practice-makes-perfect

Practice Makes Perfect

by Dorothy Richmond

Learn the Spanish you need. Gain the language skills you want.

"Practice Makes Basic Spanish" is a trusted companion to your Spanish-learning experience. In each bite-sized lesson, author Dorothy Richmond explains one--and only one--grammar concept and illustrates it with many clear examples. The accompanying fun and interesting exercises let you practice, practice, practice what you have learned. Although these lessons are purposely short so you can complete them in twenty minutes or less, you can go at a pace that works for you.

This guide/workbook will help you master
present tense verb conjugation the "ser" and "estar" verb forms adjectives possessive pronouns sentence structures the contractions "al" and "del" indefinite articles "tener" idioms and more

Whether you are learning on your own or taking a beginning Spanish class, "Practice Makes Basic Spanish" will help you build your confidence."

Genres: Spanish Literature, Language, Reference, Nonfiction, School, Textbooks

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2008

Reviews

[Ci · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book focuses on verb conjugation and basic vocabularies. There are some reading materials after each segment. I found this book useful but often irritated by its obvious target to a particular audience: American, 15 or so, urban, watching a lot of junk TV programs. Some materials are clearly pandering toward such youngsters, particularly the retelling of Cinderella story. These paragraphs are often puerile, distorting the original fairy tales.

As for a serious study book on basic Spanish, it is not suitable for anyone who does not chuckle at pop American cultural trivia.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful resource for learning spanish! The first couple of lessons moved pretty quickly, but the whole thing is cumulative and the chapter tests are a good measure of knowledge and what you need to work on. Yes, the vocabulary could be given in smaller chunks, but when its given to me and reviewed over and over, I learn it quickly.

[Kristi Hovington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been taking Spanish lessons orally for three months and it's been going really well, but I got to a point where I needed to see the words (especially more complex verb conjugations) to really understand. This has been not only a great review of what I've already learned, but also has taught me a lot of new vocabulary. Highly recommend.

[Cori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic resource to help learn Spanish! Fun sentences and facts slipped in as well. Great supplement to an oral class!

[Sanrizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Spanish is a great book to increase your vocabulary. There are many words in there that can help you form a basic vocabulary, good enough to express yourself (basic conversation) if you're talking about TV-shows and celebrities, LOL). I like the exercises, they're not too difficult, but I do think they can add some more exercises (I like doing exercises). Recommended for beginners, levels A1 and A2 (if you're an adult you might get bored with all the TV-show and celebrity exercises and info that is given in the book).

[Bonny Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This boook is extremely useful as an adjunct to Spanish class, much more useful than our textbook. I just finished Beginner 3 and am still finishing up the book. I’ve bought many language books but never actually used them regularly. I lost my copy on a business trip and bought another immediately. I recommend paperback if you like to fill out answers to exercisesbin the workbook itself.

[Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for beginners.

[Natalia Liviero · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a highly educated native from a Spanish speaking language and I bought this book to teach Spanish to English speakers. I did not have the chance to review it myself before buying this book, but it was highly recommended to me by a sales person in Barnes & Noble in Miami, explaining to me the book was used at Miami Dade College, hence, I bought it. And I'm highly disappointed with its content. Although the layout and the structure of the book looks fine and an easy tool to learn Spanish, there are innumerable grammar and spelling mistakes. I'm teaching Spanish overseas so unfortunately I won't be able to exchange it. I'm correcting the mistakes as I advance with the units. It is really horrible and I'm disappointed at McGraw Hill, a well respected publisher, to have allowed this book to be published and sold. I hope they'll either edit it or remove it from the market.

[Gideon · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was disappointing. The promise of basic grammar was not fulfilled, one prime example is noticed in multiple language books is the immediate introduction of the conjugation of the vern “to be” which was not at all introduced instead you get little snippets tossed here and there. Some exercises you could only complete with prior knowledge of pop culture. I recommend skipping this book and going straight for complete Spanish grammar (although i haven’t started with it yet). I hope it won’t be as disappointing as this book.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

i chose this book as a beginner learner, as i want to start learning spanish. I cant say im satisfied or disappointed, but i expected more. The book has an enormous amount of translation exercises, which absolutely bore me. There are some reading exercises here and there, but grammar is not explained almost at all. I had to buy another book, where the grammar is explained. I do not recommend it as an only material for learning, but if you want to brush off your spanish skills, or maybe reinforce them along with other materials, its ok for doing exercises

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t get the audio to work but just the book is pretty useless for teaching as it only has exercises. It also focuses on celebrities so not great if you don’t know who Rumor Willis or Tom Hanks is (I know, but my kids would not) and other less famous ones too.

[Enrico Mascarpone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is where I started in Spanish (well, after listening to Michel Thomas). A fantastically logical and helpful course. Couldn't recommend enough.

[tubitubala]

hehe