Customer Reviews

2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs: Learn the Forms, Master the Tenses, and Speak Fluently! (Essential Vocabulary)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book, The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs, and 501 Spanish Verbs are the three "big guns" out there on Spanish verb conjugations, and I think it's actually the best of the three, although I don't like the page layout as much.

All three of these books have their pros and cons, but this book has one major advantage over the other two--it not only has the verb tables--but in addition there is a detailed, 100-page grammar and usage section in the second part of the book where 75 important verbs are explained and used in more detail. Each of the 75 verbs gets an extra page or two, which makes it much more thorough than either The Big Red book or 501 Spanish Verbs in this regard.

This section includes separate discussions on all the tenses, such as the present, future, conditional, and subjunctive. In addition, there are several more useful features the other two books don't have, such as a discussion on the sequence of tenses, a summary of the subjunctive, uses of Ser and Estar, verbs that change meaning in the reflexive form, idiomatic expressions with some common verbs (which the 501 book does have), the "personal a," definitions of common grammatical terms, and regional differences in the use of verbs.

For example, there is the infamous verb coger, which means to take or to catch in most countries, but which in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay, means to have carnal knowledge of equivalent to a certain four-letter word. In those countries, the verbs agarrar or tomar are used instead. So in other words, you wouldn't want to get confused in those countries and use the verb coger in regard to someone's sister. :-)

Another nice featurethe author includes practice sentences in which you change the subject or one of the other words so you have to conjugate the verb differently and then reply. I've found that this is more useful than just looking at the verb conjugation tables and trying to memorize them. For some reason, placing them in the context of a real sentence reinforces them even more. Learning a foreign language is a process of many little steps, and often it's two steps forward and one step back, and every little bit helps.

The Big Red and 501 Verbs books only have a few examples of how the verbs are used in sentences at the bottom of each page. The Big Red book has more of these than the 501 book, but it's still not nearly as extensive as the present one's.

One feature the 501 Verbs book has is a good section on the idiomatic usages of verbs. Another nice feature is it includes dozens of sample conversations at the back of the book on various topics, using the well-known Berlitz method (invented in the late 19th century by Maximilian Berlitz as an improvement on the classical rote memorization method of teaching languages) of simulated conversations in various practical situations, which the The Big Red and this one don't have.

One final minor feature, but one I still liked, was that each verb page in the 501 book has the progressive tenses using the verb estar at the bottom of the verb tables, which the other two don't have. This never changes once you understand the pattern, but it's still nice to have it laid out.

So all three books have their pros and cons, but if I had to have one verb book, it would have to be this one because of the much more extensive treatment of the 65 important verbs.

I'd have given this book 5 stars if I didn't already have 501 Spanish Verbs and have a good knowledge of Spanish already. The layout is very good with two exceptions: 501 Spanish Verbs describes the differences in how, when, and why to use the different tenses first and displays the tenses in an easy to read table. This book describes the different tenses after the verb tables and the layout of the verb tables is not as nice as 501 Spanish Verbs. If, like 501 Spanish Verbs, it had the description of the tenses first, it would be a five star book. On the plus side, if you don't have 501 Spanish Verbs already and are a beginner in learning Spanish, this is a better book. The lessons are very good for beginners and the flash cards, which have to be cut although it's not really necessary, are good for testing your knowledge. If you don't already have 501 Spanish verbs and are just starting to learn the verbs, this is a better book for you than 501 Spanish verbs. (Having both can't hurt especially for the price.)

Useful book. I find it as useful as "501 Spanish Verbs". Each of these books has something the other does not. 501 Spanish Verbs has many practice exercises at the end of the book, and there are different types of exercises, including fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and crosswords. My version does not come with an audio CD, but I think there is a version that does, but I do not know what is on it. So 501 verbs offers clear explanations with examples at the beginning of the book, charts of conjugations in all tenses of several of the most popular verbs in the middle, and the exercises at the end with answer keys. 2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs offers the charts as well as exercises at the end, but the exercises are not varied. There are exercises such as reading "dialogue" and answering questions based on it, as well as translating sentences. Also, this book comes with an audio CD which has the program "[Spanish] Before You Know It". There are flashcards of several of the most used words to help with your vocabulary. They are in several different sections such as, "Weather", "Verbs", "Foods", among many others. A native speaker will say these words when you click on them, and you can add your own words on the lists (or make your own list) and there are exercises to help you remember the words. (Writing them when you see the English equivalent, writing the english word for the spanish word that is shown, you can see how many you get right) among others. (I actually have not used the program very recently, so I don't remember all the details, but it is very useful!) It's awesome that you can get the book AND CD for about $15.

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). If you are looking for a comprehensive reference book for verbs then look no further than this mammoth edition containing over 2,000 verbs! While more limited products focus on the most commonly used verbs, this book provides you with the conjugation of just about every verb you could find yourself wanting to use.

The book is easy to use, with the verbs listed in clear alphabetical order. Each verb is given with past, present and future conjugations as well as complete translation so that you can find just the right version. Handy prepositions are also given, allowing you to form more complete and fluent sentences.

As well as reference information, the book also provides some sentences using the verb, illustrating how it is used in context. Explanations about how to conjugate verbs is also given, offering some useful additional information about how to create the correct conjugation. There is also some explanation of each tense, describing when it should be used.

If all that isn't enough to tempt you to invest in this volume, the book also contains over 40 sample conversations, letting you see the verbs used in real life scenarios, as well as over 100 practice exercises to let you test your knowledge. Finally, there are flash cards designed to help you memorize the verbs that you will need most.

These key verbs are also given more attention in the book, with extra information about their use and conjugation which gives you a deeper understanding. If you are serious about improving your command of the Spanish language then this is a great book to help you increase your use of conjugated verbs.

Another handy aspect to this book is it's acknowledgment of regional variations in how verbs are used. For example some verbs have a different meaning when used in particular contexts in Latin American countries compared to Spain or Mexico. This book notes each regional difference, giving you the peace of mind that you will be using the correct verb wherever you are speaking Spanish.

2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs is a great reference and learning tool for Spanish language learners of all levels, with some good lessons for beginners and in depth conjugations of a wide range of verbs for more advanced students.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.


1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish.
According to him, in academic circles in Spain as well as Latin America this Spanish dictionary is the standard.

I bought this mainly as a reference - but the 2nd half also goes over verbs and gives quizzes (with answers right below each quiz). So far I have found the 2nd part clear and easy to follow (and I hate grammar)

It even came with a CD-ROM - which I was not expecting. However, the speaker on the CD-ROM is VERY hard to understand - it sounds like he has pebbles in his mouth and when one slows him down (little turtle icon) - then it sounds like he is drunk - funny but not the way I want to learn to pronounce words.

Glad I bought the book.

This book has an alphabetical list of 2000 verbs. No sorting by category or use in daily life. Just an A to Z list with one page per verb that is covered with a giant conjugation table. At the bottom of each verb page there are 2-3 example sentences in tiny font. If that's all you want great. But I was hoping to have exercises to USE these verbs in context. I believe this to be the method of learning. Unfortunately, all of the exercises are conjugation of basic verbs like jugar and ir. The main purpose of this book seems to be conjugation, rather than vocabulary building. I am disappointed.




The software cd:

The included cd has a simplistic flash card program called "before you know it". You pick a list and then a voice will correctly pronounce the words to you and you can click yes or no if you know the word or not. Unfortunately, the program doesn't seem to care if you mark a word as having known it already and will blindly go through the list repeating the same words over and over again. Furthermore, the vocab words on the CD have NOTHING to do with the words in the book. There's five lists of Spanish verbs, but these are basic Spanish 101 verbs NOT the 2000 verbs in the book.

What a joke.

This is a very good book on spanish verbs, but not the best available. For a comparison, check out my review of a truly superb spanish verb book: Alfredo Gonzalez Hermoso's book, The Spanish Verb Manual.

It is a complementary book to most of the spanish dictionaries, which don't mention the exact verb patterns.

What can I say but that this book is everything that it should be. For the serious learner, a must-have!

but it doesn't. It only has 250. I wish I hadn't bought it. It was a waste of money. The book 501 Spanish verbs by Barron Foreign Language is much better. It actually has the number of verbs listed on it's cover - 501.

When the title said it had 2000 verbs I thought it did. I was surprised and disappointed that it had only 250.