verb to be used in an
intransitive way. Me afeité = I shaved [myself].
Note that sometimes, but not always, this transitive/intransitive/reflexive
information is given in the English-to-Spanish half of your dictionary. If it
is not given for each verb in the Spanish-to-English half, your dictionary is
not suitable for much more than serving as a possible emergency vocabulary tool
stored in the bottom of your backpack for when you don't have access to a real
dictionary.
- Transitive verb (frequently used abbreviation: vt for verbo
- Conjugation info. Any worthwhile dictionary
will give you specific information on creating all normal forms for every verb
listed. Instead of giving every form of every verb, however, it normally uses a
keyed system. In the Spanish-to-English side of the dictionary, immediately
after the main listing for the verb, there is a key or code, most frequently
given in brackets and consisting of a number (1, 2, or 3) plus a letter, for
example, [1a] or [3h]. The number refers to the conjugation:
1 = first conjugation, or -ar verbs; 2 = second
conjugation, or -er verbs; 3 = third conjugation, or -ir
verbs. The letter which follows indicates the class; the letter a
normally indicates that it is a regular verb. If any other letter appears, you
should consult the special section —usually in the back of your dictionary—
which lists the peculiarities of a sample verb in that class. If you're fuzzy
on the forms for a given tense, there should be a listing of all forms for a
sample verb for each conjugation either under the sections [1a],
[2a], [3a], or in a table somewhere.
- Whether the verb is used transitively,
- More on nouns.
- Gender. The Spanish-to-English half of your dictionary will indicate
whether a given noun in Spanish is masculine (libro, hombre),
feminine (mesa, mujer), or both masculine and feminine. This last
type is sometimes referred to with the rather confusing term common, in
the sense that the one single form is common to both genders. Most nouns ending
in -ista are this type: un artista moderno = a modern (male)
artist; una artista moderna = a modern (female) artist. Your
dictionary will probably use the abbreviations m, f, and m/f
or mf, often combined with n (for noun), for example:
- chiste nm, in the Spanish-to-English half, indicating first
that is is a noun and second that it is masculine.
- chiste m, in the English-to-Spanish half, under the listing
for joke, indicating that the word is masculine; the abbreviation
n is not needed since joke was specified as a noun.
- mano nf, a feminine noun (despite the -o ending).
- industrialista nm/f, a noun that may either be masculine or
feminine.
Better dictionaries will also list this information in the English-to-Spanish
half, to save you from having to look up the information in the
Spanish-to-English half.
- chiste nm, in the Spanish-to-English half, indicating first
- Plural. Some Spanish nouns have unusual —or at least unexpected, for
the beginning or intermediate student— forms in the plural, normally
abbreviated as pl. Even good dictionaries are poor in giving plural
forms, but will at least give information on forms which change the place of
stress: carácter nm, pl caracteres;
régimennm, pl regímenes.
- Gender. The Spanish-to-English half of your dictionary will indicate
- More on adjectives. That's precisely the
problem: in most dictionaries there is almost no information on adjectives
except for the meaning. An adjective will be listed in its masculine singular
form, for example lindo, triste, or hablador; information
often will not be given on the feminine and plural forms. At this point
in your studies you will presumably know that lindo has three other
forms (linda, lindos, lindas), and that triste has
a plural form (tristes); you may not know —and your dictionary most
likely will not tell you— that the other forms for hablador are:
habladora, habladores, habladoras. [Perhaps the the handout on Adjectives will be of
help.]
- Other abbreviations and indicators. We already discussed some
abbreviations dealing with parts of speech in general and the special ones
for verbs and nouns. The goal of such abbreviations is of
course to give much more information in a limited amount of space. A few more
abbreviations you should be aware of include:
- — or ~ or some similar device for repeating the main word or
expression for the listing. For example: The entry for trivialidades
might contain: decir —es to talk trivially [= decir
trivialidades].
- † and †† or something similar might be used to indicate that an expression
is old-fashioned (one symbol) or obsolete (two such symbols).
- * or ** or ***. A good dictionary should inform you if
a particular expression is colloquial, impolite, or the equivalent of what we
refer to as a “four-letter word” in English. One device for doing this is to
use a series of asterisks or some other character to suggest the degree of
grossness of the term involved.
- algn, sb and sth are frequently used for alguien
(somebody, someone), somebody and something: for
example, deberle algo a algn [deberle algo a alguien] = to owe
sb sth [to owe somebody something].
- — or ~ or some similar device for repeating the main word or
- Other resources. All dictionaries have limitations, but they remain
an indispensable tool for foreign language work. Take some time to look at the
many resources your dictionary offer. It may well offer:
- A detailed explanation of how it presents information to you.
- A list of abbreviations it uses.
- Abbreviations used in the Spanish language.
- Pronunciation.
- Mini-explanations of many aspects of both English and Spanish grammar.
- Tips on writing in English and Spanish.
- Samples of various types of writing styles (e.g., letters, invitations,
announcements).
- Numbers, weights and measures, telling the time and date.
- Information on the various classes of Spanish verbs, and to which each
Spanish verb entry is keyed (discussed above, but this bears repeating!).
- A detailed explanation of how it presents information to you.
- Closing tips.
- USE BOTH HALVES OF THE
DICTIONARY! If you look up a word/expression in the
English-Spanish part and there are several possibilities given, check them out
in the Spanish-English part to find the best one.
- Buy the best Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary you can afford,
preferably one that is “unabridged”. “Unabridged” does not mean that it is
“complete” or that it will have all the expressions you want to look up, but it
should have more information than any of the other dictionaries offered by that
same publisher.
- USE BOTH HALVES OF THE