Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses

 (154 customer reviews)

This book and the other Practice-Makes-Perfect workbook by Dorothy Richmond ("Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions") are the best Spanish books I've ever used. I just got back from 2 years in the Peace Corps in Honduras and I studied these books every day. They REALLY helped me learn more Spanish! In addition to the concise, easy-to-understand instruction sections, there's tons of exercises to do (with the correct answers in the back of the book) and as I did the exercises, I picked up all kinds of things that I'd been wondering how to say. I also liked the verb workbook a lot because it went way beyond the present tense, all the way to the subjunctive uses of "haber" and other more advanced things I really wanted to know. (This book is especially great if you already know some Spanish because you need some vocabulary to do the exercises, unless you don't mind looking up lots of words in the dictionary.) I highly recommend this book!

This is the only textbook/workbook available on the market so far that is thorough in its objective which is to study, analyze and understand Spanish verb tenses and moods. I deem this workbook as a course in itself on Spanish verbs and the various rules and usage due to the completeness and extensive coverage provided in every chapter. The book provides a summary of the topic to be covered, examples of the verb concept in a phrase, practice exercises and amazingly enough a practice translation which encompass all the verb concepts taught in the chapter and concepts taught progressively throughout the book. The practice exercises allows for immediate application of the concept being reviewed and the answer key at the back allows you correct your exercises and realize your strengths and weaknesses during the learning process.I recommend this book to intermediate and advance level Spanish students as well as native speakers who wish to clarify and perfectionize specific verb concepts...Read more

Verbs are the heart of any language. If you want to become knowledgable and facil at not only conjugting verbs but understanding the contextual usage and rules governing the uses of the verbs, then this is the book for you. I think that anyone interested in studying Spanish, especially if they want to study it on their own, should have this workbook as part of their repertoire. I have found it invaluable. I recommend it highly. (I have also purchased and studied Richmond's Pronouns and Preposition workbook and the reviews are similar.)I have given the book a 4 star rating rather than five for the following reasons:1. Lack of an index: (The same is true of the Pronouns and Preposition workbook.) I find it hard to comprehend how a contemporary academic book can be published without an index. There is a tremendous amount of valuable information contained in this book but being limited to the Table of Contents or to ones memory of where a specific item can be found is...Read more