Customer Reviews

A Comprehensive Spanish Grammar (Blackwell Reference Grammars)

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This useful book is the best I could find on the Spanish language written in English. It has 685 pages and was written by a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and Director of the Carlos V Department at the University of Gent, Belgium and Director of the Institute of Hispanic Studies at the University of Antwerp. If you are put off by the price, consider that you would probably spend the same amount on other books that are not as comprehensive as this book is. This work shows a wide range of usage. Covers the usage of the verbs ser/estar which are difficult for the English learners of Spanish and the verb 'to become', the correct use of por and para, and has a good section on suffixes. I highly reccomend this book.

Though this thick grammar is a translation of a Dutch work, it is the best thing I could find on Spanish. The length may put off those who are only casually interested in the language, but others will appreciate getting such minor questions as how to say numbers ( 'mil quinientos' and never 'quince cientos' ) answered. The book is linguistically sound, and sentences from novels and newspapers are used as evidence to support the grammatical rules. Conversely, the book does not waste space. The treatment of irregular verbs uses easily learned patterns rather than a brute listing of forms.

This is an absolutely fantastic grammar. First of all, the way the table of contents is set up makes it easy to find the sections that explain the grammar. The explanations themselves are easy to understand (not grammar-jargon), and the book provides examples to illustrate how each part of the grammar functions in context. I consider this to be one of the best Spanish-materials investments I have made. This book would be a tremendous help to any serious Spanish student and an invaluable resource to any instructor.

By far the most comprehensive grammar on the market. Even standard reference books like 501 Spanish Verbs it puts to shame. Whereas 501 probably has thirty pages describing the Spanish verb system, this work has over two hundred pages on just verbs. It even goes into obscure subjects like the use of the feminine article with the noun "mar," which always intrigued me, because Spanish has a very strict use of the article system, unless two genders are used to distinguish two different meanings. Turns out "mar" is one of the few nouns that take an alternate gender article when used poetically or metaphorically. If you are studying Spanish grammar at anything beyond a basic level I recommend you buy this book; however, at 600+ pages, with every page crammed full of often very dense grammatical explanations, and not the usual idiotic reprints of pages and pages of verb charts, it is not for the casual grammar student. Plan to spend a lot of time reading it, studying it, and thinking about it.

The information contained within this book is infinite. Nearly (I say nearly only because I am not cognizant of all of the aspects of the Spanish language, and thus cannot tell if it is all contained within this book) all of the elements of Spanish grammar are addressed inside of this goldmine. They are organized in the Table of Contents by gramatical terms, and then subheading. i.e.
"The Passive
The Passive Idea
Ser+Past participle
Estar+Past Participle
The Reflexive"

A convenient part of this book is the "Word Index" located in the back of the book. This comes in handy when trying to discover how a certain grammatical word is used, or if you want a description of that word. Take, for example, the comparative "más de". When located in the word index, the reader is directed to this description:

"Where the comparative expression expresses a number or quantity, de must be used; here más de, for example, may be thought of as having the meaning 'in excess of':

Tengo más de dosientos libros
I have more than two hundred books"

However many praises I have for this book, I still have some complaints. The first is that this book focuses mainly on Spanish spoken within Spain and not within Latin America. I also noticed that this book is SLIGHTLY old, first published in English in 1995. (it was translated from Spanish, whose 2nd edition was published in 1985) Keep in mind that this book is not for individuals first starting Spanish, as there is a lot of jargon contained within it. I was also disappointed that the index contained only Spanish words, and no English terms. If I were to want to look up information about "The Preterit", I would have to search through the extensive table of contents, which is obviously not in alphabetical order. All that being said, if you have a good basis in Spanish already, and wouldn't mind learning, for the majority, about all of the aspects of Spain spoken Spanish, this book is ONE of the best of its kind. (see description below)

In my opinion, this book is essential to have in your library. But also in my opinion, it is not the BEST grammar book out there. For the most modern, jargon free, and user-friendly book, I'd recommend "A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish". Contained within this book are extensive definitions, descriptions, and examples of use for all grammatical aspects of the Spanish Language. Located in the front matter is a convenient table of contents, located in the back is a glossary of grammatical terms and where to find more information about them (Anything from "Preterite Tense" to "Exclamation"), as well as an English and Spanish index (words such as the English "Know" or the Spanish "Aun" are found here). What's more, "A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish" focuses mainly on Latin American Spanish. Seeing as this is not a review for THAT book, this is as much information as I will provide about it.

There is only one other comprehensive grammar reference that can compete with this, for English speakers who study or teach Spanish. That book is A Text-Book of Modern Spanish as Now Written & Spoken in Castile & the Spanish-American Republics..

However, this and the Ramsey-Spaulding book are for specialists -- who understand "the language of language" -- grammar.

For intermediate students, and even somewhat advanced students, these books are probably a bit too technical, unless they have studied English grammar.

After studying and using various comprehensive grammar texts, you'll want to go into greater depth with the areas that often cause English speakers to lose heart.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Vogt, Ph.D.

Wow what an exhaustive and excellent reference grammar. Each point of grammar has its own numbered section for easy cross referencing with the index. It also has a huge word list in the back of all the vocabulary used in book/grammatical words/phrases demonstrated. Everything is in English and Spanish. There are manye examples of the grammar points. Virtually ANYTHING you can think of you can find in this excellent and extremely thorough grammar. I highly suggest buying this, as a sort of "authority" on Spanish Grammar.