Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions

Practice Makes Perfect

by Dorothy Richmond

This bestselling book in the Practice Makes Perfect series treats Spanish pronouns and prepositions systematically in a worktext format. Containing concise, user-friendly explanations with generous and varied practice, the book helps students develop their knowledge of how and why pronouns and prepositions are used. Plus it encourages students to use the pronouns and prepositions in real-life contexts.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Language, Reference, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

Reviews

[SrLunaLlena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for 3rd (Premium) edition but there is really very little if any change from 2nd edition. 3rd edition is printed on a thicker and whiter paper. If you already have access to 2nd edition save your money.

This is an early intermediate level workbook (appropriately indicated on the back cover) for practicing Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions. For a more advanced student this workbook does not benefit as much but still it can be used for reviewing this subject matter. The coverage of pronouns is pretty good until chapter 14 (The pronoun se and the passive voice). Personally, I think it is lacking on its coverage of 'se passive', 'se impersonal'. More exercises are needed for a student to feel comfortable in using these constructs. Also, there is no coverage of 'se accidental reflexive' constructs:

Se me olvidó el libro.
Se le perdieron las llaves.
Se me quemó la comida.
Se le rompió el vaso.
Se me ha ocurrido la idea.
Se le murió su perrito.
Se me escapó la voz.
Se nos acabó la suerte.

Chapter 16 (Para and por) is pretty good. The author has made an attempt to cover this better than some other topics but idiomatic usage of por and para can be expanded.

Chapter 17 (last chapter) covers some Spanish verbs that typically go with prepositions. I think it is an important chapter but then again there is only one set of exercises after each group and some groups have a lot of verbs. So, again exercises in this section are very inadequate. The chapter should be expanded with a lot more exercises and there should be mixed exercises in such a way that when a verb can take several prepositions the student should practice choosing the correct one or even leaving out the preposition based on the context.

Finally, there is no way to contact the author or editor. An email would be nice to give feedback and suggest improvements and corrections etc.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactamente lo que dice. Good practice for learning the tricky business of direct and indirect pronouns, the uses of prepositions (por vs. para especially, which I still have problems with) and the like. Also good for picking up some new vocabulary.

[Christopher Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly appreciate this book, but I wish there were more exercises on some of the points. Definitely a good accompaniment to someones Spanish learning road. All of Dorothy Richmond’s books I have used have been helpful to me, and for starting I always recommend her Basic Spanish along with a few other resources.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty straightforward grammar-translation workbook, and if that is what you are looking for it is very effective. That means that there are no Spanish texts, reading comprehension, or immersive materials to work with. This literally is just introducing a rule and then having English-to-Spanish translation exercises or rewriting a Spanish sentence with the relevant pronouns.

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Amazon's recommendations have steered me towards another great Spanish practice book. This 150 page text is very thorough with explanations and exercises for the myriads of pronouns that Spanish contains. In conclusion, me lo gusta.

[Paul]

From this book I learned that 'para' signifies intention whereas 'por' signifies exchange....Or is it the other way round? Oh hell, I've forgotten already - I'll check it when I get home.

[Devin Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book definitely helped me level up My spanish. I love the practice makes perfect series. A lot of work though.