Other books you may find useful:

If you decide to invest in a dictionary, it is better to invest in a good one that explains the usages of words rather than providing a one-word direct translation.

For example, in the back of your text, when you look in the English section of the dictionary for the word "on", the definition you will find is "en". This refers to the prepositional meaning "to be on, in or even at something". It doesn't refer to the state of something that is "turned on", like the lights or a radio.

Your text book glossary tries to give you the most common usages, but it lacks explanations for the wide variety of meanings.

Your best defense against misusing a term is to do the Double-Check: look it up in English and then look up the Spanish definition in Spanish.

A good desk reference dictionary, such as the Harper Collins Spanish-English Dictionary (sixth edition, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), will offer explanations of word use and have sample sentences to give you context. For example, when you look up the English word "run" in the textbook glossary, you find the Spanish word "correr ". Can you use correr to describe a "run" of good luck, how to "run" a business or a "run" in a stocking? A good dictionary will explain this. It also notes when a word has different meanings in different Spanish speaking countries. For example, in Cuba, fajar means "to fight or quarrel", but in Uruguay it means "to tuck in your shirt"!

Some good pocket dictionaries are the Pocket Oxford Spanish Dictionary (Oxford Press, 2000) and the HarperCollins Spanish Concise Dictionary (Harper reference series, 2000.) These are less expensive and easier to carry around!

An excellent vocabulary reference book to keep in your home or office is The New Oxford Picture Dictionary by E.C. Parnwell, trans. Sergio Gaitán (Oxford University Press: New York, 1989) This collection of illustrations presents detailed scenes in which all of the elements are identified in both English and Spanish.

If you want more grammar explanation, or feel the need to review English grammar at the same time, a good (short) book is English Grammar for Students of Spanish: a Study Guide for Those Learning Spanishby Emily Spinelli (fourth edition, Dearborn, Michigan: The Olivia and Hill Press, 1998). This book explains how English grammar functions and reviews grammar terminology in general. You may find this helpful when learning specific Spanish grammar points.

For assistance with verbs, consider 501 Spanish Verbs fourth edition, New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1996) which shows the conjugation of the 501 most commonly used verbs. This can be helpful especially when dealing with irregular verbs.

For those of you who want some in depth Grammar explanations, a terrific reference maunal is A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish by John Butt and Carmen Benjamin (Edward Arnold/a division of Hodder and Stoughton: London, 2000.)

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