Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Conversation, Premium Second Edition

By Jean Yates

Perfect the Art of Conversation in Spanish!

Nervous that you’re not ready to strike up a conversation with a native Spanish speaker? This book helps you overcome that obstacle and before you know it, you’ll be speaking comfortably in your new native language.

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Conversation is organized around twelve units that present realistic conversational situations, from making introductions to giving opinions and from making a date to telling a story. Using these engaging dialogues as a starting point, each unit is packed with helpful instruction on correct pronunciation, syntax, and word usage--in addition to lots of conversation-ready phrases that you will find indispensable as your fluency increases.

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Conversation will help you:

• Engage in dialogues that illustrate practical conversations
• Expand your vocabulary
• Get clarification of new concepts with numerous realistic examples
• Reinforce your new conversational skills through extensive exercises
• Improve your pronunciation through audio dialogs and exercises, via app and online

Before you know it, you’ll find yourself confidently speaking Spanish with your Spanish-speaking friends--or ready to make new ones!

• Language: English
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Release date: Apr 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781259586378

Book preview

The author is indebted to Luis Colomer and Gladys Ilarregui

for their advice and constructive comments.

Copyright © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication.

ISBN: 978-1-25-958637-8

MHID:      1-25-958637-5

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-1-25-958636-1, MHID: 1-25-958636-7.

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Contents

Preface

1   Introducing yourself and others

2   Expressing opinions, likes, and dislikes

3   Striking up a conversation

4   Making dates and appointments

5   Describing people, places, and things

6   Expressing wants and needs

7   Making requests and offers

8   Expressing doubts and uncertainty

9   Talking about future events

10   Making a case or arguing a point

11   Narrating a story

12   Retelling a conversation

Appendix: Grammar review

Spanish-English glossary

English-Spanish glossary

Answer key

Preface

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Conversation is designed to give you practice with the vocabulary and structures that are most often used in common types of informal conversations.

The book consists of twelve chapters, each one devoted to a particular conversational function. Each chapter begins with a typical conversation followed by a discussion of vocabulary and structures that are particularly important for the type of conversation in question. Certain expressions are repeated in other chapters so that you will become more familiar with them as they occur in different contexts. Following the discussion section are several sets of exercises to help you feel confident that you have understood the material. The exercises also give you practice in using new vocabulary and structures so that you will be able to use them in your own personal conversations. At the end of the book you will find two glossaries, the first listing alphabetically all the Spanish words in the book with their English translations, and the second listing the same words alphabetically in English with their Spanish translations. This Premium Second Edition is enhanced with digital resources, accessible online and via app: audio recordings of the answer key, flash cards of vocabulary lists found throughout the book, and an auto-fill glossary for quick reference.

Use this book, continue to practice your Spanish in conversations with your Spanish-speaking friends, and continue to learn and enjoy this beautiful language.

Introducing yourself and others

Conversation: Meeting at a party

Improving your conversation

Soy Mario

The most common way of introducing yourself or others is to use the verb ser plus your name or the name of the person you’re introducing. You can then add something else about the person.

Remember to use subject pronouns only if you’re changing the subject of the conversation. If it is clear whom you are talking about, leave off the subject pronoun (yo, usted, tú, él, ella, nosotros, nosotras, ustedes, vosotros, vosotras, ellos, ellas).

But if someone walks into a room and says, ¿Quién es Jaime? (Who is Jaime?), he would identify himself by saying, Soy yo./Yo soy Jaime. (It’s me./I’m Jaime.)

Encantada

This is a nice way of saying you are delighted or charmed to meet someone. Of course, a male would say Encantado. You could also say:

And if the other person says Mucho gusto or Encantado or Es un placer first, you can answer, Igualmente (Me, too) or El gusto es mío (The pleasure is mine).

Conocer

Conocer means to meet someone for the first time, and also to know, in the sense of already having met someone or having visited a place.

Encontrarse

To meet, in the sense of running into people you already know, is encontrarse.

Encontrarse can also mean to arrange to meet someone somewhere.

To meet, in the sense of having a meeting or a get together, is reunirse.

To know, in the sense of being aware of information, is saber.

Llamarse

Use this verb to ask for or to tell names. The verb, llamar—to call—is used with a reflexive pronoun here, and literally means to call oneself. It is perfectly all right to use the alternative expression, ¿Cuál es su nombre? (What is your name?), which is more like English.

Remember that a reflexive pronoun always refers to the same person as the conjugated verb.

Me llamo…

The same verb is used for telling names.

¿Verdad?

Adding this or one of the following expressions to a statement is a way of affirming that your listener agrees with you.

del Perú

The names of the following countries are traditionally used with a definite article.

Remember that de followed by el is always contracted to del.

It is becoming common, however, to omit the article.

Son de Ecuador.

Soy de Argentina.

The