31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful little Spanish verb book, December 21, 2003
This review is from: Spanish Verbs (Barron's Verbs) (Paperback)
Please note that this is for the second edition of this book, copyright 2001. The previous edition says copyright 1990. I can't tell from the Amazon book page here if this is the first edition or second edition, but the cover design is slightly different from that displayed here from my copy, which I recently purchased, so I mention that just in case.
No matter what language you're learning (unless its Turkish, which has 100% regular verbs, or Japanese, which has only two), verbs are usually a major difficulty and stumbling block in learning a foreign language. This is the best compact verb book I've seen for Spanish. The pages VII to XL (7 to 40) in the introduction contain the best capsule grammar of verbs for Spanish I've seen, and is better than the ones I've seen in some of the bigger, beefier grammar books for quickly getting a good grasp of the basics as well as the more complex issues.
There are many features I like about this book, but one especially helpful thing the author does is to explain the formal grammatical names for the verb tenses, aspects, and moods and how they are formed in English, along with plenty of examples. For example, many of us have never thought of what the preterit or pluperfect is in English, but Kendris explains this along with many other useful things. Another nice feature is his discussion of how some verbs that express a mental state actually change meaning in the preterit. For example, the sentence, "Supe la verdad," means "I found out the truth." (Saber, which means to know, changes from "know" to "found" in the preterit). And the sentence "Pude hacerlo," means "I succeeded in doing it." (Poder, which means "to be able," means "succeeded" in the preterit).
Other features include extensive lists and coverage of irregular verbs, an index of 1000 verbs keyed to one of the models or patterns of the 300 main verbs in the text, an index of common irregular verbs identified by the infinitive, which allows you to look up which infinitive verb form it belongs to without knowing that initially, and an index of Spanish/English verbs. Each conjugation page contains at least a few examples at the bottom of the page of usages, such as in the Kendris's larger 501 Spanish Verbs book. Overall, an excellent little verb and grammar book for the student of Spanish, and considering the price is only 6 bucks and is over 300 pages long, a great value to boot.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book! A must if you really want to learn Spanish!, October 21, 2003
This review is from: Spanish Verbs (Barron's Verbs) (Paperback)
My pocket dictionary by Langenscheidts, which I give 5 stars to also, has some verbs in tables which is handy. But I wanted to have a small, but fairly comprehensive pocket verb book. It turns out this is better than I could have ever imagined. In the front it shows the tenses and how, when, and why to use them. (It's the same as 501 Spanish Verbs.) What's even better is in the back it has an alphabetical listing in English of all the verbs in the book. If you need to know a verb, you can certainly find it in your pocket dictionary, but seeing it conjugated is extremely helpful whether you're a beginner or someone in an intermediate or advanced level. Most verb conjugations are easy to remember, but if you forget, you can look in this book which is so light and compact, it's incredibly easy to carry. You can't go wrong with this book even if it's the book you'd rather have than 501 Spanish Verbs.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very helpful!!, March 5, 2002
By A Customer
I am learning Spanish and this book helps me a lot when I want to learn, speak, write, or translate anything from English to Spanish or Spanish to English. This is perfect for anyone who wants to learn Spanish no matter what level you are at. I have learned so much from this book. There is one verb on each page with all the verb conjugations for all tenses and all persons (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, etc.). It is very clear. At the bottom of the page, there is a small collumn that has words and expressions related to the verb you are looking at. In the back, it has a small dictionary to look up the verb in English so you can find it in the book. Then, it has a small section for verbs that are not included in the book; it gives you the page number to a verb that conjugations the same way as the verb you are looking up, so even if the verb is not in the book, it gives an example of how to conjugate it. It also has a small section of alphebatically ordered tenses of irregular verbs and it gives you the page number of the verb that it comes from. Some verbs you can not immediatley tell what the infinnitive is, so this helps a lot. At the beggining of the book there is an intro explaining each verb tense and how to use it and examples so, even if you have never been taught any type of Spanish verbs, this explains it to you.
Also, this a good size to carry with you. If you are learning Spanish, Get this!!!!! Wonderful!!
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