{"id":534,"date":"2007-02-08T06:12:01","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T12:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/learning-spanish.html"},"modified":"2007-02-11T07:34:33","modified_gmt":"2007-02-11T13:34:33","slug":"learning-spanish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/learning-spanish.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning Spanish?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you learning Spanish too?<\/strong>  Cool.  I just wanted to stop by and share some of the resources that I’ve been using so far.  Maybe you’ll find one of them helpful…<\/p>\n

First of all, here’s something I really think every Spanish student should own.  I’ve used a few different Spanish\/English translators over the past few years, but nothing else even comes close to comparing with the Merriam-Webster Spanish-English Dictionary<\/a>.  Here are some of the reasons I’ve found it so useful:<\/p>\n

  • It’s got lots of words<\/b>.
    \n\n\n
    \"Franklin<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

     Millions of translations, which means a lot of words other translators don’t have.<\/li>\n

  • If you misspell<\/b> or enter a word phonetically<\/b>, it will find the correct word.<\/li>\n
  • It has definitions for words that are used differently in certain countries<\/b>, such as Spain, Venezuela and Mexico.<\/li>\n
  • It includes a grammar guide<\/b>.<\/li>\n
  • You can add words you\u00c2\u00b4re learning to a word list<\/b>, then study the word list or use it in several games<\/b> (there are 7 different games), which can teach you gender, definitions and spelling.<\/li>\n
  • This is my favourite.  The DBE-1470 includes the conjugations of each verb<\/b>.  Not just the present tense<\/i>, but also imperfect, preterite, future, conditional, present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, present perfect, pluperfect, preterite anterior, future perfect, conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, perfect subjunctive, present progressive, imperative,<\/i> and more (oh yes, there are more!)<\/li>\n
  • It has a couple of thousand phrases<\/b> (not including basic verb conjugation), which show up in the definitions or you can browse by category.<\/li>\n
  • There are other features<\/b> like a calculator, converter, world time clock, phone list, and currency converter.<\/li>\n
  • I also bought the download kit<\/b>, which means I can download books from the internet and include them in there too.  Now I have something to read while I’m waiting for…whatever.<\/li>\n

    I found a case to put on my belt that fits perfectly (here it is – a Roots case for PDA\/Blackberry<\/a>), so it’s now a part of my body.  Well, I take it off when I shower.<\/p>\n

    Now most of the time I use the electronic translator instead of the paper dictionary, because it’s faster and usually has all the information I need.  But if I want to check another source I use the excellent Collins Spanish Dictionary Plus Grammar<\/a>.  Actually, I think there’s a new edition<\/a> out now, but I haven’t seen it.<\/p>\n\n\n
    \"Spanish<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

    There are lots of other resources out there, but those are the ones I’ve used the most so far.  One other one that I’ve used a little, and I’m sure I’ll use more of as time goes by, is the Spanish Verb Manual<\/a>, by Alfredo González Hermoso.  It’s a small book containing 5000 verbs<\/b><\/i> (yes, that’s right), with conjugations, regional and idiomatic use, and an overview of Spanish grammar.  Thanks to Greg and Shelli<\/a> for recommending this one (see their site for other recommendations).<\/p>\n

    What about resources on the net?<\/b>  I’ve had trouble finding a good dictionary, but I eventually found this Spanish\/English dictionary<\/a> which does the job.  If you want to listen to the language, try a Spanish learning podcast.  I’ve been listening to Finally Learn Spanish<\/b>, the rss feed is www.edufone.com\/rss.xml<\/b><\/font>.  Also, here’s a free sophisticated flash card program<\/a> you can download.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks interesting.  You can enter your own information, or they have a whole page of lessons<\/a> you can choose from (languages, geography, math, etc). Finally, don’t forget the Spanish words of the day<\/a> (bookmark the page and check it everyday to expand your vocabulary).<\/p>\n

    Are you learning Spanish?  What resources have you<\/i> found helpful?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Are you learning Spanish too?  Cool.  I just wanted to stop by and share some of the resources that I’ve been using so far.  Maybe you’ll find one of them helpful… First of all, here’s something I really think every Spanish student should own.  I’ve used a few different Spanish\/English translators over the past few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mexico","category-practical-matters","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\nLearning Spanish? - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2007\/learning-spanish.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning Spanish? 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