Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses

This convenient worktext gives students a unique approach to learning, remembering, and reviewing how to use Spanish verbs correctly. The book provides a systematic presentation and review of Spanish verb forms and explains when and why a certain verb tense should be used. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses includes an impressive number of exercises and open-ended questions, numerous conjugation charts, a list of verbs and their prepositions, and Spanish-English and English-Spanish vocabulary lists.

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 debilitating. This is a terrible ommission.

2. After studying the book thoroughly twice, my workbook is riddled with tabs and annotations in search of clarifications. A bit of addtional clarification and some additional examples before the author goes off into the exercises would potentially eliminate a considerable amount of confusion. The sections on Ser and Estar are a good example. It appears that sufficient explanaions are provided in the book (in the section on Ser for exaple) until one delves into further exercises in subsequent chapters of the book. There, knowledge of the full use of "Ser" is assumed, but referencing back to the original chapeter on "Ser" leaves one empty handed (in some but not all cases) as to why "Ser" was used rather than "Estar." This might seem picayune until one looks back on the total number of questions raised throughout the book. It is understandable that the author cannot anticipate all possible questions and points of confusion, but a bit more explanation and the use of additional examples would greatly amplify and clarify the grammatical content.

3. The student would also benefit greatly by having additional exercises in the book that mix and match what is learned in previous chapters (This is done is a few limited cases.) It is all too easy as an exercise to answer questions and translate text that directly follows the material being presented, for it is customed tailored to the points being made in that exercise. Addtional end of chapter exercise combining all that has been learned would be a valued addition. With that said, let me also add that the translation paragraphs at the end of each section (as humorous and as enjoyable as they are to translate) somewhat satisfy this contention, but not fully.


A superior value   March 12, 2001
 31 out of 32 found this review helpful

I studied Spanish for two years in college, put down my books for four years, then decided to study again on my own. Vocabulary came back to me rather quickly, but verbs have been a challenge (as they were in college as well).

"Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses" has been an unbelievably helpful resource in learning Spanish verb tenses. This book could almost stand alone as a textbook on Spanish verbs, and the exercises are fabulous.

In spite of the few small mistakes I've noticed in this book, it is an amazing value and I highly recommend it to anyone learning this fascinating language.


May be drill and kill; there are no shortcuts to learning   February 20, 2003
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

This book reminds me of the way my HS teacher of 4 years taught Spanish. It was "kill and drill" all the way, but it worked and I got a great foundation of the basics (this is 1975 to 1979, mind you), which has allowed me to, in the past 6 mos., begin my studies anew "independientemene," without feeling lost.

"Kill and drill" may be an anathman to the current zeitgeist in education, which stresses something called a "wholistic approach," but it is a method that has been tried and true. It's not as sexy as some of the present day modes of educating, but it works.

This book will lay a very, very strong foundation to the beginner, as well as "fill in the blanks" for the intermediate and advanced learner. The author uses a no-nonsense approach, which means she eschews excessive comment, as well as comments that are not germane to learning how to process/use verbs, and she sticks to the basics- Verb ending for all tenses, and proper usage. You can't go wrong with an approach like that. She also does a masterful job with irregular verbs, which is the bug-a-boo for all learners, beginners and advanced alike.

If the companion book on Spanish Grammar is as good as this book, together they will make a "deadly combination;" one that will put the learner well on their way to the proverbial "next level."