Customer Reviews

Spanish I (Cliffs Quick Review)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own a variety of books for learning Spanish, ranging from phrase-books (I know, what a joke), to classroom textbooks. I only discovered this particular little gem a couple of months ago.

This author excels at several things:

1) saying the most with the fewest words (I always like to cut to the chase)
2) using just the right number of well-selected examples in all the right places
3) answering your questions just when you are about to ask them
4) thoroughness

and perhaps most important of all

5) fantastic pacing, it never drags, and yet never outruns you.

There are many experts in the Spanish language, obviously, but it is truly a joy to find one who is also an expert teacher and writer.

If you had been previously exposed to the Spanish language in any way, either via phrasebooks or a mostly-forgotten class 15 years ago, get this book. It sets everything straight permanently in one single reading.

I wholeheartedly agree with Chuan N. Lee "half". Who knew that
cliff notes 1 & 2 for Spanish could possibly be so excellent? I mean, cliff notes - they're for the losers who couldn't even be bothered to actually read the book, right?

But I picked these up because I'd just started Spanish and they were going cheap at Walmart's. To my surprise, books 1 & 2 together pretty much comprise a complete course in
Spanish, but pared right down to the essentials, which is what I need because I'm in my forties now so I don't have time to waste.

I liked it so much I gave copies to my SO, who is also an engineer, also learning Spanish, and also in a hurry. He finally overcame his prejudice of cliff's notes long enough to actually look at them, and now is as hooked on them as I am.

If you're serious about learning Spanish and are type-A like us, with no time for the fluff and hand-holding you get from "Learn Spanish in 25 years in Your Car whilst becoming a Hazard to Navigation" then this, along with the dictionaries at yahoo.com and wordreference.com, is the way to go.

I learned French a long time ago, so I felt like I knew what I was getting in to when I started with another Romance language, and I wanted to find something that was straight to the point to help me learn Spanish. Cliff's Quick Review of Spanish is just that, concise and straightforward. It will not give you a lot of exercises or practice problems, but the basics of grammar are presented in a concise and logical way. I imagine this would make an excellent resource for review for those taking intro to Spanish classes, and as an independent learner I can tell you this book has been extremely useful. While additional books/CDs/websites/etc. are advisable for learning to speak and understand Spanish, this is an excellent background and review on Spanish grammar that I highly recommend.

This is an excellent refresher for those who have had high school Spanish. It is full of great acronyms which were previously unfamiliar to me, but are very useful. I recommend this book for all ages and all levels.

I am trying to learn the basics of Spanish and this book has been one of the most useful I have found thus far. Grammar is explained in easily understood ways with examples to clarify things. I like it very much!

I took Spanish in High school, 9th grade. And then I have to take 4 semesters in College for my degree almost 7 years later. Being in a summer class, the Spanish was moving by quickly. So I purchased this book and could NOT be happier! Everything the text book DIDN'T tell me about, aka everything, I looked up in this cliff notes book, and I understood everything on my own. I practically taught myself Spanish, who needs the class anyways? I'm just kidding.

If you are in high school or college I recommend this book for Spanish, I even have the second one and its just as good!! Never worry about Spanish again!

I really like this book. at first i didn't really get into because it seemed it bit complicated. But, at a few months later when i opened it up it made alot more sence. I would say this book is good for a beginner, but also a good intermediate review, Because it seems to shed light on alot of grey areas. This is a good book of spanish enlightenment :D.

It's has all the basics,and explains the language, and all the small details that may be unclear. It's not the most exciting book i have read, but it gives good short answer explainations. I'd say its worth the gamble and i would buy it again if i had to, although i found it more useful once i was intermediate.

THIS BOOK WAS RECOMMENDED BY MY SPANISH TEACHER IN ADULT EDUCATION CLASS. SO, IF SHE RECOMMENDED IT I ASSUMED IT WAS THE RIGHT CHOICE.

I purchased this at my husband's request for his own use. He has found it to be exactly what he wanted and it is helping him to learn this language.

Jan Burch - Maryland

Compact and likable review book, but with numerous confusing errors, omissions, and under-unemphasized essentials that will perplex the more penetrating student and leave him ill-prepared for varied syntax and continued study. Goes into commands (the imperative mood) at excess length without providing the student with any future tense (which would seem to be a more useful topic in a primer). Several points that would be easily unified with a conceptual explanation are listed as unrelated factoids (e.g., some cases where accents are added or removed when the word is added to or truncated). The "personal a" is badly explained, wrongly implying a fixed "Subject, Verb, Object" sentence order. The "impersonal se," seen often in signage and print, is never mentioned, leaving the student baffled on seeing that use of the reflexive. Parts of speech (possesive pronouns being one example) are misidentified, needlessly leaving the student at a loss to express certain simple ideas.

The second volume wastes 60 pages reviewing material from the first volume, rather than dovetailing with it.