Colloquial Spanish of Latin America

The Complete Course for Beginners

Roberto Carlos Rodriguez-Saona

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317304890
• Auflage: 2
• Thema: Langues et linguistique
• Thema: Langues

Colloquial Spanish of Latin America: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Latin American Spanish as it is written and spoken today.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Latin American Spanish in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Spanish of Latin America is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout.

Key features include:

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• A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills

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• Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar

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• An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises

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• Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations

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• Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in Latin America

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• An overview of the sounds of Latin American Spanish.

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Spanish of Latin America is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Latin American Spanish.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

1 Saludos

Greetings

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Use some greetings

• Use numbers up to 100

• Make simple enquiries

• Use personal pronouns (I, you, etc.)

• Use some verbs in the present tense indicative (e.g. I live in Mexico)

Dialogue 1 (Audio 1: 4)

En la agencia de viajes

Miguel is trying to find out the travel agent's fax number over the phone. He talks to a member of the staff called Cecilia

CECILIA:	Aló, buenos días. Agencia de Viajes El Sol.
MIGUEL:	Buenos días, señorita. ¿Tienen fax?
CECILIA:	Sí, señor.
MIGUEL:	¿Qué número es?
CECILIA:	Es el dos, noventa y dos, treinta y cinco, setenta y seis, noventa y ocho (292–357698).
MIGUEL:	¿Y página Web?
CECILIA:	Sí, claro. el sol, punto, com (elsol.com)
MIGUEL:	Gracias.
CECILIA:	De nada.
CECILIA:	Hello, good morning. El Sol Travel Agent.
MIGUEL:	Good morning. Do you have a fax?
CECILIA:	Yes, sir.
MIGUEL:	What's the number, please?
CECILIA:	It's 292–357698.
MIGUEL:	What about a Web page?
CECILIA:	Yes, of course. elsol.com
MIGUEL:	Thank you.
CECILIA:	That's all right.

Language points (Audio 1: 5–6)

Numeros de teléfono

When reading aloud telephone or fax numbers it is usual in Spanish to say them in pairs: e.g. 356791, treinta y cinco, sesenta y siete, noventa y uno; 031–705466, cero, treinta y uno, setenta, cincuenta y cuatro, sesenta y seis.

Correo electrónico

Two words are key to understand and/or provide e–mail addresses in Spanish:
arroba = @ punto = . (a dot)
For example, [email protected] is read out: alberto, ar...