What to do with unfamiliar words while reading in Spanish

Question

I have been doing a lot of reading in Spanish lately, and I am curious to know what other learners do when you come across unfamiliar words.

So far, I have been trying to guess the meaning of the word based on the context rather than looking it up - but sometimes I look the words up and it turns out that I guessed the meaning completely wrong and it changed the whole meaning of the sentence .

I also have tried looking up every unfamiliar word, but I find this breaks the "flow" of the text so I wind up looking up twice as many words than I do when I don't look up anything.

Does anyone have any advice what I should do?

Answer 1

I, too, encounter many, many unfamiliar words when I read - I am really no more than an advanced beginner.

I follow the advice given by one of the textbooks I've studied - apologies for not remembering which it was. I make a note of unfamiliar words, but I don't look them up right away, unless I find the same word at least three times in the text I'm reading that day - if it's there that much it's essential and I'll have to know it to make sense of the text. If I don't see it three times (admittedly this is arbitrary) I keep reading, making an educated guess based on context and the shared Romance roots I already know. Then I look up the words after I'm done reading. Sometimes I'm way off, but usually I am close to the meaning. If they are words I think I need to know I will make a flashcard set, either here or on a standalone program on my computer.

There are exceptions. Sometimes a word is so obviously important and central to the passage that I have to go ahead and look it up. But once you've narrowed down the part of speech and its function in the sentence - and you can usually do that - you can come surprisingly close to guessing the meaning.

A very helpful book that I am still working my way through is "Better Reading Spanish," by Jean Yates. It takes you through exercises in skimming a simple Spanish passage to get the gist of it, spotting cognates, analyzing suffixes and related words, and reading for detail. I would recommend it to anyone at the advanced beginner stage.

I, too, would be interested in learning what others do as they learn to read Spanish.

• Thank you for your reply :). I will look into getting "Better Reading Spanish". Thanks! - burbujas Sep 11, 2010

Answer 2

When I first started to learn Spanish I read several novels and would often come across words that I didn't recognise. I would continue to read through an entire chapter to maintain the flow, but I wrote down all of the words that I didn't know (or wasn't sure of) in a notebook and then looked up their meanings when I got through the chapter. However, if you are very unfamiliar with Spanish it's a good idea to write down the entire sentence or at least a few words around it in case it's an idiomatic expression that requires several words to achieve the proper meaning. Then after I had looked up all of the words, I would go back and read the chapter. I know it sounds like a lot of work but the only way to retain new information is to reinforce it by reading it more than once.

• This is what I do, too. Whenever I come across a word I don't know, I write it down in my vocabulary notebook. Then I go back and look them all up and write their definitions next to them. And you can read it over for review later to make sure you retain - MacFadden Sep 11, 2010
• the new words. - MacFadden Sep 11, 2010
• Thank you very much for these suggestions! I will definitely start writing the words down :). - burbujas Sep 11, 2010

Answer 3

I am not sure how much my approach would help you since it is quite similar to your own but My method would be to:

1 Understand new/unfamiliar words from the context where possible /as much as possible to keep the flow of the sentence. This would of course be only possible if the context helps you to understand it clearly This first reading would be to get a general understanding or overview of the whole passage

2 Re read the passage more slowly a second time, this time looking up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary writing down these words if it helps you ! And speaking aloud the words emphasizing the new words.

3 Re-read the passage a final time, either quietly or aloud, with the understanding gained from researching the new words.

I hope that this helps

• Thank you for your reply! If only I had the patience to read something three times hehe. - burbujas Sep 11, 2010

Answer 4

Oh, and I handle unfamiliar words that I just happen to run into (either on the TV or in textbook or while on line) by keeping a laptop opened to SpanishDict and just typing in the word as it pops up.

I'm all about finding the most efficient way to get info since I usually have to get it several times before it "sticks"

• Me too. - KevinB Sep 11, 2010

Answer 5

Another strategy is to find a novel which is published in both languages, read it in your native language first and then let a week or so go by, now read it in the target language. I used to do that quite often. The Zafon novels are easily available in both languages for example.

What helps here is that you have an overview of the plot and its development and when you pause at a word you can see it in context (guess) so you stay with the flow. Of course you still have to look stuff up from time to time but it seems, at least to me, relatively painless

I must say that the techniques suggested above are all really useful and at various times and according to context I have used all of them.

I found a copy of Borges Ficciones in Spain recently and having read it in English some 20 years ago it was good to read it in the original.

What I'm getting at here is that short stories are a treat when you're starting out reading in a second language, less fatigue and more easily "controlled" in terms of looking stuff up etc. Also, try poetry. I found reading and learning until I could quote a García Lorca poem was useful. Try this one it's lovely and very accesible.

Canción del jinete

Córdoba. Lejana y sola. Jaca negra, luna grande, y aceitunas en mi alforja. Aunque sepa los caminos, yo nunca llegaré a Córdoba. Por el llano, por el viento, jaca negra, luna roja. La muerte me está mirando desde las torres de Córdoba. ¡Ay que camino tan largo! ¡Ay mi jaca valerosa! ¡Ay que la muerte me espera, antes de llegar a Córdoba! Córdoba. Lejana y sola.

In the light of the Franquista story the poem becomes sadly prophetic... if you are a Romantic that is.

What a shame I can't seem to format it well.

• Thanks for the recommendations Birdland :), I'll put them on my list of things to read in future. - burbujas Sep 11, 2010
• Go for that poem, see how few lines there are, savour them even if you do one line a day you will then know and say a poem i Spanish :-) Good luck! - Birdland Sep 11, 2010

Answer 6

I try to buy the books I plan to read, that way I can write in them... Then, I religiously underline every word I don´t know. Later, I look them up or not, depending on my mood. I write the definitions in the margin, and often I make flashcards.

Usually when I start a new book, I look up a lot of words, because I figure the vocabulary will show up again. If I´m having a really hard time, sometimes I sit at the computer and read, since it´s so easy to look words up on this site!!

The flashcards that I do make, I really study them alot. I probably have 3000+ flashcards from the last couple of years, and about 500 of those I still have to study to remember. (I use flashcardexchange.com, because you can zip through the flashcards really fast there).

By this time I´ve read about 8 or 10 full length novels and I actually don´t come across too many new words any more. Sometimes only one or two a chapter, unless the book is about a historical timeperiod with lots of archaic vocabulary.

Hope this helps... Good luck and have fun reading!!

Answer 7

I have a method that is very effective for me. I buy the book in English and Spanish at the same time and simply read them side by side. Sometimes my husband and I study together, in which case we each take a book and take turns reading the paragraphs aloud, first in Spanish, then in English. Every few pages or so we switch so that each of us has equal practice reading/speaking Spanish.

Some translations, like the Harry Potter books, Charlotte's Web, the NIV Bible etc are very carefully translated. Others, like the Invention of Hugo Cabret are more loosely translated, but you can save a TON of "looking up" time by having the translation right next to you.

This week Like Water for Chocolate and House of the Spirits in both languages arrived at my house. They are next on my list.

Answer 8

When I was first learning I'd try to guess the meaning from the context. It's actually good practice. It makes you think about what you already know and extrapolate.

Back then "getting the gist" was good enough for me. Nowadays I'm trying to rebuild my vocabulary, and I want to know exactly what things mean, learn the idioms, relate them to the English idioms, etc. I tend to read with the dictionary open, so I can look up words I don't know as I go. I also put them in my flashcards. It's a little anal, and I wouldn't recommend it to start with, but that's what I'm doing right now.

• I do this now, too. - --Mariana-- Sep 12, 2010

Answer 9

In the beginning, I bought every book in Spanish and English. Then, I would read out loud the Spanish version while my wife would read along in the English version. She is a native Spanish speaker so she would correct my pronunciation and help me with words I didn´t know. Ironically, my Spanish vocabulary is bigger than hers now but my pronunciation is still bad and my comprehension of spoken Spanish is bad but getting better.

Now I read two ways. With books, I circle words I don´t know and look them up when I have four or five.

With newspapers, I read them online so it´s much easier. I read a paragraph at a time. If I´m afraid I´m really missing something, I cut and paste the entire paragraph from the paper into Spanishdict translator.

I will say this: Some papers are much easier than others. I find I can read La Opinion looking up very few words. El Universal (Mexico City) is much more difficult and I have to look up more words.

Answer 10

I started with a Penguin Parallel Text book containing about 8 short stories. It had Spanish on one page and English on the opposite page, and I found it good as I had less knowledge of verbs etc at that time.

Now I'm reading a novel which was written in Spanish without any English translation available.

At first I looked up every unfamiliar word, but I found that many of these weren't in my dictionary and I didn't want to have a pc on at the same time , so I started only looking up words that were repeated a few times or words that I really felt seemed crucial to understanding. If they weren't in the dictionary I jotted them down and looked them up later.

Because this novel is set in the Middle Ages in Barcelona, there are quite a lot of terms which may not be used these days, shipping terms, and construction terms too as the construction of a cathedral is important to the story.

At the end of Michel Thomas' Advanced Course he suggests reading a lot, but only looking up new words that appear 6 times or more, so as to not be discouraged or lose the flow.