Customer Reviews

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book and the other Practice-Makes-Perfect workbook by Dorothy Richmond ("Spanish Verb Tenses") are the best Spanish books I've ever used. I just got back from 2 years in the Peace Corps in Honduras and I studied these books every day. They REALLY helped me learn more Spanish! In addition to the concise, easy-to-understand instruction sections, there's tons of exercises to do (with the correct answers in the back of the book) and as I did the exercises, I picked up all kinds of things that I'd been wondering how to say. I also liked this workbook a lot because it covered all those difficult things I never understood before, like how to use "lo que..", direct and indirect object pronouns, the passive voice, the difference between "para" and "por", and many other things. (This book is especially great if you already know some Spanish because you need some vocabulary to do the exercises, unless you don't mind looking up lots of words in the dictionary.) I highly recommend this book!

This review is going to be really simple. I completed the Spanish course at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. But I couldn't have done it without this book.

It is hands-down the best one on the market for Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions. And WHAT A VALUE!!!

What's best? The authors leave enough space to write in the book. And at this price, you will want to write all over it. I have had less luck with workbooks that ask for a paragraph, but make you enter it in your own notebook.

Also there is a good glossary at the end of the book so you can easily look up unknown words without having to lug your dictionary around.

I can't say enough good. Buy it.

This workbook masters two important grammatical concepts that present difficulty for Spanish students. Thanks to the clarity and thoroughness of the text-workbook, students and those looking to perfectionize specific weaknesses in their understanding of pronouns and prepositions will immediately recognize that this book is an excellent resource. It is well organized, first tackling pronouns of all categories then prepositions with a strong emphasis on "por" and "para". Each chapter offers a clear explanation of the topic at hand, followed by a wide variety of examples of its usage, ample practice exercises and a practical translation at the end of every chapter. Once having completed the exercises, there is an answer key at the back of the book which is extremely beneficial in that the student can readily identify his/her strengths and weaknesses. As a Spanish teacher, I found this text and the exercises to be a useful supplemenatary study aid that enables Spanish students at all levels to fortify their knowledge and understanding of the grammatical topics covered in the book. This workbook can also be an eternal reference. This is definitely a worthy purchase and very economical considering the wealth of information that is offered. A strong recommendation is given, this a great grammar resource.

For the price, this book can make a valuable contribution to everyone's goal of learning Spanish, but though I welcomed the practice, I did not feel the methodology was outstanding. For example, in each exercise you are basically limited to the grammatical point you have just read about so you don't really have to challenge yourself to recall what you learned 15 pages earlier. I think the translation exercises in the preposition section could have incorporated more pronouns to multiply practice, for example. So you finish the exercises using "lo que" and you think you have it, but that is usually because you do not revisit it later. There are no comprehensive exercises. In the preposition section there is much discussion distinguishing por and para, however in my mind I don't see much of a helpful distinction between one's purpose for doing something and one's motivation for doing something (which we are told is how you may to choose between the two in some instances). Also, we are told that when a person is receiving something from us use para, yet later many, many verbs are listed which require por and yet are defined as taking an action toward someone. Not surprisingly, despite all the theories we ultimately discover me must nevertheless memorize dozens of preposition-specific verbs anyway. If you finish the book you will see what I mean. This is not a fault of the author but a characteristic of the language. I especially like the perforated answer keys and wish other publishers would adopt the practice. The true/false sections are interesting reading at times, but take up a lot of the print allocated to exercises and should perhaps be condensed in future editions.

Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions is a great book for practicing these often forgotten parts of speech that are critical for achieving fluency in Spanish. 14 units, 3-12 pages each, each cover a different use of pronouns in Spanish, and prepositions (especially por and para) likewise receive extensive coverage. Each unit opens with a bit of reading, but the practice starts quickly. The book's translation exercises are especially valuable for learning vocabulary and forming sentences in context. The answers to all the exercises are in the back, so you can get instant feedback on how well you are doing.

I've noticed a problem with this text, however. While each unit includes at least several exercises, I feel that this is often not enough to gain a firm understanding of the material. With so many different uses of pronouns, for example, it is easy to forget the one done six units ago. And since the text teaches the uses of so many different prepositions, more practice with them would be helpful. As a result, I believe this book could be improved by including additional exercises in each unit, plus several review translation exercises that incorporate the content of multiple units.

Even with this minor problem, this book is easily the best workbook that I've seen for learning Spanish pronouns and prepositions. And for $10, it's tough to go wrong (Spanish workbooks inferior to this that are used in my college cost $20-30 or more). Go ahead, buy it!

I used this book in a Spanish class given by a native Spanish speaker (yes, she was Spanish as in both the country and the language). She demonstrated NUMEROUS examples in the prepositions section where it's just not used that way in Spain. This book is written from a Central/South American perspective, yet that's not clearly stated, nor are the differences noted. Try taking your prepositions learned out of here into Spain and you may find yourself using them in a way that's funny to hear by native speakers...and worse, you could be misunderstood or misunderstand someone's directions.

The pronoun sections are good and straightforward.

I'm rating it four stars for its five-star pronoun section, and knocking off a point for the problems I noted above. Get it for the work on pronouns...you'll be glad you did (it's worth its cost for that, at least).

Stuck on por and para? Her explanations are so terrific that I could take a quiz in her book and not only get all 30 correct, but even be able to cite her "rule" for using the correct one. I have been struggling with por and para for 6 months and she is the first to make it crystal clear.

The exercises are simply superb. Her explanations make things really clear, then you get to practice, practice, practice. As she moves through the book, she sprinkles in the things you learned in previous chapters, so you get to review again and again.

She uses lots of vocabulary and even provides it for you so you don't have to be looking it up constantly. This books will really clarify pronouns and prepositions for you, but it will do much more, too, with all the vocabulary and sentence structure that you will get to practice.

The book is well laid out, has lots of room to write in the answers, and has all the answers in the back. You will NEVER get a better value for your money than this book. I have 6 workbooks that I am working through, but I decided to finish this one completely before working further in any of the others because it is so wonderful.

This page is full of glowing reviews, but I couldn't resist writing another because this book really deserves it!

I think that anyone interested in studying Spanish, especially if they want to study it on their own, should have this workbook as part of their repertoire. I have found it invaluable. I recommend it highly. (I have also purchased and studied her other workbook on Verb Tenses and the reviews for both books are similar.)

I have given the book a 4 star rating rather than five for the following reasons:

1. Lack of an index: I find it hard to comprehend how a contemporary academic book can be published without an index. There is a tremendous amount of valuable information contained in this book but being limited to the Table of Contents or to ones memory of where a specific item can be found is debilitating. This is a terrible ommission.

2. There are times when the Author appears to have been in a rush and has not either given sufficient examples or explanations on why a particular rule was invoked. One is left to wonder if there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the point being made or if there is simply a typographical error. Those who are reading this book on their own, without the benefit of an instructor, would benefit greatly from some additional explanations (and cross references.) It is clear from the book's Acknowledgements page that Dorothy Richmond wrote this book because of the persistent nagging of her students to provide additional examples, but most readers will not be in her classroom, rather, they will be virtual students, highly dependent upon additional textual clarification.

This is the BEST book on Spanish pronouns and prepositions avalible. Teachers will find it to be a great teaching aid for any level of class they teach (whether it be a first-year Spanish class, or advanced college-level class). Beginning and advanced students will find the explanations to be very clear and concise. The exercises allow students to to check their work with accuracy. College professors will even find this book to be a reliable reference.

For me, pronouns and prepositions are one of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish. The way pronouns and prepositions are applied in Spanish is quite different from how they're applied in English. This book helps clarify that usage.