Spanish Letter Writing

PREFACE THE American Council on Education, in its report in Bulletin No. 15, says in higher education and national defense Persons are needed now who command Spanish and Portuguese, who can do good translations from English into these languages and vice versa, and who can take Spanish and Portuguese dictation. The purpose of this text is to present the fundamental points relative to personal and business letters in Spanish, which can be taught both to high school and college students after a brief introductory course it can also be used as a reference book for those actually employed in business. A large variety of letters, written originally in Spanish, serve as models and illustrations of current practice in the language. Formulas used now are less stilted and flowery than formerly however, they are still less brief and direct than in English letters. There is no attempt to give a de tailed treatment of every aspect of Spanish business corre spondence obviously not all terms can be included in a text of limited scope. Not all business terms are used with equal frequency in all the Spanish-speaking countries, but sufficient variety is included here for ordinary purposes. One who has mastered the forms given here should be quali fied to apply for a position as a Spanish correspondent. The authors believe that two points of procedure should be stressed constantly 1 Accuracy in translating to Spanish and vice versa 2 Writing Spanish from dictation. It is assumed that a student will have at his command the basic grammatical principles and the paradigms of the common verbs in Spanish. The vocabulary may seem for midable, because the Spanish language is rich in commercial iii terms. Thenumerous models of recent letters from many Spanish American countries have built up the vocabulary, and the authors have not wished to reduce the vocabulary by using and reusing the same phrases. The student who wishes to become a Spanish translator must be familiar with all the words used in all the countries. The English-Spanish vocabulary contains only those words which appear in the English exercises. L. H. T. A. M. B. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I PAGE I. ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPE 1 II. PARTS OF A BUSINESS LETTER 4 III. CONCLUSION 6 IV. BODY OF THE LETTER 9 V. CONCLUDING PHRASES OF THE LETTER 13 VI. AGREEMENT OF BEGINNINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 15 VII. MODEL SPANISH LETTERS AND TRANSLATIONS 17 VIII. MODEL ENGLISH LETTERS AND TRANSLATIONS 24 PART II I. PARA ACUSAR RECIBO DE UNA CARTA u OTRO OBJETO 28 II. PARA CONFIRM AR EL CONTENIDO DE UNA CARTA 33 III. PARA HACER, AGRADECER, o CONTEST AR A UN PEDIDO 35 IV. CARTAS CIRCULARES Y ANUNCIOS 41 V. OFRECIMIENTO DE SERVTCIOS PERSONALES 47 VI. SOLICIT AR UN FAVOR o PEDIR INFORMES o REFERENCIAS PERSONALES 50 VII. CARTAS DE PRESENTAC N 53 PART III LETTERS IN ENGLISH 60 APPENDIX The Metric System 69 Cardinal Numerals 70 Monetary Units 71 SPANISH-ENGLISH VOCABULARY 73 ENGLISH-SPANISH VOCABULARY 92 LETTER WRITING PART I I ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPE Direccion en e sobre. On the envelope the title of the addressee as well as senor, senora, or senorita is placed. Sr. Don Sr. Dn. or Sr. D. may be used for a man, Sra. D a . for a married lady don and dona are optional, and Srta. for an unmarried lady Sr. Doctor Dn. Pedro Albaladejo Sr. CapMn Dn. Antonio Moreno y Ortiz Senor Don Jose Morelos N. 1 Sr. Profesor D. Jaime Gonzalez or Sr. D. Jaime Gonzalez, Catedratico deEspaiiol Sra. D a . Maria Lopez de 2 Pidal Srta. Carmen Martin Sra. Maria Ortega, Viuda de Gomez 3 1 Here the N. stands for Nogales, the maiden name of the mother. Spanish surnames are the name of the father followed by that of the mother Morelos y Nogales. Sometimes the initial of the latter may be used other times the mothers name is dropped entirely. 2 A ladys married name is her maiden name followed by de and the sur name of her husband. 3 A widow signs her maiden name followed by Viuda Vda. and her deceased husbands surname, 1 A complete address follows Sr...