Red Hot Book Of Spanish Slang And Idioms

Which would you rather know: Spanish written in books or the real world, sometimes vulgar, Spanish people are talking on the streets right now? Are you looking for a way to spice up your Spanish and make it more interesting?

Do you wish you could understand the phrases you hear spoken that just don't seem to make sense, or don't appear in books or dictionaries? This book, called The Red Hot Book Of Spanish Slang And Idioms is 436 pages long and is loaded with 5,000 words and phrases. Although they're used everyday by native Spanish speakers, when you go to the dictionary to look them up you probably won't find most of them, or they'll have different meanings.

Whether you're just starting out, or even if you've been speaking Spanish form many years, you'll enjoy this book, and get a lot of benefit from it.

It's an interesting and unique book. As you page through it, there's a feeling of validation when you come across a well-known phrase or word - the type that isn't in any regular dictionary - things you've heard on the street for years, buy have always wondered about the exact definition and any shades of meaning that might go along with it.

The book's organized in the familiar manner of all the Spanish-English dictionaries... The first half is Spanish words and phrases with their English definitions (and notes). And the second half of the book is English words and phrases, and how to say these things in Spanish. At a glance you can tell what part of the book you're in by looking at the shading on the side of the book's pages. The top half of the pages are shaded darker for Spanish and the bottom half of the page sides are shaded dark for English.

A Typical Word/Phrase Entry

Let's take a look at a typical entry in the book to get an idea what's it's like.

1. First you get the Spanish word or expression. It's in bold type so it stands out.
2. Next is a literal translation of the phrase. This usually sounds funny, because it's what the words really mean.
3. Then comes the actual, accepted meaning of the slang or idiom. This is the part you relaly want to pay attention to.
4. Next is a list of countries where this word or phrase is used. (The list of country abbreviations is in the front of the book.)
5. Then there is a complete example sentence using the slang or idiom. This is very helpful, setting up the proper context for the entry. The example sentences are extremely valuable for showing the use of these entries, and they're very long and complete - not like the short dictionary examples.
6. Finally the English translation of the example sentence above.

Helper words are placed in front of many entries. (using a light/thin font to set them apart) This is usually the definite article or articles that go with the word. A feminine ending is also placed in parenthesis at the end of nouns. These helps will assist you in fitting the words into sentences of your own. For example the Spanish word "hecho" has a light typeface word "estar" in front of it to help you know how this word will fit into a sentence.

So how does this book compare to a dictionary? First, where a dictionary is mostly single words, this book is mostly phrases and expressions. (There are some single words too.)

Benefits of Slang and Idioms

While dictionaries sometimes touch on some idiomatic meanings of words and phrases, this book exclusively focuses on the most popular Spanish slang expressions and idiom-based phrases in use today by real Spanish speakers. As compared to a typical dictionary, this book is quite generous in the amount of information they give you for each entry. 436 pages used for 5,000 entries, so each entry has the word or phrase and its complete definition/meaning, it tells you any special notes such as if the entry is considered vulgar. Then you get a listing of the countries where the expression is popular. Then you get 2 complete (long) example sentences, one in Spanish and one in English. According to the book's preface, the final manuscript was put together with the help of native Spanish speakers from many different Spanish speaking countries.