Jean Yates - Spanish Conversation

Jean Yates, Ph.D. Copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 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. ISBN: 978-0-07-174477-5 MHID: 0-07-174477-0 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-174110-1, MHID: 0-07-174110-0. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

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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.

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

The most common way of introducing yourself or others is to use the verb ser plus your name or the name of the person youre introducing. You can then add something else about the person. Remember to use subject pronouns only if youre changing the subject of the conversation. If it is clear whom you are talking about, leave off the subject pronoun (yo, usted, t, l, ella, nosotros, nosotras, ustedes, vosotros, vosotras, ellos, ellas). But if someone walks into a room and says, Quin es Jaime? (Who is Jaime?), he would identify himself by saying, Soy yo./Yo soy Jaime. (Its me./Im Jaime.) 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 Elgusto es mo (The pleasure is mine).

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.