60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A big help in a small package, August 8, 2005
This review is from: Correct Your Spanish Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of Spanish (Paperback)
I must admit I initially hesitated to buy this book. Even when I saw that its price was extremely reasonable, I still balked. After all, I'd built a pretty extensive collection of Spanish reference books, and I hate spending money to get information I already have or know. Incidentally, after having studied Spanish for four years and even taking an advanced Spanish lit class in college, I was slowly preparing to take my state's test to become a certified translator. I figured this book couldn't possibly do me any good. How wrong I was!
While at a bookstore, I gave "Correct Your Spanish Blunders" a thorough once-over. The more I read, the more I became convinced that I needed this book. I am just about to finish reading the last 20 pages or so, and my highlighter has been going almost nonstop. I'll provide some examples of what I mean, but the book's format deserves a brief mention. "Correct Your Spanish Blunders" is divided into three sections: pronunciation and spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. The grammar section is by far the longest and is divided mostly along the lines of the parts of speech. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that nouns and verbs are the flesh and blood of any language, but author Jean Yates gives even the lowly preposition its due in this book -- more than 30 pages.
It's info like this, though, that has more than justified my purchase of this book:
1. "Both the imperfect and the preterit of 'poder' may be translated as 'could,' and both the imperfect and the preterit of 'tener que' may be translated as 'had to.' (But) [t]he imperfect is used to describe a situation before its resolution. The preterit refers to a situation after its resolution."
2. "'Delante de'" and 'enfrente de' both mean 'in front of,' but they do not express the same concept. 'Delante de' expresses the concept 'ahead of,' as in a row or line. 'Enfrente de' expresses the concept 'facing.'"
3. I'd often wondered why the Spanish title of one of Paulo Coelho's books was "A orillas del rio Piedra, me senté y lloré" as opposed to "A *las* orillas ..." This book gave me the answer (and, as a nifty bonus, told me the rules of capitalization that apply to book and article titles in Spanish).
If you are an SSL member of the human race and you already knew the three tidbits above, pat yourself on the back because that's getting way deep into Spanish mastery. You probably don't need Jean Yates' help. Note to all the others: even the best Spanish teacher can correct only so many errors. If the thought of avoiding 99 percent of common mistakes sounds good to you, plunk down the money for this book and immediately dispel any fears of parting with some of that hard-earned dinero. Besides correcting your mistakes, you're almost certain to add nuance and panache to your Spanish. Y para colmo (and to top it all off), "Correct Your Spanish Blunders" is fairly small in size. You can take it with you for study or leave it on your reference shelf. But do keep an eye on it; it's likely to be the object of envy. Last of all, please join me in thanking Jean Yates for this godsend of a book (she's an adjunct assistant Spanish prof at George Washington University; her e-mail address is jeany@gwu.edu).
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Speak & Understand Spanish BETTER, June 29, 2005
This review is from: Correct Your Spanish Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of Spanish (Paperback)
I have taught myself Spanish over the years through 3 computer programs and 3 book/tape programs. I am able to converse with native Spanish speakers but always felt that I wasn't coming off as a "good" speaker. The different forms of subjunctive and when and how to use them eluded me. I looked at various grammer books and never found adequate answers. Asking the native Spanish speakers didn't help either as, like myself, they forgot grammer rules after being many years out of school.
This book is a godsend. Period.
Descriptions of the verb forms and other grammer problems are spelled out better than any Spanish grammer book I have ever seen or owned. Now when I read a Spanish language newspaper online, I don't question why a certain verb tense was used and the reason behind it. Though I am dwelling on the verb tenses, this book covers so much more. It is worth every penny.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Spanish grammar book., February 28, 2006
This review is from: Correct Your Spanish Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of Spanish (Paperback)
I like this book because it explains how English speakers incorrectly translate into Spanish. If you have studied languages, you know that one can never assume you may translate a phrase by looking something up in the dicctionary, putting on the proper ending to the words, and translating. It does not work. Translating directly into any langauge means mistakes. This book shows you how an English person would say something such as, " I like music." This is correct in English, but in Spanish if you said, "I like music," (meaning in a general sense) it would be wrong. You must instead say, "I like the music" (even if it is a general observation) There a hundreds of examples like that one above in the book. Buy this book, sound better!
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