Mastering a Spanish Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Jose Maria Navarro (Author), Ramil A. Navarro (Author), Axel J. Navarro Ramil (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812091108 | ISBN-13: 978-0812091106 | Publication Date: August 1995

This Spanish word-power builder presents more than 5,000 words and phrases with translations into English. The feature that makes this vocabulary book distinctive is the way words are divided into themes, grouped together so that the foreign traveler or language student can find words related by subject. The subject themes include business terms, medical terms, household terms, scientific words and phrases, units of measurement, clothing, food and dining, transportation, art and culture— 24 separate themes in all. The new second edition has been expanded and updated with increased vocabulary.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish

From the Back Cover

Spanish words and phrases are presented with their English translations according to themes reflecting experiences that we encounter in our everyday lives. This novel approach to words and their meanings allows both travelers and language students to find the related words that they need grouped together for fast and easy reference. Newly expanded, and categorized according to 41 themes, this bilingual phrasebook contains a total of more than 9,500 useful terms.

Phrasebooks in This Series:
Mastering French Vocabulary
Mastering German Vocabulary
Mastering Italian Vocabulary
Mastering Spanish Vocabulary
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (August 1995)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0812091108
• ISBN-13: 978-0812091106
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #804,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for building spanish vocabulary., February 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mastering a Spanish Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book for a person who is, like me, passed the beginner spanish level and wants to increase his or her vocabulary. It lists over 5,000 words grouped into 41 subjects and includes useful bilingual phrases that reenforce learning. I don't recommend this book for beginners because some knowledge of the spanish language is required to use it. Everything is translated from spanish to english and there is no english to spanish guide.

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An essential book for your library, April 25, 1998

By 

John([e-mail]) (Southern NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering a Spanish Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I find this book to be very good. It offers 5500 words or so for a person to learn which is more than enough to cover general conversation on any theme, explain any thought, and say anything that is not deeply technical. A typical person's vocabulary is between 12,000-15,000 words though many of them are not used. This book is great-it is organized by themes and has more advanced words in gray. I recently got this book and find that it rounds out my vocabulary. I recommend this one and 1,001 Pitfalls in Spanish by Barron's. Both are absolutely essential for native English speakers. In fact, those two books and a lot of reviewing is adequate in my estimation for anyone with very little background in Spanish to rise to a level of fluency achieved by a small percentage of the 'gringos' who try to learn it. I'd give it a '10' except I think it would be neat to have even more vocabulary-perhaps 8000 words to involve more technical and medical terms, etc. They also try to stick to fairly universal terms understandable in any Spanish-speaking country. Many of the words are more from Spain than, say, Mexico(in my estimation) but are universal enough to be used almost anywhere. I rank it to be a "Must-Buy."

62 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, but..., May 20, 2002

By 

Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Mastering a Spanish Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

...capable of producing some fairly alarming editing errors, for one. Things like "To abrigo es distinto..."

A second important item of note to potential purchasers is that the book assumes you have THE ENTIRE VERB SYSTEM down cold. Each of the 41 sections of the book has 'standard' and 'advanced' sections of vocabulary. But Word 1 in the standard list could fire off an example that features a sentence that combines conditional and subjunctive imperfect tenses. After all, it's a vocabulary - and not grammar - book. But just make sure you know that going in.

Third point - I can't figure out what make a word or expression worthy of 'advanced' vs. 'standard.' I'm just opening up to a random page (p. 338) as I write this review, and I see the words 'apenas,' 'mayor,' and 'menor' in the advanced section, while 'de ninguna manera' sits in the standard. Odd, huh?

Despite all these objections, this book is really a good edition to your library. Its triumph is the groupings of the words and phrases into 41 loosely defined categories. Despite what I think are three valid criticisms here, reading and re-reading this book is an effective way to increase your vocabulary. Which, after all, is its primary goal.