Customer Reviews

Easy Spanish Step-By-Step

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I used this book to go from virtually no knowledge of Spanish grammar, to pretty decent competence with everything it covers (all parts of speech up including the most common verb tenses). In my opinion, it's probably the best of it's class. There are hundreds of exercises, and if you do them all, you'll end up learning the subject.

Much more than grammar is covered, though. It's great for giving an excellent basic vocabulary that covers many aspects of daily life. One particularly clever trick it uses to boost vocabulary is inconspicuously including many cognates unannounced among the Spanish vocabulary that is taught. The result is you find you can use and understand far more words than you were consciously learning.

A surprisingly early chapter has you reading a rather detailed and convincing letter about a family trip to Mexico that touches on archeology, music, language, personal feelings, and more.

The pace is very fast... If you're brand-new to Spanish, and you don't know how to count to ten, or that "perro" means dog, you might want something a tad more basic first.

Also, it's dense. If you already know some Spanish words, all the exercises in each of the earlier chapters can be done in a single sitting, but by the middle of the book, plan on spending several days on each chapter... The exercises will stretch you and make you think and process what's been covered.

Lastly, it's not a tourist' phrasebook. It's vocabulary goes quickly far beyond "tourist Spanish," and I recommend it highly for the traveller; but it doesn't replace a well-planned phrasebook oriented to tourist needs

I began teaching a community enrichment class in Spanish and was looking for something less cumbersome in a textbook. After considering many different texts I chose Easy Spanish. This book is not overwhelming for most people having their first experience with Spanish and is very inexpensive. It lacks graphics which may account for the reasonable price but I was able to make up for that with handouts in class. Most people were interested in travel and this book is small enough to take along allowing for continued study; right when its needed most. I also like the organization, although its a little fast as regards grammer, it does allow people to develop some basic conversational skills quickly. All of the grammatical concepts and vocabulary are reintroduced in readings in the following chapters which provides great reinforcement and a sense of achievement.

I am using this book in a mini course at college. It is easier to understand than some textbooks, and explains the concepts well. I would recomend this book to any beginning spanish student.

I took five years of Spanish in Jr. and Sr. High School. I have acquired a number of books, tapes and cd packages over the years to help me to learn Spanish and this one is the only one that helped me to communicate in clear, essential and complete sentences.

Too many books focus on words and phrases that, although great for travel or in the class room, are utterly limited in communicating in day to day language. I was hoping to find and looking for a book that would get me 'over the hurdle' I was facing communicating with my extended family.

Just recently I spent two weeks in Latin America. With a few sentences, there were some who thought I spoke the language fluently. However, when speaking ot family members, I was able to conjugate and speak in complete sentences in the proper tense. Amazing as well is how patient Latin Americans were with me with my lack of ability as well.

The above occurred with only a few chapters under my belt. I cannot wait to finish the book to be able to have conversations of a much more deeper nature.

This book features verbs, adjectives and then you build way beyond on that in steps. You get a list of vocabulary words with each chapter and then you get answer questions and fill in the blanks with the new information you just learned. You can also go at your own pace. I recommend that you have a pen and notebook always handy with your Step by Step book for review.

An amazing book on building your ability to speak in a foriegn language. I think 'Easy Spanish Step by Step' is an essential tool for anyone wanting and needing to learn Spanish.

This is an effective, well organized introduction to Spanish. The emphasis is on learning the grammar rather than on memorizing phrases. The book stays in the present tense up to the last three chapters, where the present subjunctive, the past, and the imperfect tenses are introduced. A good addition would have been to introduce past participles and the present prefect tense, which is used much more in Spanish than in English. The author briefly discusses double object pronouns, but unaccountably fails to mention the 'le/les' to 'se' transformation. Another half page here would have been an improvement.

I would have liked to have given the book four stars, but there is a strange error on pages 184 and 188 that causes me to reduce the rating to three stars. The error seems not to be one of editing, but rather caused by a grammatical misunderstanding on the part of the author. On page 184, she states that the direct object pronouns for Ud. and Uds. are 'le' and 'les'. This is incorrect; the correct pronouns are 'lo' and 'la' for Ud. and 'los' and 'las' for Uds. The error is repeated with a chart followed by examples on page 188. There is a form of pronoun usage in Spain called leismo, where 'le' replaces 'lo' for singular, masculine, human, direct objects. Perhaps this is what has the author confused.

Having not read the book closely, I hope there are no more strange grammars lurking somewhere. User beware.

There is no "one size fits all" book or other language learning material. This book will work best for people who have a background in another romance language. I would not recommend it for language novices, especially not for self-study, as it is probably too fast-paced. This book has exactly what I was looking for - review of basic grammar rules without too much detail to bog it down, and alot of exercises and practical vocabulary. Alot of grammar books do not go into the vocab adequately, which means you have to find another way of boning up on this. What this book does not have are pictures and a visually-appealing layout - something visual learners will miss, but which you cannot expect in a $12 book. I've worked through the first three chapters and skimmed through the rest. While I do not think I could find a book more closely matching my needs, I will definitely have to supplement this book with my own "exercises" - lots of written and out-loud practice of what's covered (not to mention separate conversational and listening comprehension practice).

Finally, no book on its own will teach you to properly speak a language unless you already have a 2nd language or are naturally gifted in languages. The problem with this and most other books is that they market themselves as "the book" that is the exception. If Spanish is your first foreign language and your goal is to speak it properly (not necessarily fluently, but not butchering it), you really should have outside help - a tutor, Spanish class, or a Spanish speaking friend who's willing to help you practice - and if you can't find this help, then you should use study materials with multimedia, e.g., listening CDs that you can practice along with. If you just want to learn some conversational phrases, then a conversation book (i.e., not this book) would be better.

The book advertises that you can learn Spanish in 15 easy lessons. For one thing, the lessons are quite long and dense, containing a lot of information to learn in just one lesson. Why not break up the information into shorter lessons that would be easier to digest?

Another frustrating thing about using this text is that it won't help you to speak in anytime soon. Isn't part of the fun and impetus in learning a foreign language conversing with others? You don't even get to the past tense until 200 pages into the book. Try conversing with someone and not using the past tense...it's frustrating and just doesn't work.
Also, my native-speaking tutor is constantly pointing out inaccuracies and unnatural language usage.

I've discovered the Madrigal book, and this has made learning fun and easy!

We use this book as a beginner's text in a class for senior citizens in a snowbirds' mobile home park in Texas. The price is right. We old folks could use a bit larger print sizes but most of us find the book easy to use & helpful.

One thing I like about it is that Bregstein gives clear and unambiguous rules-of-thumb when that is what is called for. A good thing for beginners, IMHO. Best suited for informal classes or adult individual learners, a bit simple for more "academic" purposes.

My husband and I are driving around the world. We started from Los Angeles and are now heading south. Our first leg of the journey is the Pan-American Highway to the tip of South America. Considering that just about every country along the way speaks Spanish, I decided that it would be a good idea if I learned the language. I started this book on my Kindle the day we crossed the border into Mexico, and I finished it a couple months ago in El Salvador. It took me a few months to complete it, but I did all the exercises, took days off from studying, reviewed past chapters along the way, etc.. I can honestly say that all my hard work paid off. I speak Spanish now, and pretty damn well to boot! I also took two weeks of live classes with a teacher in Mexico, and honestly, comparing the two, my Kindle book did a better job of lesson planning and explaining the grammar than my Spanish teacher did. The layout of the book is awesome, and everything you learn is relevant. If you dedicate yourself to studying every day, you can get up to a strong intermediate level of speaking with this book. I only wish the author made an advanced version too!

Easy Spanish Step-By-Step My wife is a native Spanish speaker who teaches Spanish lessons. She finds this book extremely helpful for the way Spanish students learn. If you are looking for a helpful, intuitive, workable text for either a classroom or individual learning this is a very good one. However, please do not take the title too seriously. If you are going to complete 1 lesson in one week you are going to work very hard at it. The student would do well to remember that "if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Learning Spanish (like learning any other language) takes hard work and it will not happen overnight--even with "15 quick and easy steps."