Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Glossary H Review and questions Abbreviation A shortened form of a word Conjunction conj A word used to join indirectly affected by the verb: le escribí or phrase: Sr. = Mr clauses together: y = and; pero = but; una carta a mi madre = I wrote a letter to porque = Active In the active form the subject of the because my mother Finally, a brief review of the topics covered in the lecture: verb performs the action: Pedro besa a Consonant All the letters of the alphabet Indirect speech A report of what someone Ana = Pedro kisses Ana. See Passive. other than a, e, i, o, u has said which does not reproduce the • Important factors to bear in mind when choosing a bilingual [show slide 35] Adjectival phrase loc adj A phrase that Countable (count) noun [C] A noun that exact words: dijo que habían salido = she dictionary functions as an adjective: a ultranza = out- forms a plural and can take the indefinite said that they had gone out; he told me to • Navigating through an entry – English-Spanish, then Spanish-English and-out, fanatical; es nacionalista a article, e.g. a book, two books. See be quiet = me dijo que me callara ultranza = o Uncountable noun. he's a fanatical out-and-out Infinitive The base form of a verb: cantar = • Explaining abbreviations and symbols: nationalist, he's a nationalist through-and- Definite article def art: el/la/los/las = the to sing - common grammatical categories through Demonstrative adjective adj dem An Inflect To change the ending or form of a - hyphen and swung dash (or tilde) Adjective adj A word describing a noun or adjective indicating the person or thing word to show its tense or its grammatical pronoun: un lápiz rojo = a red pencil - subject field labels referred to: esta mesa = this table relation to other words: canto and Adverb adv A word that modifies a verb, an - regional labels Demonstrative pronoun pron dem A cantaba are inflected forms of cantar adjective, or another adverb: corrió - register labels pronoun indicating the person or thing Interjection A sound, word, or remark rápidamente = he ran quickly; muy bonito interj referred to: ésta es mi hermana = this is - sentence patterns = very pretty; canta muy mal = she sings expressing feelings (such as anger, fear, or my sister joy), or attracting attention: ¡ay! = ; - phonetics very badly ouch! Direct object The noun or pronoun directly ¡Dios mío! = good heavens! Adverbial phrase loc adv A phrase that affected by the verb: compré un libro = I functions as an adverb: motu proprio: lo Interrogative An adjective, adverb, or • How the dictionary can help you with: bought a book hizo (de) motu proprio = he did it on his pronoun that asks a question: ¿qué? = - plurals own initiative Direct speech A speaker’s actual words or what?; ¿cuánto? = how much?; ¿quién? = the use of these in writing: He said, "Be - gender Apocope The omission of the final sound of who? quiet!" = Dijo «¡Cállense!» - idioms a word, as in Spanish algún (alguno), tan Intransitive verb vi A verb without a direct Elliptical Having a word or words omitted, (tanto) object: murió repentinamente = he died - word order especially where the sense can be guessed Article The definite article, el/la/los/las suddenly - the subjunctive art from the context = the, and indefinite article, un/una = a/an Invariable adjective An adjective Ending Letters added to the stem of a word adj inv are used before the noun that is unchanged in the singular and the • How the dictionary can help you with verbs: [show slide 36] to show a change in function, e.g. verb Attributive An adjective or noun is amar; stem am-; in amaba, -aba is the plural, as in the Spanish beige - tense, subject, and object attributive when it is used directly before a notesLecturer ending Invariable noun n inv A noun that is noun: un buen vino = a good wine. See - direct and indirect objects unchanged in the singular and the plural, Predicative. Feminine f One of the genders in Spanish, - transitive and intransitive verbs applied to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, as in English sheep, species Auxiliary verb A verb used with v aux and articles: la casa blanca = the white - reflexive verbs another verb to form compound tenses; in Irregular verb A verb not following one of house; ella = she - impersonal verbs Spanish haber and estar: he comido = I the set patterns, which has its own individual forms, e.g. Spanish ser; English - phrasal verbs have eaten; estaba durmiendo = he was Future tense The verb tense that refers to sleeping something that will happen: llegará tarde to be - verb tables = he will arrive late Cardinal number A whole number Masculine m One of the genders in Spanish Lecturer Lecturer notes - verb complementation representing a quantity: uno/dos/tres = Gender Spanish nouns, pronouns, applied to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, one/two/three. See Ordinal number. adjectives, and articles almost all fall into and articles: el perro negro = the black • Avoiding mistakes: two genders, masculine and feminine; in dog; él= he Clause A self-contained section of a addition, Spanish uses the neuter pronouns - adapting examples sentence that contains a subject and a verb esto, eso, and aquello, and the neuter Modal verb v mod A verb used with another - cross-checking Collective noun A noun that is singular in article lo verb to express necessity or possibility, e.g. form but refers to a group of individual might, should, will Gerund ger The part of a verb used in persons or things, e.g. realeza, gobierno Spanish to form continuous tenses: Mood A category of verb use, expressing • Extra features = royalty, government muriendo = dying; cantando = singing. fact (indicative), command (imperative), or Collocate A word that regularly occurs with See Present participle. wish or conditionality (subjunctive) another; for example, typical collocates of Imperative A verb form that expresses a Negative neg Expressing refusal or denial the verb leer in Spanish are
18 © Oxford University Press 2005 © Oxford University Press 2005 19 Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Glossary
Passive In the passive, the subject of the Pronominal verb v pron A Spanish verb Uncountable (uncount) noun [U] A noun verb experiences the action rather than conjugated using the pronouns me, te, se, without a plural in ordinary usage, which performs it; it is used more in English than nos, and os, in which the pronoun refers cannot take the indefinite article; furniture in Spanish: Ana is kissed by Pedro = Ana to the subject of the verb: (yo) me and news are uncountable in English, but es besada por Pedro. See Active. equivoqué = I was wrong. A subgroup of their translations muebles mpl, noticia f these verbs are Reflexive verbs. are countable in Spanish Past participle past p The part of a verb used to form past compound tenses: she Pronoun pron A word that stands instead of Verb v, vb A word or group of words that had gone = había ido a noun: él/ella = he/she; alguien = someone; describes an action: los niños están Perfect tense The perfect tense in Spanish el mío/la mía = mine jugando = the children are playing is used to refer to events in the recent past: Proper noun The name of a person, place, Vowel One of the following letters: a, e, i, he comido = I have eaten institution, etc., generally written with an o, u Person Any of the three groups of personal initial capital letter: Spain, the Atlantic, pronouns and forms taken by verbs; the London, Juan, Madrid, el Ebro are all proper nouns first person (e.g. yo/I) refers to the person(s) speaking, the second person Reflexive pronoun A pronoun that refers (e.g. tú/you) refers to the person(s) spoken back to the subject of the clause in which it to; the third person (e.g. él/he) refers to the is used: myself = me; themselves = se persons spoken about. The corresponding Reflexive verb v refl A verb whose object is plural forms are nosotros, -tras/we, the same as its subject; it is used with a vosotros, -tras (informal Spain), reflexive pronoun: se lavó = he washed ustedes/you, ellos, ellas/they. himself Personal pronoun pron pers A pronoun that Regular verb A verb that follows a set refers to a person or thing: yo/él/ella = pattern in its different forms I/he/she Relative pronoun A pronoun that Phrasal verb A verb in English combined pron rel with a preposition or an adverb to give a introduces a subordinate clause, relating to particular meaning: run away; go past. a person or thing mentioned in the main There are no phrasal verbs in Spanish. clause: el hombre que nos visitó = the man who visited us Phrase locución A self-contained section of a sentence that does not contain a full verb Reported speech Another name for Indirect speech Pluperfect tense The tense that refers to something that happened before a Sentence A sequence of words, with a particular point in the past: había salido subject and a verb, that can stand on their own to make a statement, ask a question, = he had left or give a command Plural pl More than one: las casas = the Singular Of nouns etc., referring to just houses sing one: la casa = the house Possessive adjective An adjective that shows possession, belonging to someone Stem The part of a word to which endings Lecturer Lecturer notes or something: mi/tu = my/your are added: habl- is the stem of hablar Possessive pronoun A pronoun that shows Subject In a clause or sentence, the noun or possession, belonging to someone or pronoun that causes the action of the verb: something: mío/tuyo = mine/yours John estudia geografía = John studies geography. Subject collocates are shown in Predicative An adjective is predicative double angled brackets. when it comes after a verb such as be, ser, or estar: es hermosa = she is beautiful. See Subjunctive A verb form used to express Attributive. wishes or conditionality: long live the King! = ¡viva el Rey!; if it were possible = Prefix A letter or letters at the pref si fuera posible beginning of a word that change its meaning: possible - impossible; Subordinate clause A clause which adds afortunado - desafortunado information to the main clause of a sentence but cannot be used as a sentence Preposition A word standing in front prep by itself, e.g. she answered the phone of a noun or pronoun, usually indicating when it rang movement, position, or time: con = with; sin = without Suffix suf, suff A group of letters added to a word to make another word, e.g. -mente or Prepositional phrase loc prep A phrase that -ly in rápido, rápidamente; quick, quickly consists of a preposition and a complement: acerca de = about Superlative superl The form of an adjective or adverb that makes it “most” or the Present participle pres p The part of a verb "least": el más pequeño = the smallest; el that in Spanish ends in -ando, -iendo menos caro= (English -ing), and is used in continuous the least expensive tenses: está hablando = she's talking. See Syllable A division of a word that contains a Gerund. vowel sound pronounced as a single unit: bala has two syllables, ba-la Present tense The tense that refers to something happening now: abro la puerta Tense The verb form that tells when the = I open the door action takes place: present, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect are all tenses Preterite tense A tense referring to a completed action in the past: lo hice ayer Transitive verb vt A verb used with a direct = I did it yesterday object: leyó el libro = she read the book Additional exercises are available online at: www.askoxford.com/languages/dictionaryskills
20 © Oxford University Press 2005