Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close (Practice Makes Perfect) | 
| Author: Eric Vogt
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
Buy New: $5.86
You Save: $6.09 (51%)
New (39) Used (6) from $5.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 34867
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0071492267
Dewey Decimal Number: 468
EAN: 9780071492263
Publication Date: September 17, 2008
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Product Description
Get up close and master Spanish past-tense verbs As you study Spanish you may view past-tense verbs as obstacles to your full understanding of the language. Learning past-tense verbs can be one of the most frustrating aspects of studying Spanish grammar, but it is also one of the most important for being understood and following what others say. By adding Spanish past-tense verbs to your range of language skills, you will open up a whole new world of communication. With plenty of opportunities for practice, practice, practice, Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close helps you better understand the nuances of this tricky grammar element and develop your skills and confidence as a Spanish speaker with: - Easy-to-absorb explanatory materials, examples, and exercises
- Authoritative guidance on the different verb forms and when to use them
- A comprehensive answer key that not only gives you the correct solutions to the exercises but explains the why behind them
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent primer on Spanish Past-Tense Verbs October 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Thank Heaven for this little book! I met the author on my bus ride home one day earlier this year. He noticed me plodding through my huge Spanish practice book and correctly noted that I was trying to learn. I now have a copy of this book, and in the first few pages, it cleared up something that I've been trying to figure out since I started studying Spanish in the late 80s--when to use the preterite versus the imperfect! That issue has literally been driving me crazy.
The author gets right to the point and gives you simple, easy-to-remember explanations of how to use the preterite and the imperfect tenses. Within 5 minutes, I felt I had the confidence to finally figure it out. The exercises help you seal in that knowledge and practice, practice, practice!
This book is highly recommended -- get it and learn how to speak the past-tense properly. You won't regret it!
Who needs to look at the past-tense up close? EVERYBODY October 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
These books by Vogt are worth at least twice the sticker price.
Take for example this little note. Are you aware that four very commonly-used Spanish verbs completely change meaning in the preterite, but retain their primary definition in the imperfect?
Did you know that, technically speaking, the imperfect and preterite tenses are actually two different aspects of past time; i.e., two separate features of the past?
Hence the confusion, my friends!
English-speaking learners of Spanish have a difficult time grasping this essential element of the greatest of Romance languages. But the topic is not just important, IT IS VITAL. If a student does not understand the preterite vs. the imperfect, and if he/she does not memorize those four aforementioned verbs (IT'S ONLY FOUR - DON'T HAVE A COW) whose definition changes according to the tense used, they may as well hang it up. You're done. Adios. Fuggetaboutit. Stick with English.
The wonderful news is this: You buy a little hundred-page book like this, take a weekend to study it, and - HALLELUJAH - your problem is not only solved, you will spend the next year rejoicing at your ability to pick yourself up after you have verbally stumbled and fallen. You'll say "Fue una buena persona..." and then say "ERA una buena persona," catching yourself in mid-sentence, realizing that you were in the process of describing - a case in which you will need to use the imperfect.
Incidentally, Vogt also does an excellent job of explaining this language-learning phenomenon. You will stumble and fall before you master past-tense verbs. Now, I suppose if your name is Bill Shakespeare and you recently received your Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Spain, I would change that to "You PROBABLY will stumble and fall before you master past-tense verbs." (Then of course I would apologize to Bill - but I'm just giving him the facts.)
This careful look at an area of Spanish which all students wrestle with represents the beginning of the end of your struggle.
Excellent Book on Spanish Past Tenses September 25, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The author sent me a free copy of this book recently. It came at a very good time since I'm about to teach my Spanish class the difference between the imperfect and the preterit. I will probably use some of the exercises in this book to help my students understand the past tenses.
Table of Contents
1. The Imperfect: Description and Background
2. The Preterit: Narration, or what happened?
3. The imperfect and the preterit together: Narrating and describing the past
4. The present perfect: What have you done for me lately?
5. The pluperfect: What happened before something else
6. The conditional: What would be and the future of the past
7. The conditional perfect: What would have been
8. The sequence of tenses: Observations on the indicative and the subjunctive
The section on the present perfect is very interesting. The author has noticed that students have been using the English present perfect less and less recently. I have noticed that several of my Spanish-speaking friends use the Spanish present perfect less than I had learned.
Brandon Simpson
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