WORD | PHONETICS | PART OF SPEECH | SPANISH | EXAMPLES |
A | /a/ | Determiner | un, uno, una | That is a car, not a bus. He has a red nose and a big head. |
| AND | /and/ /en/ /’n/ | Conjunction | y | Peter and Jane are my friends. John is my neighbor and my boss. She can read and write well. |
| FOR | /for/ | Preposition | por para | I bought it for US$50. This is for you. / He works for I.B.M. / |
| IN | /in/ | Preposition | en | My classes are in the morning. My father works in a bank. |
| IS | /is/ | Verb | ‘es’ /‘está’ con la tercera persona del singular (he / she /it) en tiempo presente simple. | He is my father. She is my mother. It is my dog. He / she / it is in the kitchen. |
| OF | /ov/ | Preposition | de | That is the dish of my dog. The University of Harvard is famous. |
| ON | /on/ | Preposition | en los el, los por a | Te books are on the table. My classes are on weekends. I study on Friday. He goes to Europe on business. They usually go to school on foot. |
| THAT | /dhæt/ | Determiner Pronoun Conjunction Relative pronoun | esa, ese, eso esa, ese, eso que (de) quién que | That book is about English grammar. That is my German book. She said that she would come. The woman that we’re talking about. That is the letter that I receive yesterday. |
| THE | /dhe/ OR /dhi/ | Determiner | el, la , los, las | George Bush is the President of U.S. “Fuffy” is the cat of the Steven’s The months of the year are twelve. The tables and the chairs are brown. |
| TO | /tu:/- /te/ | Preposition Conjunction | a, hacia para con que | He goes to France every year. It’s ten to six. I am speaking to you. I have to go now |
Estas diez palabras aparecen regularmente en toda expresión o escrito en inglés. Si usted las aprende bien y la reconoce al ser pronunciada, habrá alcanzado un nivel de comprensión del idioma inglés de hasta un 45% de la conversación cotidiana y de lo publicado en los diarios y revistas no especializadas.
La información aquí ofrecida no es de ningún modo exhaustiva. Le corresponde a usted investigar cada una de estas palabras tanto en su diccionario bilingüe (English-Spanish / Español-Inglés) como en el monolingüe (English-English).
A veces la palabra inglesa no se traduce al español, por ejemplo:
I will stay in Spain for a month. Pasaré un mes en España. [for no se traduce]
He is a doctor. Él es doctor. [a no se traduce]
To lie is bad. Mentir es malo. [to no se traduce pues sólo indica el infinitivo]
She has a red dress on. Ella viste un vestido rojo. [on no se traduce]
I don’t want to say this. No quiero decir eso. [to no se traduce]
Ahora veamos algunos ejemplos más del uso de estas diez palabras y verifique si usted a esta altura puede entender la idea sin recurrir a un diccionario.
She is a woman and he is a man.
I have to say something to you.
She works for J.C.Penney. She is in marketing.
That dog is very brave. It bit me the other day.
Who is the girl that is crying there?
He has to leave for France on business.
That is not good for you, I think.
Aspirine is good for headaches.
What are you waiting for?
