Collins Primary Dictionaries. Collins Dictionaries

Be patient, Joshua. Ten paciencia, Joshua.

       ADVERBS

      An adverb is a word which describes a verb or an adjective:

      She writes neatly. The film was very good.

      15 How many adverbs are in this sentence? What are they? The children sat quietly and played happily.

       VERBS

      Verbs are sometimes called ‘doing words’. They often go with words like ‘I’ and ‘you’, and with names, eg I play football, what do you want?, Hugo likes mashed potato.

      Verbs tell you about the present,

      eg I’m listening – the past, eg I scored a goal – and the future, eg I’m going to get an ice cream.

      16 How many verbs are there in this sentence? What are they? School starts at 9.00 and finishes at 3.30.

      Some words have a noun meaning and a verb meaning. In the dictionary there is a box to tell you about this. The different meanings have different translations in Spanish.

       rain

      rain can be a noun or a verb.

      A NOUN

      la lluvia fem in the rain bajo la lluvia

      B VERB

      to rain llover It’s going to rain. Va a llover. It rains a lot here. Llueve mucho aquí.

      It’s raining. Está lloviendo.

      17 What is the Spanish word for ‘rain’?

      18 Why is ‘It’s going to rain.’ in part B?

      19 How do you say ‘It’s raining.’ in Spanish?

      20 Is ‘llover’ a noun or a verb?

       Learn useful phrases

      In the dictionary you’ll see phrases that are especially important in orange boxes. Try to learn these when you come across them, and you’ll soon know lots of useful things to say in Spanish.

      What time is it? Qué hora es? It’s lunch time. Es la hora de comer. How many times? ¿Cuántas veces? Have a good time, Amanda! ¡Que lo pases bien, Amanda!

       Find out about life in Spain

      There are also boxes which tell you about Spanish customs, and about differences between life in Spain and Britain.

       Did you know?

      churros are a kind of fritter that people often eat on the streets in a paper bag or order in a café typically with a cup of thick, hot chocolate: chocolate con churros.

       Even more words

      At school you will learn to talk about subjects such as the time and the weather, your family, your pets, and your clothes. The most important words for talking about these subjects are shown in the dictionary itself, and even more words are given in Language Plus, the middle part of the dictionary. Have a look!

       Answer key

      Answer key

      1 ver and teléfono

      2 It is the Spanish side. It has Spanish words on it and Spanish–English written at the side near the top.

      3 Spanish-English

      4 The last word

      5 aburrirse

      6 Arturo, Carmen, David, Isabel, Jorge, Juan, María

      7 Jorge – because ‘o’ comes before ‘u’

      8 Friday; Wednesday

      9 Because the second letter of Thursday is ‘h’, which comes before ‘u’, the second letter of Tuesday.

      10 Friday, Monday, Saturday, Sunday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday

      11 June

      12 el balón – The clue is (for football, rugby).

      13 four – car, tyre, dent, door

      14 two – brown and blue

      15 two – quietly and happily

      16 two – starts and finishes

      17 la lluvia

      18 It is an example of the verb and so is in the verb section of the entry.

      19 Está lloviendo.

      20 a verb

Spanish – English

       A a

      a PREPOSITION

       Language tip

      When a is followed by a masculine noun, a and the article el turn into al.

      1 to (with places) Fueron a Madrid. They went to Madrid.

      2 (with movement) Me caí al río. I fell into the river. Se subieron al tejado. They climbed onto the roof. Marta llegó tarde a la estación. Marta arrived at the station late.

      3 (with distances) Está a quince kilómetros de aquí. It’s fifteen kilometres from here.

      4 at (with time, ages, speed) a las diez at ten o’clock a medianoche at midnight

      a los veinticuatro años at the age of twenty-four Íbamos a más de noventa kilómetros por hora. We were going at over ninety kilometres an hour.

      5 (with dates) Estamos a nueve de julio. It’s the ninth of July.

      6 (with prices) Los huevos están a un euro con cincuenta la docena. Eggs are one euro fifty a dozen.

      7 (before an infinitive or a direct object) Voy a verla. I’m going to see her. Vine a decírtelo. I came to tell you. Me obligaban a comer. They forced me to eat. Nos cruzamos al salir. We bumped into each other as we were going out. Se lo di a Ana. I gave it to Ana. Le enseñé a Pablo el libro que me dejaste. I showed Pablo the book you lent me. Se lo compré a él. I bought it from him. Vi a Juan. I saw Juan.