Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Learn verb skills and communicate confidently in a new language
Building on the authors’ bestselling The Ultimate Review and Practice
series, this book is your best bet to mastering the often tricky verb forms
and key sentence structures of the Spanish language. The Ultimate Spanish
Verb Review and Practice offers a step-by-step program for experienced
beginners through advanced learners to understand how different verb forms
work and use that knowledge to build increasingly sophisticated sentences in
Spanish. No other book on the market combines guidance and practice in verb
formation and usage with tips on the 18 most commonly used sentence models.
From the Back Cover
Master the essential building blocks of Spanish-language fluency with
facilidad
The Ultimate Spanish Verb Review and Practice offers you an
exciting new way to gain the confidence and skills you need to take the next
big step on the road to Spanish fluency. More than just another Spanish verb
guide, it provides you with a concise review of verb forms and extensive
practice in tense usage. You are then encouraged to apply your knowledge of
verb forms to sentence construction.
As you work through a series of increasingly more demanding exercises,
you'll quickly build your mastery of the Spanish sentence--from simple
subject-plus-verb sentences, to more sophisticated ones, including
conditional and compound sentences. Also, by continually comparing and
contrasting Spanish and English verb tenses and sentence structures, the
authors further demystify the conventions of Spanish sentence construction.
The ideal resource for experienced beginners through advanced learners of
Spanish, The Ultimate Spanish Verb Review and Practice gives you:
- Numerous examples of how Spanish verbs and sentence structures work in
everyday language
- Exercises in a variety of formats, including sentence completion,
sentence building, dialogue writing, translation, verb-form replacement,
and more
- Hundreds of verbs listed in both structural and semantic groupings
- Up-to-the-minute coverage of contemporary Spanish, including computer
and technology verbs
- Dozens of clear, concise, at-a-glance charts and tables
Product Details
- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 12, 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0071416730
- ISBN-13: 978-0071416733
- Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
- Average Customer Review:
(6
customer reviews)
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Rating:
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Non-native Spanish students, listen up! This is the *ultimate* book!!! All 14
tenses are explained with crystal clear comparisions to the English language.
What does the English language do in the subjunctive that the Spanish language
does or does not do? This book answers that question and sooo many others!!!! "Haber"
is no longer my enemy.
The order of grammatical concepts is sensible. (Unlike the way I learned them in
the 90s!) I gained a lot of confidence with each exercise. The exercises also
offer different ways of becoming more competent in Spanish. For example,
sometimes you have to identify the subject of the preterite tense, other times
you are translating from English to Spanish, other times Spanish to English, and
then sometimes working with multiple tenses. The activities get more challenging
as the book progresses.
There is a complete answer key in the back.
Rating:
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I began reading this book and doing the exercises after a very basic beginner's
class which sparked my interest in learning the language more thoroughly. While
I would say this book can be a stretch for beginning students of Spanish, it's
perfect for intermediate and advanced learners. I read this book two years ago
and once I had completed it, I took a placement exam for the University of Costa
Rica's "Spanish for foreigners" class. I was able to qualify for the advanced
level! Since then I have purchased more than sixty books which cover all aspects
of the Spanish language. This book is, by far, the one I consider most useful
and still use as a review. The explanations of the grammar are straightforward
and easy to understand (even the dreaded subjunctive!) There are plenty of very
useful exercises with an answer-key in the back of the book. Chapters often
build on previous information and is best to work through this book
sequentially. I can't say enough good things about this book!
Rating:
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This book is better than most at explaining the complex rules of Spanish, but
also some of the interesting background behind the rules. Not for beginners, but
definitely a great book for year 2 Spanish learners.
Rating:
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I have been using The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice: Mastering Spanish
Grammar for Confident Communication as a review and reference book. It has seen
me through Spanish language exams, travel to Spanish-speaking countries,
business meetings where I had to speak Spanish, and even social situations. I
read Spanish language newspapers and magazines and even some history and
literature and watch Mexican telenovelas with a high level of comprehension.
I've been seeking a good follow-up review text and at last I found it: The
Ultimate SPANISH VERB Review and Practice: Mastering Verbs and Sentence Building
for Confident Communication. This amazing book is taking me through verb forms
in all the tenses. The explanations are crystal clear and there are loads of
exercises for practice. I love the Building Sentences section in each chapter
because from the simple conjugated verb I learn how to build sentences by adding
the verb + infinitive construction, or create sentences with double object
pronouns; I learn how to express probability, how to focus on a certain element
in the sentence, etc. I can say all the things I've wanted to say about "if
something happens" or "if something were to happen" or "if something had
happened" (possible conditions or contrary-to-fact conditions).
I like the presentation of Spanish grammar contrasted with English grammar. I'm
a native English speaker but never really thought about English grammar until I
used The Ultimate books. I find this very helpful, and I'm learning a lot about
English, too!
Spanish has a lot of tenses and a lot of irregular verbs. The Ultimate SPANISH
VERB Review and Practice is helping me to learn and practice them in context. I
really like that the book allows me to go out of order which means if I need
more practice on the present subjunctive (which I do!), I can jump right to
Chapter 11. This book makes learning Spanish so logical and even enjoyable.
I think the Language Boxes are great because I'm learning interesting facts
about Spanish. I didn't know that about 4,000 Spanish words, such as ojalá, el
café, el alcohol, and hasta, were borrowed from Arabic. I am also learning many
words that Spanish borrows from English to describe computer terms, such as
crashear, linkear, and cliquear.
The Ultimate SPANISH VERB Review and Practice is the gold standard of language
teaching books.
Rating:
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I want to be the first to review this extraordinary book as I am already a happy
(and frequent) user of The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice: Mastering
Spanish Grammar for Confident Communication, a book by the same authors Gordon
and Stillman that made it possible for me to learn Spanish to speak, read and
write for business. I reviewed that book 12-26-99, "Spanish Learning Made Easy".
I am now using The Ultimate Spanish Verb Review and Practice: Mastering Verbs
and Sentence Building for Confident Communication to further my study of
Spanish. I find the book particularly helpful for many reasons. First, the
comprehensive number of verbs and the organization of verb lists in structural
and semantic groupings provides an easy way to expand my vocabulary and a good
reference tool. Second, the grammar explanations of verbs and tenses are
extremely clear. Third, each of the 15 chapters presents one or more tenses or
type of verb, followed by a section called Building Sentences in which the verbs
and tenses studied are expanded into meaningful sentences. Fourth, the book has
loads of exercises of all types, and much useful current vocabulary, such as
computer and technology verbs. Fifth, I like the language boxes that give
interesting information about the Spanish language. Sixth, because the chapters
can be used in any order, I can personalize my Spanish language education and
focus on key areas for me in a quick and efficient manner. Seventh, the book is
so well-organized and user-friendly that I can work through a tense or irregular
verb on a short flight. This smart and unique book was written for advanced
beginning through advanced learners of Spanish, and I have already recommended
it to friends and business associates who are at different levels. The authors'
method really works for me as I am confidently and successfully using Spanish in
my professional and personal lives.
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