2. Goin´ halvsies
In a Bilingual dictionary, there
are two halves.
Spanish -> English
English -> Spanish
3. How do you say that?
The pronunciation guides in
[brackets] after the word are
usually not there in the Spanish
side, but they are on the English
side.
Hmmm… wonder why that
could be.
4. Choose your Dictionary Well!
NADAS en el océano.
Let’s Try Google Translate.
www.google.com/translate
6. NADAS en el océano.
Try looking up NADAS in a
dictionary.
nada-nothing
nadaderas – water wings
nadador – swimmer
nadar – to swim
So, what can you guess ¨nadas¨
has to do with?
7. Part of Speech - ¨Nice tie, man!¨
After the word, there are lots of
abreviations.
Look up the word, tie.
There are tons of different words!
Which do you want?
Find the abbreviation at the front of your
dictionary. You are looking for the noun
form of tie.
8. Literal vs. Figurative
You´re going to the dogs!
Look up dog. Perro is the word for the
animal, but is that really the word you
want?
¨Going to the dogs¨ is an expression for
letting yourself stop following the rules.
It has nothing to do with perros.
So, does your dictionary have a
translation for this expression? It may or
9. Reverse direction!
Look up the English of any word
you want.
Now look up that Spanish word you
found.
Is it the same word you wanted to
know in the first place?
If it is, you know you’re safe using
that translation.
Part of Speech. Pay attention to part of speech. Tie – can be a verb or two nouns (necktie, same score in a game.) So, pay attention to V, N, adj, adv., etc. Look up abbreviations in the front of the dictionary.
Literal meaning is first. English word dog – animal? or ugly dude? to feel blue is to have a cockroach.(fr), watch out,(Sp.) Rock on top of!
Reverse translation! Does it work in the other direction?
