Spanish for Dummies

by Susana Wald

Your survival guide to everyday words and expressions

The renowned Berlitz approach with a fun and friendly twist!

This unintimidating guide from the experts at Berlitz helps you start speaking Spanish--quickly and easily! Whether you're a student, a traveler, or you just want to pick up basic Spanish, you'll find it's packed with practical lessons, cultural facts, and handy references--including a Spanish-English mini-dictionary, common verb lists, and more!

Berlitz has taught languages to millions of people for over 120 years.
Susana Wald is a translator, language instructor, and publisher.

Discover how to:

Have everyday conversations in Spanish

Make sense of Spanish grammar

Improve your pronunciation

Get a handle on verb conjugations

Use idioms and popular expressions

Get around in a Spanish-speaking country

all on this audio CD

Pick up Spanish the Berlitz way--through actual conversations

Features dialogues by native Spanish speakers

Allows you to hear Spanish as it's really spoken

Reinforces lessons from the book


Description from back cover

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Spanish Literature, Reference, Education, School, How To

397 pages, Audio CD

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I owe all of my pronunciation from this book. It is very helpful in that area. If you want to hope to simply blind somebody with your incredible Spanish speaking ability then this would be the book to fake it.

This is an excellent starting point for learning Spanish, but I would recommend to search for something with more of a grammatical approach as learning Spanish can be a tad bit overwhelming.

As your learning matures, move on to other books, and don't forget to find a buddy to speak with. You will learn the most from getting neck deep into Spanish speaking. Challenge yourself; stretch yourself and you will do great!

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been very helpful! I will definitely reread this and use it as a reference.
It teaches some conversational Spanish and basic grammar rules.
I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn the basics of the Spanish language.

[Adham Hussein · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's a very good book for any beginner in Spanish

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to get started in learning Spanish. It is also a good book to keep for review, reference, and resources.

[Kemp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this really a book one can rate on Goodreads? It’s got a cover and pages to turn but there’s no theme, no story, and it’s a HORRABLE WAY to learn a language. Reminds me of my German teacher who ran down the aisle screaming “Ich, ich, ich” to get us to pronounce I correctly.

But maybe it’s me and not the book. Listening to a long line of words to memorize their pronunciation, meaning, and use just doesn’t work. Halfway through a chapter my minds wandered off and I’m no longer concentrating.

I get way more out of Apps like Duolingo than books like this.

I suppose if I learned anything this review I would "escribo espanol".

[Emily D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great reference for beginning to learn Spanish. I'm glad I went through it at this stage in my language learning journey. I learned some fun facts and reviewed some things I already knew.

[Mike Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope to make a trip to South America next year, so I am trying to relearn Spanish. This book is easy to use, well organized, and helpful. I did not use the accompanying CD, since I am also doing Duolingo. I am certainly not competent to hold a full conversation yet, but I feel prepared for tourist level interactions.

[Joe Bruno · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a good book to learn Spanish. Some of the "Blank" for Dummies books are good for other subjects, but this is just a simple phrasebook and not even a good starting spot for language acquisition. If you memorized some of the phrases before a vacation in a Spanish-speaking county it might be of some help, but this book never even get into the past-tense of verbs or more complex language topics.

I started learning Spanish in December with all sorts of online programs, Duolingo, Mango, Transparent Language and Memrise. I am using the free versions and some provided by my libraries. I also have a McGraw Hill Textbook PDF that I found gratis on the internet. Listen, language acquisition is simple repetition, mostly. That is how a child learns it, simple stuff repeated over and over and then increasing difficulty. This book does not provide that. I read every chapter except the last, this starts out as a phrasebook and never changes from that model.

There are so many free resources for learning a language now on the internet, even face to face clubs like Tandem or youtube vids at every level of study that you need only need to apply yourself. This is not a good resource, don't bother with it. I paid $6 through Alibris for an older edition. Don't bother even doing that.

[Judy Tarver · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book for learning some of the Spanish language, although in my opinion, just one book isn’t going to teach a person the entire language. It takes several books in different formats to really understand it all, for example one has to study the conjugation of verbs in Spanish and learn the feminine and masculine terms for example a word ending with o is the masculine form and a is feminine- and example is el maestro - the teacher(male teacher) la maestra - the teacher(female teacher). This book does explain things like this but if one wants to learn Spanish I don’t think just this book alone will teach the whole language but it is a very good start.

[Bookish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book help me with my vocabulary and verb usage. It has help me form sentences and explained some words and verb rules that must be applied in the spanish language. It contains grammatical rules for present and perfect tenses. I read the book during a two week off vacation from my spanish class. The book contains a table of verbs and tons of spanish word with english meaning a must have for spanish learners like me.

[Kat Starwolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of Great Info

I've read a fair number of Spanish language books. This is one of the few (of which I'm aware) that includes lots of little cultural/historical trivia.It also contains two brief but excellent dictionaries, as well as several pages of regular and irregular verbs and their breakdowns. Additionally, it puts you in several common situations and provides probable dialogue. Hard to put down!

[Patti Parker Markgraf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was more geared to Spanish spoken in Spain not Latin America. I wanted Latin American Spanish. I listened to the audio book, which helped with pronunciation, but it definitely could have been better. You need to read and listen to this book if you want to get the most out of it. Glad I have some Mexican friends that are willing to listen to me butcher their language while I’m learning. Certainly that’s the best way to learn any language.

[Jackie Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the title, it did not seem very friendly to beginner level learners. There were times where longer phrases and sentences were practiced before the vocab words that were in them. The later lessons were slightly better than the early ones

[Rob Paxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really helpful as I’m trying to learn espanol. There are a lot of great terms and phrases. Sometimes the order of introduction of new words seems out of order for me. I will continue to listen until I learn all the words. It’s a good start.

[Jannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this shite and I only had to read a few pages. I dont have to know much of Spanish to see how outdated some stuff is

[Jonathan Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s ok. I’m not fluent after reading it so there you go. Haha.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still working on it....Pick this book up from time to time.

[Jacqueline]

El aprendizaje del español va viento en popa!

[Kamila · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a good book to start but if you consider learning some more Spanish than just the basics of the basics then it won’t be enough for you.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to learn some basics, but a little confusing here and there in the overall structure.

[James N. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got lost on the very first lesson. Not helpful.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure if this counts towards the books I had to read for my class. I just wanted to catch up on some Spanish before I went to Mexico.

[Elysia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the pronunciations

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guess I remember my 6 years of Spanish better than I thought

[Misa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first book for Dummies, I got it for free. Not the best textbook I've read.

[Kimmy Burrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and useful. I know I'll be referencing the appendixes frequently.

[Gail Brilling · Rating 2 out of 5]

excellent addition to my Berlitz cds

[Isabelle]

Ouais, j'essaie, en espérant l'Argentine l'année prochaine !

[David Flapan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As awesome as this book (and series) is, nothing compares to actual use when learning languages!
Changing my email/cell phone/Facebook to Spanish mode helped very much!