How to use a dictionary

1. Spanish III How to use a dictionary

2. Lay out • Split in Half One half has English to Spanish Other half has Spanish to English

3. Find that Verb! When you look up a verb in the dictionary you’ll often find that the form of the verb in the dictionary is different from the verb in your book. Example: Habla en espanol. Elige la respuestacorrecta. hablarverb- to speak elegirverb- to choose The dictionary gives the verbs in the infinitive form. To find the right meaning of verbs, remember: • Infinitives always end in –ar, -er, or –ir. • Always make sure the word you find makes sense in context!

4. Get the right meaning!(how not to look crazy when you write) If you look in the dictionary, but don’t look carefully you might use the wrong word like Maria in the picture on the left. The Spanish word Cartahas several meanings. La carta (fem noun ) 1 letter; 2 menu; 3 card When Spanish words have more than one meaning, pick the meaning which best suits the context. The letter, please.

5. Get the right meaning! Just a few nouns have one meaning when they’re masculine and a different meaning when they’re feminine. Your dictionary alerts you to this. El cortemasc noun see corte noun cut La cortefem noun see corte noun court • In each entry, the symbol warns you to check whether the meaning you want is the other entry!

6. Finding the right word English words can have different meanings. For example, the word fly can be a verb or a noun: When you look in your dictionary, you need to choose the right word: the insect, a fly, is unamosca. The verb, to fly, is volar. There’s a fly in my soup! I’d like to fly to Madrid on Sunday. Flynoun – see fly verb La moscafem To fly verb – see fly noun 1 (birds, insects, planes) volar

7. Not in the dictionary? Oh yes it is! • When you look up English words in the dictionary, nouns are listed in the singular form. • You won’t find the word babies. Instead, look up baby(el bebé) • You won’t find the word women.Instead, look up woman(la mujer) Can’t find a word in the dictionary? Perhaps it’s listed in a different form.

8. Not in the dictionary? Oh yes it is! • The dictionary lists verbs in their infinitive forms. For example: • For flies, look up flyverb see fly noun; (birds, insects, planes) volar. • For drank, look up drinkverb see drinknoun;beber. • To think of the infinitive, complete the phrase “Im going to…” for example: “I’m going to drink.”

9. Victory with Verbs Verbs are used in various forms and tenses, but dictionaries list the infinitive. • Look for entries labelled verb, v., vt.The endings will end in –ar, -er, or –ir. • Read all the meanings given. Yours isn’t always the first one. • Dejé la fiesta a medianoche. • dejarverb – to leave • I left the part at midnight. • Dejé mi lápiz a Javier. • dejarverb – to lend • I lent Javier my pencil.

10. Victory with verbs Remember the reflexive verbs? They’re the ones used with an extra participle, me levantoI get up, Se lava He gets washed. • The infinitive of a reflexive verb ends in se, e.g. vestirse • To find verbs like these in the dictionary, look under the first letter of the main part of the verb, following normal alphabetical order. i.e. vestirse under v. • Watch out! Most reflexive verbs are listed after a form of the verb which is not reflexive. Make sure you find the right entry!