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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone"----GREAT BOOK, BRANDON SIMPSON !!!, June 5, 2008
This review is from: Demystifying Spanish Grammar: Advanced Spanish Grammar, Clarifying the Written Accents, Ser/Estar (Verbs), Para/Por (Prepositions), Imperfect/Preterite (Past Tenses), & the Spanish Subjunctive (Paperback)
Demystifying Spanish Grammar is quite a good book for Spanish students everywhere. At first I wondered if the book would be able to cover much ground as it is a shorter book than I expected it to be. Wow, was I ever wrong! This Spanish grammar book covers lots of territory and works wonders for helping students of Spanish like me understand basic yet critical concepts about nouns, verbs, prepositions and much more including those pesky Spanish accents. Great!
Here is a list of what the book covers very well:
1) Written accents in Spanish
2) Understanding Ser and Estar
3) Understanding Para and Por (worth the price of admission alone!)
4) Understanding the Imperfect and the Preterit (the simple past tense)
5) Two lengthy sections on understanding the Spanish Subjunctive (excellent)
There are answers to the exercises; a list of other recommended books (wow); an English-Spanish Glossary; extra information on Spanish nouns and even definitions of grammatical terms.
Author Brandon Simpson has an excellent writing style that spells things out remarkably clearly and the overall "feel" of the book is a "user-friendly" one and this book is not difficult to understand. You also still have the ability to re-read parts of the book that are particularly troublesome for you if, for example, you're having trouble differentiating between para and por--this certainly does throw many, many students of Spanish grammar--even the best of students can stumble and fall on this topic.
Overall, I highly recommend this book for people who wish to pursue the formal study of the Spanish language at the entry and intermediate levels. It's also a good book for people who wish to use it to review or refresh their understanding of certain concepts even when they are at the more advanced levels of study. In addition, this book is designed in such a way that you can use it for independent study or you can refer to it when a topic in class just isn't clearly understandable to you. Brandon Simpson has made a huge contribution to the study of the Spanish language; and we are better off for it.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good For What it Is, June 2, 2008
This review is from: Demystifying Spanish Grammar: Advanced Spanish Grammar, Clarifying the Written Accents, Ser/Estar (Verbs), Para/Por (Prepositions), Imperfect/Preterite (Past Tenses), & the Spanish Subjunctive (Paperback)
Don't expect to learn a lot of Spanish or to spend hours reading this book. I went through the entire thing in a couple of hours. The book only goes into six grammatical issues facing foreign learners. For me I picked up a few small tips (using "ser" to indicate event location and a slightly better understanding of when to use the accent mark) but about 95% of the book was covered in my College advance grammer course. The book is good for a quick study before a test in one of the grammar areas and I suspect it is more useful for high school student (who don't have a good understanding of even English grammar) than for College students.
The book does give some acronyms to remember for when to use "ser" vs. "estar" and is good for people that need acronyms to jar their memory.
All in all the material, though sparse is well explained and will be useful for students that have difficulty with the concepts covered.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Tool Created by Author Brandon Simpson., August 8, 2008
This review is from: Demystifying Spanish Grammar: Advanced Spanish Grammar, Clarifying the Written Accents, Ser/Estar (Verbs), Para/Por (Prepositions), Imperfect/Preterite (Past Tenses), & the Spanish Subjunctive (Paperback)
I am a Spanish major. I am in the process of finishing my last four classes for my B.A. in Spanish. I own too many Spanish reference books to even count. And, I know which areas of grammar usually give non native speakers of the language problems when they write or speak.
A few days ago I recieved this thin, green book in the mail. The title made me curious. I asked myself "Is it possible that this author can demystify Spanish grammar?" Well, the answer is yes. The author, Brandon Simpson, has managed to present and clarify written accents, ser/estar, para/por, the imperfect/preterit, and yes, the dreaded Spanish subjunctive in a very fresh and very user friendly way.
I especially like the way the author uses acronyms like HIDE/STARS to help inforce the usage of the imperfect and the preterit. These types of acronyms along with practice exercises are used throughout the book. And, they do what they were designed to do, they help the learner to remember and understand these often troublesome grammar areas. Mr. Simpson presents all of the above grammar topics in a very precise fashion. His book is a gem for all intermediate to advanced Spanish learners. His creativity and his ability to actually help learners is commendable.
Please note that this book does not cover every aspect of Spanish grammar. The areas mentioned above are the topics of focus. And, if you are studying Spanish, you already know why a focus on these areas and an easy to carry book like this one is necessary.
Brandon Simpson, you did a fine job. I recommend your book to all Spanish learners who want to fine tune their fluency and comprehension of the Spanish language.
Thanks for a wonderful tool!
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