Practice Makes Perfect: The Spanish Subjunctive Up Close

Practice Makes Perfect

by Eric Vogt

The One-Stop Guide to Mastering the Spanish Subjunctive

Learning the subjunctive can be one of the most frustrating aspects of Spanish grammar, but it is also one of the most important for being understood and understanding what others say. By adding the Spanish subjunctive to your range of language skills, you will open up a whole new world of communication.

Practice Makes Perfect: The Spanish Subjunctive Up Close has established itself as the most effective resource for intermediate and advanced learners. Its clear explanations cut through what is often presented in an overcomplicated or incorrect way, while its exercises provide numerous opportunities for practice that will help you understand the nuances of this challenging grammar element. Develop your skills and confidence as a Spanish speaker with:

● Easy-to-absorb explanatory materials and example sentences

● Authoritative guidance on how to form the four subjunctive tenses and when to use them

● Numerous exercises, expanded in this second edition, to practice what you learn

● A comprehensive answer key that not only give you the correct solutions to the exercises but explains the why behind them

Genres: Spanish Literature, Textbooks, Reference

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2008

Reviews

[Bjorn Sorensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an incredibly helpful topic to write a short, dedicated book to. The author provides an encouraging intro and does a good job painting a picture of why the subjunctive is so vital to learning Spanish. But the grammar explanations are so technical and dense, it quickly becomes difficult and not-at-all-entertaining to try to stay with his explanations. The book itself represents why much of the dry lessons we took in high school and college didn't stick. There are no pictures, no graphs or charts, no visual creativity to help us remember, no stories, no articles, etc. All the exercises at the end of the chapters are fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice. No crossword puzzles, no online games, no drawing, no comic strip completions, etc. The exercises are useful up to a point, so I might continue by doing those first and referencing the chapter if need be. The book and chapters are short, so that might help me keep going. And I'll keep looking - so far it seems like there's a huge lack of fun and creative language learning resources in print and online sources. Feel free to let me know of anything you've found to the contrary : )

[Margaret Nahmias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vogt acheives his goal of demystifying the Spanish subjunctive. Because it is a dedicated book, he goes into detail.I liked the excerises but I found the fill in the blank ones a little vague.

[L. Lawson]

Really good overview of the Spanish subjunctive...but only if you're really familiar with grammatical jargon.

[Joyce Croes · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. I´m surprised McGraw Hill has included it in their normally quite helpful series of Practice Makes Perfect books for learning Spanish. To read it you must be very, very familiar with all the indicative verb tenses, and, frankly, be pretty much an expert in the subjunctive already. First he has you memorize the four subjunctive tense conjugations in the abstract without any explanation of their functions to make this rote memorization exercise meaningful. For two of tenses the author did not bother to include the classic ar-er-ir verb conjugation chart. There is just a verbal explanation and a few conjugated sentence samples. And you have to go elsewhere to learn irregular verbs. He skips the future subjunctive tense. This supposedly up close look at the subjunctive is minimalist to the point of uselessness. The second chapter is a truly incomprehensible mess in which he attempts to explain the correct time frames for using those four subjunctive tenses, and the main clause indicative ones, with a bunch of comparisons, casual asides and back and forth references. I got so disoriented that I gave up. I´m an intermediate Spanish student and I like studying grammar but this book was too confusing and frustrating. Get the Gordon and Cynthia Smith-Durán book instead.