Customer Reviews

Correct Your Spanish Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of Spanish

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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).

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.

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!

While I do think the author should change the box that says, "Avoid the Blunder" to "Speak Like a Native Speaker, Say..." and then list the correct phrase(s) to say, the content of the rest of the book is excellent. The author clearly states the rules to follow and gives good examples. The book is well written and comprehensive. To get past the minor shortcoming of the book, the reader can pencil in the correct way to say things into the blunder boxes so they're imprinted in the reader's brain. I also learned a lot from reading "Pitfalls of Spanish" but I find this book to be more comprehensive and with more numerous examples.

Jade Lindquist
'Finally Learn Spanish' podcasts by Edufone

I have been studying Spanish for 5 years or more, and am always looking for another book to help me improve. This book may be beneficial to some.....it depends on how your brain is wired. This book has a highlighted box around each "blunder" while the correct way to express the Spanish is not highlighted, and in fact, at times can be difficult to find in the paragraphs preceding or following the highlighted blunder. So I am blinded by the glare from the highlighted blunder, without being able to see the correction. I agree with a previous reviewer: I feel that the errors are being cemented in my brain, not the correction. This is the only Spanish instructional book for which I have ever wanted a refund. But I own it now. I keep picking it up, thinking maybe this time it will help me. Then I put it down, thinking that this book and I really do not get along. Good luck to you, but I would not buy this one.

Not another Spanish grammar book, you might say. But this one's different. Why? Because the longer you browse through its pages, the more you will be amazed at how much you still have to learn! If you want to be blunder-free, get this book. It is worth every penny.

But for those who think they have superior Spanish fluency, I meant no offense. It's just that I've been so tired of being embarrassed because I always switch the genders and mix up my idioms. And who doesn't hate confusing their verb tenses and all those "gringo" errors? I have encountered many times when I just scratch my head and say, Oh! That really sounds bad! This book will not only correct your mistakes but also really hone your Spanish panache.

Divided into three sections - pronunciation and spelling, grammar, and vocabulary - this book tells you the difference between Spanish and English grammar patterns, and even has a detailed section about prepositions! If you have no idea what are the different subjunctive forms and how to solve the problem of false cognates, this is highly recommended! This book is a godsend for all those who want to break the bad habits and eliminate all the bloopers when conversing with native Spanish speakers.

I learned the hard way that you don't just translate directly to Spanish, haha! If you have tried interpreting from English word for word before, you know you're in big trouble. Lucky for those who are just refining their Spanish skills because Correct Your Spanish Blunders will definitely save you a lot of awkward moments with native speakers.

For those who are as passionate as I am about learning Spanish I have listed My Top 10 Tools For Learning Spanish:

1. Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Verb Tenses, Second Edition (Practice Makes Perfect Series)
Best book on the topic of verb tenses.
2. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions No other book covers the topic of Spanish pronouns and prepositions as thoroughly as this author.
3. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) Best software for learning how to conjugate over 500 Spanish verbs and also helps improve pronunciation.
4. A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish Most comprehensive and complete Spanish grammar book I have found.
5. Learn Conversational Spanish Now Great for listening to during long commutes or on your Ipod for improving your listening skillis and actually understanding conversational Spanish when you hear it spoken.
6. Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish: A Creative and Proven Approach This is one of the classics for learning Spanish and increasing vocabulary by using words you already know in English.
7. Easy Spanish Phrase Book: Over 770 Basic Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Easy Phrase) (Spanish and English Edition) Excellent phrase book at a great price. Also check out
8.Casi Casi Only for advanced students who think they are up to the challenge of watching a hilarious Puerto Rican comedy completely in Spanish
9. Fluenz Version F2: Spanish 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts Comprehensive course with an excellent and knowledgeable instructor.
10. First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition) Best book that I have found for learning Spanish through reading.

I never liked books that point out the wrong things. That is because you will remember those things more than the correct things as one reviewer rightly pointed out. I remember going to a cashier's training for spotting conterfeit money. Rather than show us conterfeits they made us spend hours examining genuine bills and later tried to throw in some conterfeits and they were easy to spot because we were so used to the real thing. That being said the book could have been made more effective by having more emphasis on the correct way to say these things and de-emphasis on the incorrect way of saying the same things.

This book is very useful for pointing out "gringo" errors and showing how to say them correctly. It goes from simple to difficult. There are some things that can't be translated word for word and are phrased differently in Spanish, and this book will definitely help with that. Something I specifically remember is saying something like "I haven't been here in three years!" It is not "No he estado aqui en tres anos," although you would be understood, it's awkward. It is "Llevo tres anos desde he estado aqui," which translates better. It's things like that, to make you sound less awkward. If you've been studying Spanish for awhile you know what I mean! All those "oooh, that sounded really bad" moments we hate! It is a little textbook-ish and hard to get through a lot at once, but it's very useful. I recommend this with "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" and "Speaking Spanish Like a Native." It's like $30 for all three and they're so worth it!

This text is a great resource for native speakers of English who have learned Spanish as a second language. It is not a beginner text, and is not intended as a starting point for learning the language. What this book is useful for is helping advanced students of Spanish correct the inevitable mistakes they are making in its usage.

All languages have their own structure, and our brains are imprinted with the structure of whatever language we grew up hearing and speaking. It logically follows that we will tend to impose the structure of our native language onto any new language we learn. The resulting mistakes are difficult for a student of a second language to recognize, as they "sound right" to the student.

The value of this book is not only that it explains Spanish grammar in detail, but also that it calls attention to the pitfalls that native speakers of English naturally encounter as their Spanish skills increase. Problems related to false cognates and orthography issues are also addressed. If you are an advanced student of Spanish who is seeking to refine and perfect your skills, this book is highly recommended.

This book was very helpful in correcting my Spanish grammar errors. The grammatical explanations and examples are clear. The "blunders" are clearly indicated in red ink and with a red check mark. Each chapter includes a brief exercise for assessing the extent to which concepts were learned (with answers at the appendix at the end of the book). Although most of the book dealt with grammar, I found the section on vocabulary building helpful as well. As I went through this book I was surprised at the extent to which I inappropriately applied English grammatical concepts to Spanish.