Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary, 2nd Edition: With 240 Exercises + Free Flashcard App

By Dorothy Richmond

Go beyond ¿Cómo se dice? and add thousands of words to your Spanish vocabulary

To communicate comfortably in Spanish, you need access to a variety of words that go beyond the basics, as well as a solid foundation in grammar. In Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary you get the tools you need to expand your lexicon and sharpen your speaking and writing skills. And how do you this? PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

Each chapter of this comprehensive book focuses on a theme, such as family or travel, so you can build your language skills in a systematic manner. As you lay the foundation for a burgeoning vocabulary, you will perfect your new words with plenty of exercises and gain the confidence you need to communicate well in Spanish.

This new edition of Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary offers you:

• More than 240 exercises
• Concise grammatical explanations
• The latest vocabulary in such areas as technology, communications, and the media
• An answer key to gauge your comprehension

WITH HELP FROM THIS BOOK, YOU CAN EASILY SPEAK OR WRITE IN SPANISH ABOUT:
Different occupations and jobs * Spanish holidays and traditions * Food and drink * Politics and current events * Your social life * Your family and friends * Business and money * Your favorite entertainment venues * Your family's background . . . and much more

• Language: English
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Release date: Oct 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9780071804134

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To Lily Solveig Richmond and Daisy Astrid Richmond

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Preliminary matters

The Spanish alphabet and its pronunciation

Stress and accent marks

Plurals

Diphthongs

Punctuation marks

Cognates

Basic greetings

Highly useful data

1 The basics

Definite articles

Indefinite articles

Yo tengo…, yo quiero…

Está, the is of location

The use of hay

VOCABULARY BUILDING The diminutive suffixes -ito and -ita

Standard orthographic changes

Cracking the gender code

Vocabulary

Family and friends

The animal kingdom

Around the house

Some basic words

The numbers 0–10

Está

Words of location

Items in and around the house

2 Regular verbs

Conjugation of regular -ar verbs

Deleting the understood subject pronoun

Conjugation of regular -er verbs

Qualitative adjectives

Conjugation of regular -ir verbs

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffix -ería

Vocabulary

Common -ar verbs

Places of employment

Musical instruments

Common -er verbs

Food and drink

Colors

Common qualitative (descriptive) adjectives

Cognate adjectives

Common -ir verbs

In and around the school

Stores

3 Asking questions

Simple questions

Negative responses

Complex questions

Negative questions

Questions of quantity and limitation

The contractions al and del

Street addresses

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffixes -ero and -era

Vocabulary

Items of clothing

Fabrics and material

Clothing: parts and decorations

Tourist sites: buildings

More tourist sites

Cooking phrases that use al

Directions on a map

4 Irregular verbs

Jugar (to play [a game])

Poder (to be able to) and querer (to want)

Tener (to have)

Possessive adjectives

Ir, salir, and venir: three irregular verbs of motion

Hacer (to do, make)

The five senses: oír (to hear), oler (to smell), probar (to taste), ver (to see), tocar (to touch)

Direct object pronouns

The personal a

Poner (to put, place)

Dar (to give) and decir (to say, tell)

Indirect object pronouns

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffixes -era and -ero

Vocabulary

Sports and games

Sports matters

Means of transportation

Idioms with hacer

The weather

Types of books and things to read

Professions

Household items/fixtures

Verbs of communication and the movement/transfer of objects

5 The verbs ser and estar (to be)

Conjugation of ser and estar

Uses of estar

Preposition + infinitive

Demonstrative adjectives

Uses of ser

Possessive pronouns

Comparisons with ser and estar

Neuter demonstrative pronouns

VOCABULARY BUILDING Suffixes that denote origin and/or nationality

Vocabulary

Emotional states and moods

Physical conditions

Physical appearance

Results of action

Adverbs and prepositions of location

The clock

Time expressions

Significant dates of the year

Relationships

Personality descriptions

Advertising

Situational descriptions

6 Saber and conocer

Saber and conocer (to know)

Adding object pronouns to the infinitive

Pedir and preguntar (to ask)

Sacar, tomar, llevar, quitar (to take)

Completar, terminar, cumplir, acabar (de) (to complete, finish, or end)

Formation of adverbs

VOCABULARY BUILDING Compound words

Vocabulary

In the laboratory

Biology

Chemistry

Physics and mechanics

Electricity

The arts

Art styles and movements

Art class

Music

Theater and movies

Television and radio

Communications

Computers

7 Stem-changing verbs

Stem-changing verbs

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffix -ismo

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffix -ista

Weights and measures

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffix -ado/-ada

Vocabulary

Life and death

The press

Politics and government

Politicians

International politics

Shopping

Weight, density, and liquid measures

Length and shape

Geometric shapes

Expressions of quantity

Containers

8 Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs

Ponerse, hacerse, volverse a, convertirse en, llegar a ser (to become)

Gustar

Verbs that take an indirect object pronoun

Doler

VOCABULARY BUILDING The medical suffixes -itis and -osis

Vocabulary

Common reflexive verbs

The human body

Addiction and violence

Religion 101

Religion 102

Social issues

Cooking

The emergency room

Personal hygiene

In the doctor’s office

Medical specialists

In the dentist’s office

In the optician’s office

9 Para and por

Para and por

VOCABULARY BUILDING The suffix -ario

Reciprocal pronouns

Vocabulary

Travel

Road travel

Travel by plane

Travel by train

Travel by boat

Streets and roads

Vacations and camping

At the hotel

Language

Listening and talking

Reading and writing

Postsecondary education

Geography

The environment and the ecosystem

War and peace

Weapons

Military personnel

10 The passive voice and negatives

The passive voice

Negatives

Vocabulary

Crime

Trial and sentencing

At work

In the office

In the factory

In the toolshed

Business

Banking and the economy

Social life

Answer key

Subject and vocabulary index

Preface

Language, like all forms of art and beauty, is about making connections and enhancing life. Any human action, from writing a novel to taking a walk, can be raised to the level of art. It can also be reduced to mechanics: functional, but lifeless.

As you study Spanish, you can choose to approach it as an art form or as a practical tool for communicating with others, or anything in between. The language itself and its various opportunities do not change—they are there for the taking. What you come away with is based on your choice of orientation.

Both approaches—artistic and utilitarian—require diligence and hard work, with attention paid to both grammar and vocabulary. A lopsided approach, however, can greatly diminish your enjoyment and success.

Language is like a house

Think of learning a language the way a fine house is built. First comes the foundation. The structure must be solid, well thought out, of quality material and craftsmanship. Measurements must be exact, lines straight, surfaces level. Laying a foundation is serious business, and structure, rules, and formulae tried and true—not originality—reign. In language, this foundation is called grammar, a feature as necessary as architectural footings, even though it has been unconscionably discounted in recent years.

Imagine what a building would look like if its foundation were not solid. This is exactly what happens to language when the grammatical structure is shaky: It crumbles. Where the careless builder now has a pile of rubble, the inattentive student of language is surrounded by a mountain of words, each potentially useful, some even complex and beautiful, but rendered useless in the absence of structure.

Thus it is that this book—a text designed to build your vocabulary—begins not with a flurry of words, but with a solid introduction to Spanish grammar. The words will come because we need them—grammar is pointless without vocabulary—but words remain rootless and adrift without the glue of grammatical structure.

Purpose and organization of this book

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary offers you the maximum amount of vocabulary with the minimum amount of grammar needed to give the words life. The nitty-gritty technical and grammatical aspects of the language—which are endless and will be debated long after we’re all gone—are not included. Instead, you are given all the tools any student needs to speak, hear, understand, and create Spanish at a conversational level. This book is a marvelous companion to every classroom text on the market.

The book is presented entirely in the present tense, so that you can focus on the words being introduced, and you can keep the necessities of grammar in the picture without complicating it. When historical figures are mentioned, you are asked to imagine that they are still alive.

In the unit Preliminary matters, the basics are given: the Spanish alphabet, a pronunciation guide, numbers, punctuation, word recognition, common greetings—a kindergarten of sorts for a Spanish student of any age.

The main body of the text includes ten units, each covering hundreds of new vocabulary words, along with the grammatical structures that give them life. As you work through the text, you will sense the intimate connection between grammar and vocabulary: Each needs the other to be meaningful.

Working through this book

There are more than 250 exercises, one at each step of the way, from beginning to end. It is important to work through every exercise. Some exercises, given your personal tastes and interests, may be more fun than others, but all will reward you by furthering your knowledge of Spanish with regard to both vocabulary and grammar.

While it is important to do all the exercises, learning each and every word presented need not be your goal; indeed, it is unrealistic to set your sights on this. Do, however, allow yourself to be exposed to every word and pay special heed to those that you will use in your own life. Some lists and categories may be especially useful to you, while others may include words that you would have no reason to utter, even in English. Take what you need and leave the rest, but be aware of what you’ve passed by. You may develop an interest in a topic down the road that today leaves you cold.

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary offers well over ten thousand vocabulary words. Which is the best approach for studying them? The answer is simple: If it works, it is good. Pragmatism is the key here. Use the method—flash cards, rote memorization, mnemonics, you name it—that has served you in the past.

Memorizing individual words is something you can choose to do on your own. Learning a language, however, is a social proposition, and it makes no sense to do it in isolation. Language is the vehicle of thought and social interaction, and you’ll need to find a variety of Spanish partners. Having a good teacher is like playing tennis with a pro: Fine points can be explained and practice will be very helpful. But you also need to create a personal library of resources that serve your learning style. The Internet is a gold mine for further exploration: You’ll be able to find countless readings and learning opportunities on the Web.

Finally, get out of the house! Go to restaurants, clubs, stores, churches, theaters, beaches, rallies, street fairs, festivals—anywhere that Spanish is spoken—and speak Spanish with others. This is your chance to go to Acapulco or Sevilla for scholarly reasons. It’s delicious fun to experience the fruits of your hard work. Your greatest reward will be connecting with other individuals in ways that would have been impossible if you hadn’t studied Spanish. And when you make a mistake, be assured that the listener is not put off by your error, but is charmed and complimented by your efforts.

I sincerely wish that this book will help those who are studying Spanish, at any level, to reach their goals of speaking, writing, and reading this beautiful language with greater competence, confidence, and enjoyment.

Acknowledgments

Any time a book goes into a subsequent edition, it is a great honor given by satisfied readers and users of the previous edition. Therefore, my first acknowledgment is to all the students who enjoyed and benefited from the first edition of Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary. To all of you I say, ¡Gracias y buena suerte!

I have long known that good students make great editors and was fortunate when Susan Foote, a wonderful student, agreed graciously to work through many of the new readings and exercises in this edition. Susan gave excellent feedback and showed me that good students also make great friends. Gracias, Susana.

At McGraw-Hill, Karen Young and Julia Anderson Bauer put this new edition together, inserting changes and making all things beautiful. Also at McGraw-Hill, my editor, publisher, and friend for many, many years, Christopher Brown, oversaw the entire process and, as always, did so with skill, grace, and kindness.

On the home front, I thank my husband, Martin, and daughters, Daisy and Lily, for being the wonderful people they are and for giving me the space and time needed to write.

Preliminary matters

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The Spanish alphabet and its pronunciation

Stress and accent marks

Plurals

Diphthongs

Punctuation marks

Cognates

Basic greetings

Highly useful data

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¡Bienvenidos! Welcome to the world of Spanish! No one, unless forced, begins the study of another language without a deep, perhaps unconscious, desire for new relationships. Connecting with others, and ultimately with one’s self—whether through speaking, writing, reading, or thinking—is the sole purpose of language.

Because this text is primarily devoted to building your vocabulary, you will be exposed not only to many words, but also to methods for learning words, remembering words, and—yes—creating words.

Learning these words will always be coupled with gaining a thorough mastery of grammatical structure—the glue of language. Without the underlying structure, your lovely words will sit on the page, lifeless—all dressed up with nowhere to go. This is why you will be working with vocabulary and grammar in tandem. Only by studying them together will you understand and learn the beautiful Spanish language. Once that is accomplished, let the friendships begin!

THERE ARE A FEW THINGS you need to grasp before diving into the formal study of Spanish—or any language, for that matter. First, you need to be familiar with the letters of the alphabet because of the pronunciation and spelling tricks that come into play. Second, you need to be aware of the accent and diacritical marks and how these affect pronunciation and meaning. Third, you need to understand the punctuation—a bugaboo in any language.

Once these topics have been covered, you will find out how much Spanish you already know or can figure out on your own. You’ll also learn some basic greetings, because language is, after all, motivated by social needs. And finally, before we sit down to the nuts-and-bolts work of the text, you’ll find a helpful list of what I call highly useful data (numbers and calendar words, for instance) that will come in handier than you can imagine.

This material is included in the Preliminary matters unit, as opposed to the actual text, because you will need it every time you open your mouth, put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.

There are exercises along the way, with answers at the back of the book so that you can track your progress. Always remember that these exercises are only a helpful tool. The real goal is to communicate with other people in Spanish. At each stage, it’s a good idea to leave the house and go somewhere where Spanish is spoken—which is increasingly easy to do—order un café or una cerveza and strike up una conversación.

There’s nothing like the kick you’ll get from trying out another language and discovering that it really works. Have fun!

The Spanish alphabet and its pronunciation

In Spanish, unlike English, what you see is what you get. Gone is the spelling circus that English writers and readers must involve themselves in every day. Each Spanish vowel has only one sound—no long, short, schwa, or anything else. And when a consonant is silent, like the Spanish h, it is always silent. No more i before e (or is it e before i?). The ph is gone, rendering every f word a true f word. Double consonants barely exist. It’s like going back to the comfort and simplicity of first grade—when sounding it out actually worked—and staying there.

Once you know the sounds and occasional quirks the Spanish alphabet produces, you will be able to spell competently and confidently almost any word you want. I’m not saying you’ll never make a mistake. However, I can guarantee that you’ll be using your dictionary for definitions far more often than for spelling.

Following is the Spanish alphabet: each letter, its pronunciation, and any pertinent information regarding that letter.

Our English alphabet has 26 letters; the Spanish alphabet has 30. The four additional letters are:

1 ch (considered one letter), which produces the ch sound in cha cha

2 ll (considered one letter), which produces the y sound (in Latin America) or the j sound (in Spain)

3 ñ, which produces the ny sound heard in señor (recall Curly’s repeated snarl from The Three Stooges). That little squiggly on top is called a tilde.

4 rr (considered one letter), which produces the highly trilled–sounding r (think of Charo strutting across the stage).

Spanish vowels, which give many English speakers—native and nonnative alike—a headache, are without nuance. Each has one pronunciation—period. Repeat the following list ten times and you will have mastered Spanish vowels:

Stress and accent marks

When it comes to spelling a word, you need to know the correct letter sequence. With pronunciation, you need to know where the stress, or accent, goes. If the word has only one syllable, you have nothing to worry about. If there are two or more syllables, one syllable in the word receives a heavier stress.

In English, this can drive people to the madhouse. For starters, there are few absolute rules when it comes to stress, at best only tendencies. Next, there are many words which, while spelled exactly the same, can be pronounced differently, depending on meaning. These delightful creatures are called heteronyms. A few examples follow:

Several heteronyms have only one syllable. Just for fun, pronounce the following words in different ways:

Other heteronyms vary the pronunciation by changing the stressed syllable.

Heteronyms don’t exist in Spanish, because the rules of pronunciation are hard and fast (actually, they’re simple and fast). There are only three rules to learn, and once you’ve mastered them (along with the sounds of the letters of the Spanish alphabet), you will never, ever mispronounce a Spanish word again.

1 If a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the natural accent falls on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable. This includes the vast majority of all Spanish words of two syllables or more.

Even if you do not know the meaning of some of the following words, you can now pronounce them (please do so):

2 If a word ends in a consonant other than n or s, the natural accent falls on the final syllable. Pronounce the following (don’t worry about meaning . . . yet):

3 Whenever there is an exception to either of the two rules above, you will use an accent mark. It’s like admitting you’re wrong when you make a mistake or break a rule.

The accent mark, which is always written from top-right to bottom-left, goes on the dominant vowel of the accented syllable.

It is crucial that you use the accent mark whenever it is needed. The accent mark changes not only the pronunciation, but frequently the meaning of the word as well. Pronounce the following:

NOTE There are a few one-syllable words that take accents. For these words, the pronunciation does not change, but the meaning does, giving you another reason to pay close attention to accent marks and recognize that they are never frivolous. There are no accented one-syllable words without nonaccented counterparts.

Plurals

Making a word plural in English usually involves adding -s to the word (dog/dogs, house/houses, shirt/shirts, and so on). There are, however, exceptions: We usually add -es to words ending in sh or ch (dish/dishes, witch/witches), we change the y to i and add -es to words ending in y (baby/babies, lady/ladies), and we change the ending of words derived directly from Latin or Greek to -i (octopus/octopi), or sometimes -ae (formula/formulae, patella/patellae). And then sometimes we make no change at all: deer/deer, fish/fish (unless, of course, you prefer to say fishes, which is fine, too).

(Are you beginning to understand how crazy learning English as a second language must feel?)

Spanish has its own rules regarding changing a singular word to a plural one. These are a walk in the park compared to the rigmarole of English plurals.

1 If a word ends in a vowel, add -s.

2 If a word ends in a consonant, add -es.

3 If there is an accent mark on the final vowel of a word that ends in a consonant, drop the accent mark and add -es.

4 If a word ends in the consonant z, change the z to c and add -es.

EJERCICIO

P·1

Write the plural form of each of the following Spanish words.

Diphthongs

A diphthong is a linguistic phenomenon, in no way unique to Spanish, in which two vowels together form more than one—but fewer than two—syllables (although technically a diphthong is considered one syllable). It’s something of a slur to produce these sounds. We are considering it now because it has to do with pronunciation.

In Spanish, diphthongs are formed when a soft vowel immediately precedes or follows a hard vowel or another soft vowel. Think of hard vowels as bullies and soft vowels as their victims: The hard vowel always gets a full syllable, whereas the soft vowel (which, if alone, would receive full-syllable status) shrinks in the presence of the hard vowel and attaches itself to it—a sort of linguistic abuse.

Vowels are considered hard or soft only in this two-vowel context and are distinguished as follows:

Here are some tips for recognizing and pronouncing diphthongs:

1 A diphthong is produced when a hard and soft vowel occur together. Pronounce each of the words below with someone who speaks Spanish and can guide you. Don’t worry about the meaning of the words.

2 A diphthong is produced when two soft vowels occur together.

3 When two hard vowels occur together, there are two distinct syllables—thus no diphthong:

4 An accent mark added to a soft vowel—whether it occurs with a hard vowel or with another soft one—gives it a distinct syllable of its own, and the two-vowel combination is thus not a diphthong. Some examples are listed below:

Punctuation marks

We use punctuation marks in written language to separate words into sentences, clauses, and phrases in order to clarify meaning. In many cases, the rules you learned in elementary school dealing with English punctuation apply to Spanish as well. However, some will differ. Note the following:

The use of the period, comma, colon, semicolon, and hyphen translate tit for tat from English to Spanish and back again.

When you write a question or an exclamatory remark, you use the question mark or exclamation mark as in English, as well as the upside-down version of that mark at the beginning of the question or exclamatory remark.

When you write out large numbers or prices, the decimals and commas are typically used in exactly the opposite position in Spanish from what you are used to seeing in English:

EJERCICIO

P·2

Write the following numbers and prices as they would appear in Spanish.

1. three thousand

2. nine thousand fifty

3. eighty-three million

4. two billion

5. seventeen trillion

6. fifty dollars

7. five thousand dollars

8. ten dollars and seven cents

9. three million dollars

10. twenty-seven dollars and two cents

Quotation marks, used to report what someone else has said, can appear as (the same as in English), which is more contemporary, or as « », the more classical Spanish usage. It doesn’t matter which marks you use as long as you are consistent in a given project:

Last, and in this case the very least, is the apostrophe. In English, we use the apostrophe to denote possession (Horatio’s car) and in the contraction of two words (They’re in the wine cellar.). In Spanish, the apostrophe does not exist.

You’ll learn later how to get around in Spanish without using an apostrophe. For now, relax.

Cognates

A cognate is a word in one language that is identical (this is rare) or, for one reason or another, so similar to a word in another language that it would be difficult not to know what it means.

elefante

problema

diccionario

Of course, these Spanish words mean elephant, problem, and dictionary, respectively—so easy to translate that, as they say, a trained seal could do it.

Looking further into cognates reveals some interesting information. The word cognate comes from the Latin co- (together) + gnatus (born—think natal or nativity). Cognates share linguistic DNA: There is a crossover of sorts going on between the languages in question.

There are four categories of words to consider:

1 Pure cognates. These words are identical in spelling and meaning from one language to another and change only in pronunciation. Pronounce these words in Spanish:

2 Near cognates. These words, though not identical, are close enough in spelling that, with just a bit of effort, you can discern the meaning without diving into the diccionario. Anything that keeps you away from the dictionary while learning a language will inspire you, save you time, and keep you committed to the task at hand. There are zillions of near cognates for English speakers learning Spanish. Here are a few:

The reason there are so many English-Spanish near cognates is that, while English technically is a Germanic language, the lion’s share of its words come from Latin, mostly through French. Spanish, like French a Romance language, is derived directly from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. Here is a rough derivational breakdown for English:

The five living Romance languages are Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese.

3 False cognates. These are the fakers. Look like, sound like—but aren’t. These are the words that drive people mad. All you can do is learn them. Below is a sample:

4 Adopted words. Technically, these aren’t cognates, because they don’t change in any way—not in spelling, not in pronunciation, not a bit. They are what they are in any language. Everyone understands them and usually tries to pronounce them correctly. Does it surprise you that they’re often (though certainly not always) names for foods? The following are Spanish words adopted into English:

A note on suffixes

As mentioned above, most English-Spanish cognates belong to the group called near cognates. Of these, many are nearly identical to English words, differing only in their respective suffixes (the endings attached to the root words). An awareness of Spanish suffixes and how they relate to English ones will facilitate your study of the Spanish language.

Throughout this text you will be exposed to a variety of Spanish suffixes, each of which will greatly increase your vocabulary. When an English counterpart is obvious, you may be expected to figure out the Spanish suffix. However, sometimes you will need clues to a suffix’s use, and these will be provided. You will get plenty of practice in exercises.

To start you off, a list of