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Introduction
What is it?
Collins Easy Learning Spanish Idioms is an invaluable resource for learners of Spanish who want to be able to communicate more naturally. It will enable you to start to include colourful idiomatic phrases and expressions in both your writing and conversation, increasing your confidence and effectiveness. It can be used to develop your language skills, whether you are studying Spanish at school or university, at home or at an evening class.
Why do you need it?
Developing expertise in writing, speaking and understanding a foreign language means being able to pull together and build on a number of different aspects vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and so on.
An important element of increased proficiency in communication is the use of idioms and figurative expressions which will add colour and variety to your writing and conversation as well as enabling you to sound more natural and confident. Idioms are phrases whose meaning may not be obvious from the words they contain. For example, a common English idiom is Add fuel to the fire. If somebody adds fuel to the fire, they make a bad situation worse.
How is it structured?
Collins Easy Learning Spanish Idioms has been carefully designed to provide a rich and easy-to-use resource for extending your language skills. It contains 250 phrases and expressions, all of which have been selected because they are commonly used by Spanish speakers today.
These idioms are then grouped under 25 themes. Each of these themes covers an area of everyday life or experience, such as Health, happiness, pleasure and enjoyment, Madness, foolishness and stupidity, and Directness, decisiveness and expressing opinions. For maximum clarity, each Spanish idiom is followed by a word-for-word English translation as well as the equivalent idiomatic expression(s) that you would use in English. In many cases, a short background note is included if some explanation or additional information about Spanish language or culture is required. Then, in order to illustrate the use of the idiom in a natural context, a sentence or two of Spanish is provided. Again, this is translated into idiomatic English.
For example: estar como unas castauelasto be like a pair of castanets
= to be as happy as Larry
= to be as happy as a clam What could be more typically Spanish than to use the merry, energizing sound of castanets to describe happiness? Est como unas castauelas porque ha aprobado el examen. Hes as happy as Larry because hes passed the exam.
Why choose Collins Easy Learning Spanish Idioms?
- easy to use: 250 colourful idiomatic expressions arranged in 25 themes to do with daily life and common experience
- easy to read: a clear, modern layout which allows you to find the information you want quickly and easily
- easy to understand: written in an accessible style with the language you will hear from Spanish speakers today
The Collins Easy Learning range
The
Collins Easy Learning Spanish Idioms is the latest addition to the bestselling
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