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Copyright

Published by Collins

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First edition 2017

© Paul Noble 2017

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Acknowledgements

Images from Shutterstock.

MANAGING EDITOR

Maree Airlie

CONTRIBUTORS

Alice Grandison

Maggie Seaton

Tony Galvez

FOR THE PUBLISHER

Gerry Breslin

Holly Tarbet

Kevin Robbins

Vaila Donnachie

Find out more about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

People who feel confused by the way languages are normally taught.

People who are amazed by just how closely grammar books resemble furniture assembly instructions

People who studied Spanish at school

People coming back to the language after a break

People who’ve listened to one of Paul Noble’s audio courses

People who haven’t listened to one of Paul Noble’s audio courses

Who is this book for?

People curious about whether they can learn a language

People who didn’t study Spanish at school

People who didn’t like how languages were taught at school

People learning Spanish for the first time

People who think they can’t learn a foreign language

People who know no Spanish at all

People who know some Spanish already

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Footnotes

About the Publisher

Did you know you already speak Spanish?

Did you know you already speak Spanish?

Did you know you already speak Spanish? That you speak it every day? That you read and write it every day? That you use it with your friends, with your family, at work, down the post office – even in the shower when you read the label on the shampoo bottle?

Were you aware of that fact?

Well, even if you weren’t, it’s nevertheless true.

Of course, you might not have realised at the time that what you were reading / saying / writing was actually Spanish but I can prove to you that it was. Just take a look at these Spanish words below but, as you do so, use your thumb to cover the letter at the end of each word:

As your thumb has hopefully helped you to realise, these are words that exist not only in Spanish but also in English. And, in fact, these are by no means isolated examples of words that exist in both Spanish and English but rather they are merely the tip of a truly enormous iceberg.

In fact, around half of all English words have close equivalents in Spanish.Yes, that’s right, half!

If we begin using these words, together with an extremely subtle method that shows you how to put them into sentences in a way that’s almost effortless, then becoming a competent Spanish speaker becomes really quite easy.

The only thing that you will need to do to make this happen is to follow the three simple rules printed on the following pages. These rules will explain to you how to use this book so that you can begin unlocking the Spanish language for yourself in a matter of hours.

Well, what are you waiting for?Turn the page!

Rule Number 1:

Don’t skip anything!

Using this book is extremely simple – and highly effective – if you follow its three simple rules.

If you don’t want to follow them, then I recommend that, instead of reading the book, you use it to prop up a wobbly coffee table, as it won’t work if you don’t follow the rules. Now get ready – because here’s the first one!

Each and every little thing in this book has been put where it is, in a very particular order, for a very particular reason. So, if the book asks you to read or do something, then do it! Who’s the teacher after all, you or me, eh?

Also, each part of the book builds on and reinforces what came before it. If you start skipping sections, you will end up confused and lost. Instead, you should just take your time and gently work your way through the book at your own pace – but without skipping anything!

Step by Step

Rule Number 2:

Don’t try to memorise anything!

Trying to jam things into your head is boring and it doesn’t work. People often cram for tests and then forget everything the moment they walk out of the exam. Clearly, we don’t want that happening here.

Instead, I have designed this book so that any word or idea taught in it will come up multiple times. You don’t need to worry about trying to remember or memorise anything because the necessary repetition is actually already built in. In fact, trying to memorise what you’re learning is likely to hinder rather than help your progress.

So, just work your way through the book in a relaxed way and, if you happen to forget something, don’t worry because, as I say, you will be reminded of it again, multiple times, later on.

Rule Number 3:

Cover up!

No, I’m not being a puritan grandmother and telling you to put on a long-sleeved cardigan. Instead, I’m asking you to take a bookmark or piece of paper and use it to cover up any orange text that you come across as you work your way through the book.

These orange bits are the answers to the various riddles, challenges and questions that I will pose as I lead you into the Spanish language. If you read these answers without at least trying to work out the solutions first, then the book simply won’t work for you.

So, make sure to use something to cover up the bits of orange text in the book while you have a go at trying to work out the answers. It doesn’t matter if you sometimes get them wrong because it is by trying to think out the answers that you will learn how to use the language.

Trust me on this, you will see that it works from the very next page of this book.

Take a look at the page on the right to see how to use your bookmark or piece of paper to cover up correctly.

CHAPTER 1

I spent the weekend in Barcelona … and it was lovely.

“I spent the weekend in Barcelona… and it was lovely.” Not such a complicated sentence in English, is it? Or is it…?

I have taught many people over the years, ranging from those who know no Spanish at all through to those who may have studied Spanish for several years at school, and yet whether they have studied the language before or not, almost none of them tend to be able to construct a basic sentence like this when I first meet them.

Admittedly, they might know how to say other far less useful things, like “I’m 37 years old and have two sisters and a goldfish” – an unusual conversation opener from my perspective – but they nevertheless can’t say what they did at the weekend.

Well, in just a few minutes’ time, you will be able to do this – even if you’ve never learnt any Spanish before.

Just remember though: don’t skip anything, don’t waste your time trying to memorise anything but do use your bookmark to cover up anything orange you find on each page.

Okay now, let’s begin!

To say “I visited” in Spanish, you simply take the English word “visit” and add “é” (pronounced “ay”) onto the end of it.

So, do this now, take “visit” and add “é” (pronounced “ay”) onto the end of it. What does that give you?

Visité (pronounced “visit-ay”)

Did you remember to cover up the orange words while you worked out the answer?

And this simply means “I visited”.

“Madrid” in Spanish is, of course:

Madrid

(pronounced “ma-drid”)

So, given what you have been taught so far, how do you think you would say “I visited Madrid”?

Visité Madrid.

(visit-ay ma-drid)

And how do you think you would say “I visited Barcelona”?

Visité Barcelona.

(visit-ay bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er ¹)

So far you have created the word for “I visited” in Spanish simply by taking the English word “visit” and adding “é” (pronounced “ay”) onto the end of it.

You can now do something similar with the English word “pass”.

Just as before, what I want you to do is to take the English word “pass” and simply add “é” (pronounced “ay”) onto the end of it.

Do that now – what do you get?

Pasé

(pass-ay)

This means “I passed” (and also “I spent” (time)).

And oh yes, oops, you’ll have noticed that we lost an “s” in the process of doing this – oh well, never mind, what’s a letter between friends, eh?!

So again, tell me, what is “I passed” (and also “I spent”) in Spanish?

Pasé

(pass-ay)

“August” in Spanish is:

agosto

(a-gost-oh)

So how would you say “I spent August” (literally “I passed August”)?

Pasé agosto

(pass-ay a-gost-oh)

“In Barcelona” in Spanish is:

en Barcelona

(en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

So how would you say “I spent August in Barcelona”?

Pasé agosto en Barcelona.

(pass-ay a-gost-oh en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

How about “I spent August in Madrid”?

Pasé agosto en Madrid.

(pass-ay a-gost-oh en ma-drid)

“The weekend” in Spanish is literally “the end of week”, which is:

el fin de semana

(el fin dey sem-arn-er)

So how would you say “I spent the weekend in Madrid” (literally “I passed the end of week in Madrid”)?

Pasé el fin de semana en Madrid.

(pass-ay el fin dey sem-arn-er en ma-drid)

How about “I spent the weekend in Barcelona”?

Pasé el fin de semana en Barcelona.

(pass-ay el fin dey sem-arn-er en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

Time to steal some words!

Word Robbery Number 1

Let’s forget our weekend in Barcelona for just one moment now and start stealing some words.Around half the words in modern English have come into our language via Latin languages, such as Spanish. Once you can identify them, you will have a large, instant, usable vocabulary in Spanish. And after all, why bother learning Spanish vocabulary when you can simply steal it!

The first group of words we are going to steal are words that end in “ic” and “ical” in English.

Words like “romantic”, “exotic”, “illogical”, “typical” and so on.

There are around 750 of these in English and they are largely similar in Spanish, except that in Spanish they end in “ico” (pronounced “ick-oh”), becoming “romántico”, “exótico”, “ilógico”, “típico” and so on.

Let’s now see how we can work these into our weekend in Barcelona and expand our range of expressions in Spanish!

Words stolen so far 750

Bearing in mind what we’ve just learnt in the Word Robbery above, let’s try changing the “ic” on the end of the English word “romantic” into “ico”.

Doing this, what will “romantic” be in Spanish?

romántico

(roe-man-tick-oh)

And so what would “exotic” be in Spanish?

exótico

(ex-ot-ick-oh)

Let’s now try doing the same with “ical”. Change the “ical” on the end of “typical” into “ico”.

Doing this, what will “typical” be in Spanish?

típico²

(tip-ick-oh)

And what will “political” be?

político

(po-li-tick-oh)

Let’s now try using these “ico” words to expand our range of expressions and to make some more complex sentences in Spanish.

“It was” in Spanish is:

Fue

(fway)

So, how would you say “it was political”?

Fue político.

(fway po-li-tick-oh)

And how would you say “it was typical”?

Fue típico.

(fway tip-ick-oh)

How about “it was exotic”?

Fue exótico.

(fway ex-ot-ick-oh)

And how do you think you would say “it was romantic”?

Fue romántico.

(fway roe-man-tick-oh)

To say something is “lovely” in Spanish, you will say it is “adorable”. “Adorable” in Spanish is:

adorable

(ad-or-arb-lay)

So, how would you say “It was lovely” / “It was adorable”?

Fue adorable.

(fway ad-or-arb-lay)

Do you remember how to say “I visited” in Spanish?

Visité

(visit-ay)

And do you remember how to say “I spent” (literally “I passed”)?

Pasé

(pass-ay)

So how would you say “I spent August”?

Pasé agosto

(pass-ay a-gost-oh)

And what is “in Barcelona” in Spanish?

en Barcelona

(en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

So how would you say “I spent August in Barcelona”?

Pasé agosto en Barcelona.

(pass-ay a-gost-oh en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

What was “the weekend” (literally “the end of week”) in Spanish?

el fin de semana

(el fin dey sem-arn-er)

So how would you say “I spent the weekend in Barcelona”?

Pasé el fin de semana en Barcelona.

(pass-ay el fin dey sem-arn-er en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er)

Now again, what was “lovely” in Spanish?

adorable

(ad-or-arb-lay)

And do you remember how to say “it was”?

fue

(fway)

So how would you say “it was lovely”?

Fue adorable.

(fway ad-or-arb-lay)

The word for “and” in Spanish is:

y

(ee)

So, how would you say “…and it was lovely”?

…y fue adorable

(ee fway ad-or-arb-lay)

Now, putting what you’ve learnt together, say “I spent the weekend in Barcelona… and it was lovely.” Take your time to work this out, bit by bit, there’s no rush!

Pasé el fin de semana en Barcelona… y fue adorable.

(pass-ay el fin dey sem-arn-er en bar-sair-loan-er / bar-thair-loan-er… ee fway ad-or-arb-lay)

So, you can now construct the sentence with which we started the chapter – and, as you will soon discover, this is just the very beginning of your journey into Spanish!

Building Blocks

You just learnt how to say (amongst other things) “I spent the weekend in Barcelona… and it was lovely”.

Having done this, we are now going to move on to expanding what you can say through the use of additional “building blocks”.

The new building blocks you are going to learn will allow you to begin instantly expanding your range of expressions in the Spanish language.

So far, some of the building blocks you have already learnt include:

You already know how to use these building blocks to construct a sentence. So, once again, how would you say “I spent the weekend in Barcelona”?

As you can see, you already know how to build the three building blocks above into a sentence. Take a look now at six new building blocks below. Just have a glance over them and then I’ll show you how we’re going to add these into the mix of what we’ve learnt so far.

* literally “the Christmas”

So, here we have six new building blocks to play with.

Now, first things first: please don’t to try to memorise them. No, no, no! Instead, I simply want you to play with your building blocks. After all, that’s what building blocks are for, isn’t it?

The way you’re going to play with them is like this: on the next page, they have been put in three piles and all I want you to do is to make sentences with them. You’ll do this by each time using one building block from the first pile, one from the second, and one from the third.

You will find that you can say a lot of different things using them in this way and it’s up to you what sentences you make. The only thing I want you to make sure you do is to use every building block at least once. Also, please don’t bother writing down the sentences you make. Instead, say them out loud, or, if you’re not in a place where you can do this, say them in your head. Now, off you go; make as many sentences as you can!