Video Review of Spanish Verb Tenses and some other products that you can use with this book

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	• Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses Dorothy Richmond McGraw-Hill, 1996 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 128 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Video Review of Spanish Verb Tenses and some other products that you can use with this book

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R29WGSUB1N73M0 My review begins with a video review of Spanish Verb Tenses. And then a list of several products that you can use with this book to speed up your learning.

1. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns And Prepositions This is a book by the same publisher. Just like Spanish Verb Tenses, this book has lots of exercises to improve your Spanish-language skills. Here's a tip. Make sure that you actually do the exercises. Don't skip them. You'll only be cheating yourself.

2. The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs: 555 Fully Conjugated Verbs This is a resource that you will not want to do without. But understand that it is a resource. It is not the type of book that you would want to read from cover to cover.

3. Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set) This is the self-study course that I would recommend for someone that needs to immediately learn how to speak Spanish in order to communicate with Spanish-speakers that have recently arrived in the U.S or for someone that expects to be speaking to people in familiar situations in Latin America. This course comes closer to teaching the colluquial or familiar style of conversational Spanish that you will hear native speakers use among themselves. I like the fact that they only use native Spanish speakers in this course.

4. Mierda!: The Real Spanish You Were Never Taught in School (Plume) This book may not be for everyone, especially if you are offended by vulgar language. This book really does a great job at covering "street" Spanish. Even if you are not the type to use dirty words in your speech, you may still find that this book is fun to read. I know I did.

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Best book available for understanding Spanish verb conjugation

Despite some flaws, I'm giving this book 5 stars because it is the best book out there on Spanish verb conjugation. In my opinion, other books that focus on lists and rote memorization of verb conjugations without explaining how and why to conjugate the verbs are a waste of time. This book systematically explains the rules for how and when to conjugate Spanish verbs in each tense, so whenever you learn a new Spanish verb, unless it's irregular, you'll already know how to use/conjugate it in all its tenses. In addition to lessons on verb conjugation, there are several other useful related lessons included, such as use of personal a, Hay, saber vs conocer, and the author's insightful observations on how many spanish verbs include a preposition. For example, Busco mis zapatos = I'm looking "for" my shoes. Mira eso = Look "at" that, etc., and she includes an appendix on verbs that take on prepositions and how it changes meaning.

I have a couple of criticisms of this book. The chapter on present tense doesn't mention that present tense verbs in Spanish, unlike in English, are often used for future actions and events. To use a common example, the literal tranlation of "nos vemos" is "we see each other". But in Spanish, since present tense is often used to communicate future events, nos vemos means "we'll see each other (later)". Unfortunately, this book doesn't mention this important dual-use aspect of present tense Spanish verbs. In addition, I found the explanations/rules in when to use Ser and Estar to be lacking, as the book provides lists of rules, of which there are too many exceptions and too many situations not listed to be useful (my opinion). For example, would you use ser or estar when in the context of prices in a store? From the rules given in this book, you wouldn't know the answer to that question or many other 'hard case' situations.

The biggest shortcoming of this book is that all examples and drills for each tense, are limited to the chapter on those particular tenses. So, for example, after you learn about past tense preterite and past tense imperfect verbs, the book never challenges you with any exercises using a combination of the two in which you would have to know to select one tense or the other. It's either exercises using all preterite or all imperfect. Same with subjunctive tenses. The exercises do not really build on what you learned in previous chapters, and that was an unfortunate oversight on the part of the author.

Speaking overall, if you're a beginner or intermediate spanish learner, the material taught in this book far outweighs its shortcomings. I haven't seen another book like it, and I've seen plenty. Verb conjugation is the most important aspect of learning any language, and for native English speakers learning Spanish, the task can seem daunting, as Spanish verb conjugation is much more complicated than in English. This book does an excellent job in explaining both the rules for verb conjugation, as well as explaining when you would choose one verb construct over another. It really 'holds your hand' through the material. Bottom line is that it will help you move to the next level in less time than it would take you if you didn't have this book.

On a side note, in order to help other readers/students, I'd like to request that anyone reading this who knows of a better book on Spanish verb conjugation to leave a comment or make a post naming the book with an explanation. Despite its flaws, I honestly haven't seen another book come close to this one as far as walking students through the necessary methodical process teaching how to conjugate verbs in Spanish while explaining when to choose a particular tense/mood. But this book does have a number of shortcomings, which is why I'm making this request. I'll ask those pimping their own books/courses not to respond, and I would further ask that you not post verb conjugation "lists" books which do not teach conjugation rules with explanation as to when and why you choose a particular verb tense. I'm genuinely curious as to whether another book exists on Spanish verb conjugation which is better than this one.

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Good book

Well, I have been studying spanish for while and I probably read about every book under the sun. This book is pretty good. In fact, the entire 'Pratice Makes Perfect' series is very good.

Excellent...

All I can say is that if your learning style tends to be analytical and/or visual (written on the page), get this book. You won't be sorry. It's organized very logically and offers great explanations of some things that tend to be fuzzy for English speakers. The best thing is that it provides tons of practice to really drill the concepts in... And let's face it, you are not going to learn or remember a language (written or spoken) without practice, no matter how many fad "immersion" CD's you have running in the background while you watch TV and eat popcorn. It's not a spectator sport. It takes work and practice--this book gives you a lot of that!

All of the Spanish Practice Makes Perfect books by Richmond are just as good as this one. Get them all and you'll be busy for months... doing the kind of "immersion" that really helps.

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Verbs, verbs, and more verbs

In Spanish there are 14 tenses and this book covers all of them as well as some things distinct to the Spanish language such as Hay, Ser vs Estar, Por vs Para and Saber vs Conocer. While this book is not a comprehensive text it is a great text to use to supplement one's learning and to get translation practice. I give it five stars for ease of use and simplicity of language. Beginners through advanced learners will find use for this dynamic book.I really like the translation practice because it helps student become aware of how things do not always translate word for word. I would recommend this text for any self learning student or traditional student who wants to get further practice and clarification on the Spanish verb tenses.

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