Customer Reviews

Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary (Practice Makes Perfect Series)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Speaking as somebody who is teaching themselves Spanish, I'd have to say that this book does what it claims and DOES IT WELL! USEFUL, ENTERTAINING, EASY TO USE and YOU LEARN VOCABULARY. Better than a dictionary and a whole LOT MORE FUN!

I also own the PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT VERBS, the PRONOUNS & PREPOSITIONS volume AND the COMPLETE SPANISH GRAMMER books in the series. Personally, I think this book is an excellant companion book and fits in well with the series. True, it doesn't have the LONG translation excercises, but it does contain LONG reading segments in Spanish which is, in my opinion, the best way to learn VOCABULARY! Believe me, YOU LEARN VOCABULARY when you read this book. I know today's "educators" frown upon rote learning and "memorizing", but, quite frankly, if you don't memorize anything, how much can you really know??? The reading excercises make your brain work on recalling the words from MEMORY. Sure, there's not a lot of long excercises which require you to write, but there ARE LOTS OF PRACTICE EXCERCISES.

I found the book to be FUN and ENJOYABLE. I'm learning a LOT and it's FUN, too! Unlike the Verb book, you can skip around from unit to unit. Read a unit while you're eating lunch or riding on the bus. Short sentence and phrase translations, fill-in-the-word, and true and false excercises mean you can do many of the exercises IN YOUR HEAD without the need for pencil and paper. Subject grouped word lists followed by reading excercises, short translations and T/F quizes makes your brain retain the words. And to achieve even a conversational level in any language, who would disagree that one must fill their memory with words??? You can read, study and use this book anywhere and anytime you have five free minutes. It WORKS, so I'm not sure I understand why it's not receiving better reviews.

It shouldn't be the FIRST book you buy in this series, though. I'd recommend getting VERBS first, PREPS & PRONOUNS second, GRAMMER third and this book AFTER you've used the others, as this book presupposes that you already have a basic grasp of how to conjugate verbs and construct a sentence. It DOES REVIEW verbs in general, ser/estar, reflexive verbs, por/para, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, and grammer--all the while introducting new words and how different, but related, words are formed through the use of suffixes and prefixes.

Not only will you learn vocabulary, but you might just find a few surprising tid-bits of knowledge about history, historic and contempory people, current events, religion, science and more!!!!

All in all, I'm VERY PLEASED with this book, and I give it FIVE STARS. It's USEFUL, FUN, and EXPANDS YOUR VOCABULARY--exactly what the publisher claims. It's also INEXPENSIVE and actually has 388 PAGES of text and exercises, 436 pages total (including the answer keys). For the price, you can't go wrong!

This book is excellent. I have gone thru it from A to Z and find virtually no faults with it. There are well over 10,000 words presented, and they are words that are commonly used in every day language. There are plenty of exercises to test your learning abilities. Also there are short stories using the words you have just learned and some you have learned in previous sections. For example, after presenting some legal terms, the author presents a discussion of the "Trial of the Century" - a discussion of the O.J. Simpson trial using some of the legal words you just learned. She discusses weights and measures, then gets into a discussion (in spanish of course) on the history and how make a Harvey Wallbanger. The book is full of many catagories of words and followed up with exercises and stories. She does not try to overwhelm you with spanish grammer, as the entire book concentrates on vocabulary and not verb tenses/grammer, and she does this by keeping the whole book in the Present Tense. Even though many of the stories happened in the past, she keeps them simple by writing them in the present, but concentrating on the words just covered. This way you concentrate on vocabluary and not so much on grammer. Over 10,000 words is a lot to learn, but she presents them is such a way that retention is enhanced. Give it a try, its a great book!!

I've just got this book and it is a good compilation of wordlists and some grammar rules but the main reason why I bought it is "Practice Makes Perfect" and this book doesn't belong to this series. I have "Verbs" and "Pronouns and prepositions" from this series and both of them have a lot of exercises and this one doesn't - just a few simple ones per each chapter. Like a regular grammar book and I have quite a few already.
This book has a lot of very useful material and if you are not looking for extensive language building exercises you will find this book useful, otherwise - look elsewhere.

This product is great for use in expanding the learner's vocabulary. I am a non native speaker of Spanish taking courses in college to become a Spanish teacher. This book, as well as the other in the series, are simple easy to use, and even interesting. I use this book in my classrooms to supplement the text and to give extra help in the present tense. I only gave it four stars because this book assumes that the learner has some knowledge of the Spanish language. While this book is great for the late beginner and intermediate learners true beginners will have a harder time with this book.

As an adult learner, I really enjoy the "Practice Makes Perfect" series because is helpful not only for beginners to increase their language skills, but I frequently return to these books as a refresher text. I cannot agree with the reviewer who says that this book is a rush job, I've seen those books and they are lists of words without any meaningful context. Richmond has given significant attention to ser & estar and para & por that are especially helpful. She has a good sense of humor, and I enjoy finding the little jewels in her work, this volume even includes a recipe for a Harvey Wallbanger as well as its history.

This book might be good if you are a real beginner learning Spanish. As an intermediate learner, I found the vocabulary sections to be of very limited use. One other thing I didn't care for was the way the writer explained concepts in the non-vocabulary (i.e. grammar) sections. Rather than getting straight to the point, the author rambles quite a bit and uses odd analogies to convey information that could be delivered in a quicker, shorter and much more straight forward manner. I at times wondered if she thought she was either a talk show host who had to fill the air with pointless drivel, or was writing for a kindergarten audience that needed to be entertained with little stories and analogies.

This books is great for beginners. Even if you have never studied Spanish before this books works well. I have been trying to learn Spanish for about a year but could never quite construct sentences. This book has helped me go from just knowing words to actually reading and speaking in sentences. It is such a relief to know that it is possible to learn Spanish and that it's not just me.

Some of the great features of this book are: reading passages, vocab lists, and various exercises that focus on translation. The way that the book is constructed works well because it starts at the most simple of nouns and broadens out by including pronouns and verbs.

In addition, this book offers a vast amount of vocabulary which I will probably never use but I think would be an advantage for those who already speak Spanish and want to learn new vocabulary.

So if you're like me and have a hard time getting off the ground, this book is definitely what you need.

I've just done a Spanish night class and am a complete beginner. This book has helped me understand everything taught in the class so much better. It introduces each topic and teaches you it as well, if not better, than you will learn in a class.
The best bit is that there are HEAPS of activities, they are incredibly helpful. There are also word lists so you don't have to know heaps before you can get stuck in. I did the first 50 pages in a couple of days - it was FUN. The exercises aren't boring either, they are quite funny to translate sometimes and they are varied eg, is something true or false for you, translating sentences and paragraphs and did you know, who is this sort of questions.
A GREAT book for a beginner, I feel so much more confident in my class now. I would suggest this book far over the other 3 in the series for a beginner - the others you need to know more before you start.
BEST Spanish book I have seen, and I own heaps!

If you are the kind of learner (and self-teacher) who LIKES homework then this whole series of books is for you. The Richmonds even throw in odd-ball humor to keep you awake. I really recommend these learning tools.

First, be clear - this book is for beginners. If you have been studying Spanish for a while, either on your own or in formal classes, this book may not be especially helpful to you. But if you are a beginner, in your first year of formal Spanish study or just beginning to study on your own, you will find this book fun and helpful.

The author is my favorite in this series of Spanish workbooks. She approaches her topics with clarity and humor, and devises ingenious exercises that keep your interest. For instance, one of the earliest exercises in writing Spanish numbers asks you to recall such things as how many Oscars Alex Guiness has won and how many calories are in Diet Coke. By using cognates (words that resemble each other in English and Spanish) the learner is able to write Spanish answers from the very beginning.

The grammar information was a welcome addition to the vocabulary presentation. Though grammar is presented in a very abbreviated form, it is combined logically with vocabulary categories to enable the student to expand the ability to use Spanish correctly as more and more vocabulary is learned.

There is a complete answer key included so the student can check and correct all exercises.

The book is designed as "fill in the blank" exercise book. This is convenient for the learner but presents a problem for school libraries considering purchase of this book, since borrowers will be very tempted to write in it.

I recommend this to all beginning students. If you are more advanced, look at other books in the "Practice Makes Perfect" series for exercises on specific topics.