| Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary (Practice Makes Perfect Series) |  | Author: Dorothy Richmond
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
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Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 9,186
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0071458069
Dewey Decimal Number: 468
EAN: 9780071458061
ASIN: 0071458069
Publication Date: May 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780071458061 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
Polish your Spanish vocabulary skills Building on the success of her prior book, Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses, author Dorothy Devney Richmond helps you attain a strong working vocabulary, no matter if you are an absolute beginner or an intermediate student of the language. She combines her proven instruction techniques and clear explanations with a plethora of engaging exercises, so you are motivated and hardly notice that you are absorbing so much Spanish. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary also includes basic grammar and structures of the language to complement your newly acquired words. "Vocabulary Builders" help you add to your Spanish repertoire by using cognates, roots, suffixes, prefixes, and other "word-building" tools.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
 Excellent beginner's workbook for vocabulary and basic grammar August 14, 2010
M. Fairchild (Tennessee)
First, be clear - this book is for beginners. If you have been studying Spanish for a while, either on your own or in formal classes, this book may not be especially helpful to you. But if you are a beginner, in your first year of formal Spanish study or just beginning to study on your own, you will find this book fun and helpful.
The author is my favorite in this series of Spanish workbooks. She approaches her topics with clarity and humor, and devises ingenious exercises that keep your interest. For instance, one of the earliest exercises in writing Spanish numbers asks you to recall such things as how many Oscars Alex Guiness has won and how many calories are in Diet Coke. By using cognates (words that resemble each other in English and Spanish) the learner is able to write Spanish answers from the very beginning.
The grammar information was a welcome addition to the vocabulary presentation. Though grammar is presented in a very abbreviated form, it is combined logically with vocabulary categories to enable the student to expand the ability to use Spanish correctly as more and more vocabulary is learned.
There is a complete answer key included so the student can check and correct all exercises.
The book is designed as "fill in the blank" exercise book. This is convenient for the learner but presents a problem for school libraries considering purchase of this book, since borrowers will be very tempted to write in it.
I recommend this to all beginning students. If you are more advanced, look at other books in the "Practice Makes Perfect" series for exercises on specific topics.
Great learning tool March 3, 2010
Avid Reader (Easton, PA)
I love this boook! Simple and easy to understand and follow. A great book to help improve your Spanish!
Excellent beginning January 26, 2010
D. E. Youngblood (PA USA)
This book is a great introduction for those beginning to learn Spanish. It provides general information on grammar (pronunciation, diphthongs, stress and accent marks, plurals and much more) as well as lots and lots of vocabulary words which people use in everyday conversations. This is not, however, for someone who already has completed a beginning class in Spanish unless they are looking for more vocabulary words. Also note that the book only deals with the present tense, other tenses are not covered.
Overall I find this book very helpful and I'm making good progress. I have only two minor complaints.
One is that there could be more exercises for each lesson. Since many of the words and concepts are repeated throughout the book, however, this isn't a huge deal.
Second is that the author uses oddly disturbing or puzzling explanations of certain concepts. For example, regarding diphthongs: "Think of hard vowels as bullies and soft vowels as their victims. The hard vowel always gets a full syllable, whereas the soft vowel... shrinks in the presence of the hard vowel and attaches itself to it - a sort of linguistic abuse." Uh, what? And how about accents: "Whenever there's an exception to either of the two rules above, you will use an accent mark. It's like admitting you're wrong when you make a mistake or break a rule." Again, what? I suspect there may be more of this later on in the book...
Besides this quirk, which others may not care about, the book is great. I recommend it for beginners and those who need extra vocabulary words and/or a refresher of the simple concepts of grammar.
Excellent January 9, 2010
Bud Sherry (Port Isabel, TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent book for the beginner. Covers all the basics in an easy format. Useful as a textbook for beginning students.
 Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Vocabulary Review by James December 25, 2009
James Williams (San Diego, CA)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is James from James Spanish (the learning Spanish blog). One of the most recognized and trusted names in reference books, you expect a dictionary from Merriam-Webster to be high quality, and the Spanish-English Dictionary doesn't disappoint.
Many words include sample sentences so that you can see how the word is used in context, allowing you to make suitable word choices or extract even subtle meanings. These phrases are often useful and a handy way to build your vocabulary.
The dictionary is up to date, with many modern and idiomatic words and phrases to help you translate even slang Spanish. While other dictionaries may be old fashioned in their choice of what words to include, or may not cover some more modern expressions, this reference tool is comprehensive and contemporary.
The introduction on how to get the most out of the dictionary is also a useful resource, ensuring that you can find what you are looking for quickly and easily.
All of the definitions are laid out in familiar Merriam-Webster format, and are clear and easy to read despite the dictionary's small size.
Ideal for checking spelling, meaning, context and conjugation, the dictionary is aimed primarily at English speakers looking to learn Spanish, but works well for native Spanish speakers learning English as a second language too... a testament to just how accurate and useful both the definitions and examples are.
As tiny in size as it is big in usefulness, the dictionary will fit into just about any bag or purse and is sure to be used time and time again. Much more comprehensive than most travel or pocket sized dictionaries, if you are looking for a portable but powerful Spanish-English dictionary then this is the one to buy.
Why 3 stars instead of 4 or 5. I really think the best way to learn vocabulary words in a foreign language is by using an audio product. That is the only way that you can be sure that you are developing proper pronunciation and that you will recognize the words when you hear a native Spanish speaker say the words.
In closing my review of this product, I'd like to share with you the three Amazon products that I have found most helpful in my pursuit to learn Spanish. If you are truly serious about achieving fluency, I'd recommend getting all 3 of them if you can afford it.
1. Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure This is actually a 90 minute movie for Spanish-language learners. It gives the option to watch the movie with subtitles but I'd recommend not using them to improve your Spanish. This "movie" also includes a workbook so that you can reinforce the Spanish vocabulary words and phrases from the film. The workbook also has lots of exercises to keep you engaged in the film. But be prepared to hear Chilean accents. Although pleasent to the ear, the accents from Chile are very different from most Latin American accents.
2. Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version) This software replaces the traditional verb conjugation books and makes learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an interactive and fun activity. This should be a required resource for anyone who wants to improve their ability to conjugate Spanish verbs. Especially anyone who is challenged by the drudgery of learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs and who is looking for a new way to make learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs an easy and fun activity
3. Diccionario esencial de la lengua espanola de la Real Academia Espanola (Spanish Edition) If you are really serious about speaking the language fluently, then at some point you will need to replace your Spanish-English dictionary and get a pure Spanish dictionary with both the vocabulary words and the definitions entirely in Spanish. I use this one only because it was highly-recommended by a friend from Spain who teaches Spanish.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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