Customer Reviews

English Grammar for Students of Spanish

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Anna Rivera editor of the Learning Spanish Products Reviews site and author of Anna Rivera's 1000 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Words (Spanish Edition) and Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases (Spanish Edition).

This is very valuable tool for learning Spanish. Unfortunately, very few students and instructors know about this resource. Not only does this book do a wonderful job of teaching Spanish grammar, it also gives the student valuable tips and information to help accelerate the student's learning. Here is some of the advice that you will find in this book:

1. Practice in Sequence: This is a very important tip. Many students jump around from topic to topic when learning Spanish. But as this book tells the learner "language-learning is like building a house; each brick is only as secure as its foundation."

2. Practice Daily - Set aside a block of time to study everyday. It takes time to develop the skills that it takes to speak and comprehend a language.

3. Learn New Vocabulary - Some instructors and authors of Spanish courses will tell you that you only need to learn a few hundred words to communicate in Spanish or any other language. Well I guess that all depends on the level of communication that you are seeking. If you want to be fluent then you will need to know lots of vocabulary words in order to express yourself in a variety of situations and to be able understand native speakers in a variety of situations.

4. Learn New Grammar forms - In order to communicate in Spanish, not only will you need to know lots of words, but you will also need to know how to conjugate verbs; how to use the proper endings on nouns and adjectives; as well as form other grammatical terms.

5. Learn to Communicate: This book reminds the reader that her ultimate goal is not to master Spanish grammar but to be able to effectively communicate with native Spanish speakers. Learning vocabulary and grammar is not the final goal. It's just a means of accomplishing your goal.

This is a book that I have highly recommend to both my private students and readers of my learning-Spanish newsletter. And I also highly recommend it to all Spanish instructors and students of Spanish. And I recommend it not only because of the effective manner that it teaches Spanish grammar by relating it to English grammar concepts, but I also recommend it because it gives the learner very valuable advice and tips for learning Spanish.

This book is the Holy Grail of grammar for students studying and learning Spanish. Spinelli has an outstanding presentation that will bring the average student to an understanding of how to transfer structures from the L1 to the L2, this is an outstanding review for students that are not passionate about grammar. It is easy to follow and well written.

In its defense, this book is intended to be a quick reference, not a replacement for a full Spanish textbook. But this is no excuse for its sloppiness, which complicates much as it clarifies.

Each chapter starts with a question, such as "What is the past tense?", and is followed by a short answer, such as "The PAST TENSE is used to express actions that occurred in the past." The concept is explained in more detail as it pertains to English, then as it pertains to Spanish.

Even I-just-wanna-know-the-answer students will quickly be frustrated by this approach. I don't understand why a book whose purpose is to compare English to Spanish doesn't bother to use side by side comparisons. Simple tables could have replaced many a paragraph. This failure undermines the whole purpose of the book, both as a quick reference and as a comparative guide.

The sloppiness is even more frustrating. Compare the explanation of the past tense above to the one provided for the perfect tenses: "The PERFECT TENSES are compound verbs made up of the auxiliary verb to have + the past participle of the main verb." That's how perfect tenses are CONSTRUCTED, not what they ARE. The pages that follow aren't much help, relying mostly on examples alone rather than explanations followed by examples.

In the section on moods, the three English moods are identified: the indicative, the subjunctive and the imperative. In Spanish, the section continues, there are only two moods: the indicative and the subjunctive. Doesn't Spanish also have an imperative? Of course it does. A sentence to explain this apparent omission and direct to the reader to the section on imperatives would have been helpful.

The section on progressive tenses discusses the present and past progressive in English, but completely ignores the past progressive in Spanish (and the imperfect, which certainly deserves at least a mention here).

The section on the present tense contains this curious sentence: "Unlike English, there is only one verb form [in Spanish] to indicate the present tense." I know that the present progressive isn't used as often as it is in English, but that doesn't justify saying that it doesn't exist!

Another pet peeve of mine is the inconsistent use of terms that refer to same concept. I don't expect the grammarians of the world to get together and settle this once and for all, but I do expect books to be internally consistent. I know it's a pain to say "past perfect or pluperfect" every time, but alternating between those two terms makes an already complicated subject even more confusing. In the section on tenses, the book lists all of the tenses, including the "imperfect" and "past progressive." Ten pages later it introduces, without explanation, something it calls the "imperfect progressive tense." That's not very helpful.

This book is for beginners. Emily Spinelli says as much in a footnote on page 185 in the chapter concerning the use of relative pronouns. As such, it's very well-organized and uncomplicated. If, however, you wanted to know a bit more about, say, relative pronoun usage in Spanish vs. English, there are better resources, notably the internet and McGraw-Hill's very thorough text, The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice.

That said, I would highly recommend this book to people who have absolutely no idea about grammar, English or Spanish, and are looking for brief descriptions and/or examples of the basic building blocks.

I am a good English grammarian and speak and write intermediate Spanish. My Spanish studies are ongoing, and this book does a fabulous job of placing English and Spanish grammatical rules alongside one another for the sake of contrast and comparison. Spanish grammar is in some ways more difficult than English grammar in that Spanish requires number and gender agreement and more tenses and moods are distintly different. In addition, there are some challenging components (i.e., the por/para rules) that require a lot of prtactice and memorization. This book is a great help to the student of Spanish who knows English grammar well or to the one who would like to bone up on both.

English Grammar for Students of Spanish teaches students the English grammar they require to learn Spanish grammar quickly and efficiently. In fact, what I found most amazing about this book is that it showed me how very little ENGLISH grammar that I knew. But by helping me get a better grasp of the grammar from my native language (English) I found myself getting a better understanding of Spanish.

This book covers forty seven topics. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic ranging from "What's in a Word" to "What is a Verb Conjugation" and "What is the Past Tense?" to What are Indefinites and Negatives?" At the beginning of each chapter there is a question such as the ones listed above, followed by a thorough explanation of the subject under review as it applies to both the English and Spanish languages. Take for instance, the topic "What's in a Word?" is subdivided into meaning, parts of speech, and form. Under each section comparisons are drawn between the English and Spanish languages along with examples to illustrate the points being made.
Study tips are also provided at the beginning of the book to assist students on their Spanish language learning journey. Correlation sheets are provided for students to work hand in hand with the topics being discussed in English Grammar for Students of Spanish and their assigned textbooks.

Some other products that I recommend for Spanish language learners are Rosetta Stone Spanish. Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) Level 1,2,3,4 & 5 Set with Audio Companion. Rather expensive but excellent for the visual learner like myself and great for a person who has never studied any Spanish before. In order to speak Spanish fluently, you must also learn lots of new words.

A resource that highly recommend for adding new words to your Spanish vocabulary is Quick Study-Spanish Vocabulary Flash Cards-1000 cards It is a tremendous bargain for the price since you get 1,000 of these cards.

For learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs, the best product is the Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) software. This Verbarrator actually replaces the boring Spanish verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs one of the most fun parts of learning Spanish. And, of course, the more you use the tool the quicker that you will learn how to conjugate Spanish verbs and reach fluency. It is one of the best

The book is beautifully laid out and is easy to maneuver through. Under each term, it gives the definition of the term, and both English and Spanish examples. I would definitely recommend this product if you are looking for something to help you with the different parts of speech so you can understand the language better.

English Grammar for Students of Spanish: English Grammar for Students of Spanish
This was an excellent book to help brush up on the English rules and assist in understanding the Spanish rules. Very useful

I am really glad I bought this book as it explains all the grammar questions that I had - from a Spanish point of view. I would recommend it to anyone having problems getting their heads around certain nuances of the Spanish Grammar system.

This book was exactly what I needed to help me through a very difficult Spanish Class. Would recommend this book to all students in their first few years of studying because it is much better than most Spanish textbooks (sadly because those cost a fortune).