1001 Most Useful Spanish Words (Beginners' Guides)

P.S. I think the person who gave this book a poor rating was being extremely unkind. This book never says it's anything other than it is. A book to build vocabulary. It's not a dictionary. Dictionaries cost a lot more, and are heavy. (This book weighs 2 oz.!)


$1.95?? Are you KIDDING me?   October 29, 2003
Peggy Vincent (Oakland, CA)
171 out of 184 found this review helpful

Okay, I thought that $1.95 was a misprint, and I bought it just to get a bargain. But omigod, talk about a bargain! At ten times the price, this book would be a bargain. It's not going to teach you to speak Spanish. It's not going to help you conjugate Spanish verbs. It's not going to make you fluent or able to read the newspaper in Zihuatenejo. But know what? It's going to make your next foray into a Spanish-speaking country a whole lot easier.
Overall, it's a dictionary, but there are subsections like food, colors, travel, clothing, and within those sections things are arranged alphabetically. Each word is used in a whole sentence (many of which are very handy sentences to have at your disposable) with translation, of course.
Anyway, stop reading this review and buy this book. Hell, at this price, buy 10 and give them to everyone in your family the next time you go south of the border.
Highest recommendation, and an utter steal at this price.


I never leave home without it   June 24, 2006
J. Payton (USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

I am "conversational" in Spanish. I am not fluent in the language but confident that I will eventually become completely fluent in Spanish. After trying many different methods to learn Spanish with little success, I have devised my own method.

Both 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words and Easy Spanish Phrase Book have been two of the most important tools in my arsenal. My method of learning involves the following:

1.) Use both 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words and Easy Spanish Phrase Book to build you vocabulary.

2.) The two books that I mentioned above are very easy reads. It's a good idea to read them more than once. You can read them at your convenience because they are very compact and easy to carry around. That explains how I got in the habit of never leaving home without one or the other. And if I have to wait at the doctor's office, have my hair done, or wait to have my
car serviced, I always have one or the other book to read.

3.) You'll also need a comprehensive course to serve as your basis. Any of the big-league courses will do (e.g. Learning Spanish Like Crazy, FSI Spanish, Pimsleur Spanish). But I prefer Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Not only do I find its method to be a fun and easy way to learn Spanish but I don't have a lot of time on my hands so it is rare that I can actually "stop" in order to study. I like Learning Spanish Like Crazy because I can use it for 30 or 40 minutes per day while I am in my basement running on my treadmill. Let LSLC serve as your foundation. IMHO, it's the best of the big-league courses with one caveat: Make sure that you download the revised LSLC lessons as advised in the instructions that come with the LSLC CDs from Amazon. Use this course to develop a good Spanish accent and to learn how to form your own sentences in Spanish, think in Spanish, etc.

4.) The next step is a very important part of my lesson plan (only second to #6). Whenever I am in my car I'll have 2 different CDs in the CD changer from Learn in You Car Spanish and I'll also have 2 different CDs in the CD changer from Behind the Wheel Spanish. So whenever I am in my car, I'm exposed to a different teaching method and hearing different Spanish speakers.

5.) When using Learn In Your Car Spanish CDs and Behind the Wheel CDs, listen to each CD at least 4 or 5 times. And do the same with the Learning Spanish Like Crazy CDs. If you are not able to make your response before the speakers on the recordings, then you know that you have not mastered the CD and that you need to repeat the CD again before replacing it with another CD.

6.) The next step is probably the most crucial in my lesson plan. Make sure that you practice what you have learned with native Spanish speakers. Using 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words and the other resources will give you all of the fundamentals that you need, but to perfect your skills and become conversational and eventually fluent, you'll have to practice with a native.



useful for a beginning speaker   April 15, 1999
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I found this book really useful. If you already know how to put together basic sentences in Spanish (I've only taken first semester Spanish)then studying from this book gives you a really good basis for conversation. When I was travelling in Mexico last year I remember trying to look up a lot of these important words and phrases in the dictionary but being unable to find them. If you plan on trying to use your Spanish you should study from this list of essential words, many of which are often left out of beginning Spanish books for some reason. The book also gives clear examples of how the word should be used in a sentence, which is helpful.


Well worth the money!   April 1, 2002
SanDiegoDude (San Diego, CA United States)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I am in Antigua, Guatemala, 7 weeks into an immersion spanish program. I have glanced through a number of small dictionaries or books that seek to build vocabulary. The choice of words is always puzzling. For example, you might find the spanish word for "elf" but then be unable to find "fork".

This book on the other hand has a very wise choice of words. It covers most of the verbs and nouns and what not you will need for basic conversations. "to have", "to want", basic foods, basic prepositions. So far, it has the wisest choice of words I have seen. Furthermore, each word comes with a sentence, which helps with grammar and usage. ...