Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses (Paperback)

by Dorothy Richmond (Author) "The present tense is used to report what is happening and what is true now..." (more)
Key Phrases: Cristóbal Colón, regular verbs, incomplete passive voice, Spanish Verb Tenses, Estados Unidos, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This convenient worktext gives students a unique approach to learning, remembering, and reviewing how to use Spanish verbs correctly. The book provides a systematic presentation and review of Spanish verb forms and explains when and why a certain verb tense should be used. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses includes an impressive number of exercises and open-ended questions, numerous conjugation charts, a list of verbs and their prepositions, and Spanish-English and English-Spanish vocabulary lists.

About the Author
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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 11, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844273341
• ISBN-13: 978-0844273341
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (135 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #480 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

133 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is so great!, October 18, 2000

By	Oddzilla - See all my reviews

This book and the other Practice-Makes-Perfect workbook by Dorothy Richmond ("Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions") 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 the verb workbook a lot because it went way beyond the present tense, all the way to the subjunctive uses of "haber" and other more advanced things I really wanted to know. (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!

122 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A course in itself on Spanish verbs- a great resource!, April 23, 2002

By	Marianopolita2005 - See all my reviews

This is the only textbook/workbook available on the market so far that is thorough in its objective which is to study, analyze and understand Spanish verb tenses and moods. I deem this workbook as a course in itself on Spanish verbs and the various rules and usage due to the completeness and extensive coverage provided in every chapter. The book provides a summary of the topic to be covered, examples of the verb concept in a phrase, practice exercises and amazingly enough a practice translation which encompass all the verb concepts taught in the chapter and concepts taught progressively throughout the book. The practice exercises allows for immediate application of the concept being reviewed and the answer key at the back allows you correct your exercises and realize your strengths and weaknesses during the learning process.I recommend this book to intermediate and advance level Spanish students as well as native speakers who wish to clarify and perfectionize specific verb concepts that prove to be difficult in Spanish. I have used this book with my students and also for personal clarification of doubts from time to time. This book will definitely prove to be beneficial and can be studied as a course in Spanish verbs. If you follow the lessons chapter by chapter you will realize the correlation from one chapter to the another and therefore progress in your understanding of the concepts being reviewed. You can't go wrong with this purchase as it is educational, economical and an eternal verb resource material. High recommendation given.

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Critique of Spanish Verb Tenses, October 10, 2003

By	Dan Sehnal (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews

Verbs are the heart of any language. If you want to become knowledgable and facil at not only conjugting verbs but understanding the contextual usage and rules governing the uses of the verbs, then this is the book for you. 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 Richmond's Pronouns and Preposition workbook and the reviews are similar.)

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

1. Lack of an index: (The same is true of the Pronouns and Preposition workbook.) 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. After studying the book thoroughly twice, my workbook is riddled with tabs and annotations in search of clarifications. A bit of addtional clarification and some additional examples before the author goes off into the exercises would potentially eliminate a considerable amount of confusion. The sections on Ser and Estar are a good example. It appears that sufficient explanaions are provided in the book (in the section on Ser for exaple) until one delves into further exercises in subsequent chapters of the book. There, knowledge of the full use of "Ser" is assumed, but referencing back to the original chapeter on "Ser" leaves one empty handed (in some but not all cases) as to why "Ser" was used rather than "Estar." This might seem picayune until one looks back on the total number of questions raised throughout the book. It is understandable that the author cannot anticipate all possible questions and points of confusion, but a bit more explanation and the use of additional examples would greatly amplify and clarify the grammatical content.

3. The student would also benefit greatly by having additional exercises in the book that mix and match what is learned in previous chapters (This is done is a few limited cases.) It is all too easy as an exercise to answer questions and translate text that directly follows the material being presented, for it is customed tailored to the points being made in that exercise. Addtional end of chapter exercise combining all that has been learned would be a valued addition. With that said, let me also add that the translation paragraphs at the end of each section (as humorous and as enjoyable as they are to translate) somewhat satisfy this contention, but not fully.