Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar

This book is for the advanced beginner or intermediate student, so students need some basic background in Spanish. Each chapter consists of clearly explained grammatical rules followed by exercises. For example, the exercises for the sections dealing with verbs usually include putting in the proper form of the verb in a particular sentence, translating English sentences into Spanish, or providing brief responses to questions written in Spanish, among other exercises. Every section ends with a paragraph in English to translate into Spanish. Students can find the answers to the exercises and the translation of the end-of-section translations at the end of the book. New vocabulary is incorporated into the chapters. The book also includes a glossary and verb tables. Like most of the other workbooks in the Practice Makes Perfect series, this 360 page workbook helped me to understand grammatical rules and gave me practice in applying them. It can be used as a step toward Spanish proficiency.

I did not receive this book, and have requested to have the order cancelled and my account credited. I bought the book at Barnes & Noble.

This book is not for beginners. I've been studying Spanish for a little over 4 years now and I must say I feel like throwing this book out the window. Luckily when I first started learning Spanish I didn't start with this book otherwise I would have been totally discouraged. The material is ok (a bit above beginner standards) but most of all it is confusing. The answers in the back have a lot of incorrect grammar, missing words and contradictions. As a result if you're a beginner and you don't really have enough Spanish knowledge to know that something is wrong or just looks funny in a sentence then I would not get this book.

Gilda Nissenberg's Complete Spanish Grammar is a valuable resource. It does indeed live up to its title. The answer keys seem to have been purged of errors in the latest edition. Its glossary and tables are good tools, but in the latter case, the formatting of the verb conjugations isn't quite as effective as it could be: They are oriented horizontally instead of in two columns with singular to the left and plural to the right. Elsewhere in the book they are done this way, so it's not too serious.

As for her presentation of the subjunctive, I find no errors in what she says as I often do in other books. Her examples and exercises are great -- terrific, in fact. Her presentation of the subjunctive is organized around the four tenses of the subjunctive mood, which is a traditional approach. This grammar topic is best approached by organizing it around the reasons for when the subjunctive should be used, regardless of the tense, then proceeding with the details in each case.

Traditional presentations of the subjunctive often create the wrong impression that each tense of the subjunctive might be used for different reasons. She never says that, of course, because she knows better, but again, organizing the topic around the various tenses of the subjunctive is not the best way to go. While she does address the reasons for the use of the subjunctive -- subordinated noun clauses, adverbial expressions, subordinated adjective clauses and hypothetical expressions, this (better) organizing principle can elude many students.

Yes, Dr. Nissenberg's book is a great value. With over 2,500 exercise questions and answer keys, it's worth your money.

Sincerely,

Eric W. Vogt, Ph.D.

I bought this book thinking it would be a great all in one workbook/textbook to use to teach myself Spanish. However, after the first few exercises, I found it to be exceedingly frustrating to use. Some things are not explained well at all, and as other reviewers have noted there are several errors in the answer key. Also, several of the exercises use words that have not been introduced beforehand and are not in the included dictionary in the back of the book. I suppose you could carry around a dictionary as well but having to constantly go back and fourth would become annoying rather quickly. This book now it sits at the bottom of my bookshelf and I doubt I will use it again any time soon.