Summary

Written for Spanish speakers looking to improve their understanding of informal American-style English, this book defines more than 4,000 of the most commonly used American idioms and slang expressions. In English, as in all other languages, words used in idiomatic expressions often have entirely different meanings from the ideas they are meant to convey. For example, a Spanish speaker hearing a conversation in English about an acquaintance who "shoots off his mouth" might easily think he's hearing about the victim of an accidental gunshot wound, when the true meaning is that the fellow does a lot of bragging and exaggerating. This handy dictionary lists each idiom alphabetically in English, and follows up with a succinct and clear definition in Spanish. This book is certain to be valued by Spanish speakers in America as a helpful supplement to their standard English-Spanish bilingual dictionaries.