Customer Reviews

Practice Makes Perfect Basic Spanish (Practice Makes Perfect Series)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me first say that this book does a good job on its intended purpose. When you flip to page v (the preface), the author clearly states that this book is not intended to be the primary teaching source or that it will introduce concepts.

There's nothing wrong with that, but the title of the book is "Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish." I bought it with the impression that it would introduce beginning Spanish concepts. I wanted to use this book with students or homeschooled kids who needed a good place to start. When I saw this book listed on Amazon, I was excited to see that a book for beginners had been published. But this book is not for beginners. If the title had been Basic Spanish Review, I probably wouldn't have bought it, or I might have bought it if I needed additional materials for a Spanish class.

This book is best used for maybe Spanish I in high school or Spanish 101 in college. The exercises are useful in that respect. But if you want a book that is for absolute beginners, get a copy of Getting Started with Spanish. It is one of the best, if not the best, book for absolute beginners of Spanish.

Brandon Simpson

I have this book in paperback and it's very good - I'd rate it 5 stars. I ordered the Kindle edition so I could take it traveling and it is virtually unreadable. Much of the grammar and exercises - most of the Spanish words are in the "picture format" not the type format so you have to zoom to view them and they are still difficult. Also it interrupts the continuity of your study. I have a Kindle 2 so it may work better the larger screen DX. My advice - order the book in paper. It's a great book - too bad it's practically useless on the Kindle.

Dorothy Richmond has created a very useful tool with this book of basic Spanish. You can be a total newbie and get a lot out of it. I like the exercises and, like another reviewer, have used some of them as supplemental material in classes or for make-up quizzes.

However, it is just a start. Eventually, you'll need some in-depth examination and reinforcement about other areas that often are tough for English-speaking students of Spanish.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Vogt, Ph.D.

This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). This book is a great textbook for Spanish students who find grammar a little overwhelming. Each lessons clearly focuses on a single grammar element and explains it thoroughly before offering examples and plenty of practice exercises to help you get to grips with the concept. Although each element is covered in depth, the lessons are deliberately kept short to prevent frustration, and you should be able to fully understand each element with under thirty minutes of study.

Ideal for beginners, the lessons walk through some of the key building blocks of Spanish grammar, such as how to conjugate common verbs in the present tense, when to use the verbs "ser" and "estar" as well as covering many adjectives, pronouns and other essential parts of sentence structure. Having a concrete understanding of these elements will give you confidence as you progress through your Spanish learning experience.

There is plenty of everyday vocabulary presented in the lessons, covering clothing, family, animals, food and drink, days of the week, emotions and other basic topics that are good for new students. Some of the verbs covered are also the most commonly used, for example "hacer", "poder" and "saber". Combined, the book presents a strong basic introduction to Spanish grammar and the language in general. A clear index lets you find and revise specific topics and grammar elements as needed.

As the title suggests, there are lots of exercises included for each lesson, encouraging you to practice, practice, practice what you have learned in order for it to sink in. Each exercise is presented clearly, with spaces to fill in the answers, letting you work through the book at your own pace and record your progress. Although not an in depth study text by any means, this is a great introductory book for new learners.

Great for revision of key concepts as well as initial learning, Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Spanish is a good choice for students looking to strengthen their grasp of the basic grammatical elements of the Spanish language.

In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.

1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasant to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.

2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity

3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one mainly because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish. According to him, this is the "standard" among university level Spanish professors.

Dorothy Richmond's Practice Makes Perfect Basic Spanish (Practice Makes Perfect Series) is the perfect reference tool for anyone who has already had some beginning knowledge of the language. What I love about this book is that it tells you honestly its intended purpose, which is to reinforce the lessons you have already acquired, rather than to introduce them again.

Grammatical concepts are given more emphasis but I would not say that vocabulary words take the backseat because the author teaches vocabulary that exactly what's needed for everyday conversation like days of the week, food and drinks, family, clothing, and many others.

This book gives you a concrete understanding of the broad, basic concepts of the Spanish grammar like the essential parts of the sentence structure, when to use the "ser" and "estar" verbs, and such. The lessons are easy to follow and presented in an engaging manner, and plenty of exercises are given to strengthen your understanding of the lessons.

Gain mastery in the areas of present tense verb conjugation, five sensing verbs, the ser and estar verb forms, adjectives, possessive pronouns, sentence structures, the contractions al and del, indefinite articles, tener idioms, and much more. There are ten chapters, each with five lessons in it, you will get a comprehensive explanation of the topics.

Although you will still need an in-depth examination and reinforcement in other areas, this book is a great tool in gaining more confidence of the Spanish language. Simple, clear, and very useful for beginners and even for those who want to review their Spanish skills.

So what did I like most about this book? One challenge for me in learning Spanish is determining when to use por vs para and conocer vs. saber. There were sections in this book that covered the topics of por vs para and conocer vs. saber. After studying these sections of the book these once confusing topics are now clear for me and understanding por vs para and conocer vs. saber is so much easier for me now.

Here's my list of my favorite 7 products for learning Spanish that I think will help anyone who wants to learn or improve their Spanish. As you can see from many of my recommendations, I enjoy reading stories in Spanish because I believe reading stories really makes the language stick in your head.

1. Easy Spanish Reader w/CD-ROM: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students (Easy Reader Series)
Make sure that you get the version of this book that comes with the additional CD which contains recordings of passages from the book so that you can download them to your Ipod or mp3 player and improve your ability to understand the language when you hear someone speak it.

2. Spanish Stories / Cuentos Españoles (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Spanish Edition) This is my second favorite Spanish reader.

3. Short Stories in Spanish: New Penguin Parallel Text (New Penguin Parallel Texts) (Spanish and English Edition) Another great book for anyone who likes to learn a language by reading.

4. First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition) A very popular book for learning the language by reading that I also enjoyed immensely.

5. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This fun and interactive software has been a tremendous help for me in allowing me to now master what was once the most hardest part of learning Spanish for me (learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs).

6. Spanish for Reading: A Self-Instructional Course This book has done wonders to help my Spanish reading comprehension.

7. Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish by Joseph J. Keenan If you want go from being a neophyte to being a true intermediate student, check this book out.

I've been critical of many books in the PMP Spanish series because they really just aren't very useful to beginning students. They simply require an intermediate level vocabulary to even understand the questions.

They got this one right though and its great. Tons of questions to work out without requiring a dictionary by your side.

The PNP Spanish Vocabulary book also seems to be very nicely done. It would be a great way to quickly get beyond the initial boring words and into some of the more interesting words. It seems like it would keeps you interested and will probably be my next Spanish book purchase.

Good short concise book with practice modules for beginners. I've used some of the examples while teaching students in class.

I had 2 years of college Spanish a number of years ago. I'm currently taking a conversational Spanish class to try to re-remember what I'd once learned. This book is proving to be a perfect supplement to the level that I'm at. However, someone just starting to learn the language would find this book challenging.

This has been a great supplemental book for some of my Spanish I students. It contains major points and reviews them quickly and concisely in 2-pages of exercises.

This book Basic Spanish is excellent if you have basic knowledge in spanish. I used it as a review as I had a 4 weeks immersion course in spanish but I did not get to practice much after the course. This book really got me back on track and ready to tackle another level of learning.