I recently purchased a book called Spanish Verbs And Essentials of Grammar to strengthen my understanding of Spanish grammar and conjugation. I didn’t feel I was getting enough of this from my existing study materials. It’s funny how some themes seem to occur at the same time. On Friday, Ramses at Spanish Only posted Studying Grammar CAN Help. He discusses how much grammar has improved his study progress, which is what I am hoping for with my recent purchase.
The book itself is only a little over a hundred pages, but it was perfect for what I was looking for. I did not yet have a book that explained the familiar forms of you (tú, vosotros, etc) and how verbs are conjugated with those pronouns. I haven’t gone very far into this book yet, but I did look ahead at the object pronouns (me, te, le, lo, etc.), which have been stumping me when I run across them.
I also purchased The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs which has some explanation of conjugation but mostly it is a big list of Spanish verbs and all the different ways in which they can be conjugated, which is exactly why I bought it. I kept finding words like eran which I couldn’t find in my Spanish dictionary. I did guess from context that it was a form of ser (to be) but now I know it’s the third person plural form in the imperfect tense. This led me to learn that the imperfect tense is one of two past tenses in Spanish, though I don’t yet understand the differences between them.
I’ve yet to take a look at the CD-ROM that came with the Big Red Book but at some point I intend to.
BTW, I know I’m a day late, but Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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4 Comment(s)
The Swedish grammar book that I bought is in the same series as your Spanish grammar book and it is incredibly good. If the Spanish version is anything like the Swedish one, you have a good resource in your hands. Lots of example sentences to pick and put into your SRS.
Yeah, this book has a lot of good sentences. Even in the first few pages of chapter 2 (chapter 1 explains pronunciation), there were a lot of sentences that I added to my SRS because it showed using a verb in a way I didn’t know previously or it contained a new word.
I use a Dutch-Spanish grammar book, which only has about 100 pages aswell, but it explains just everything in a clear way with loads of example sentences. Grammar books don’t have to be big, they have to be clear.
@Ramses: I almost didn’t pick up the book because it was so thin. Thankfully I actually took a look at it and discovered it was pretty easy to understand and covered a lot of things I had questions about.
The Swedish grammar book that I bought is in the same series as your Spanish grammar book and it is incredibly good. If the Spanish version is anything like the Swedish one, you have a good resource in your hands. Lots of example sentences to pick and put into your SRS.
thomas | May 6, 2008 | Reply
Yeah, this book has a lot of good sentences. Even in the first few pages of chapter 2 (chapter 1 explains pronunciation), there were a lot of sentences that I added to my SRS because it showed using a verb in a way I didn’t know previously or it contained a new word.
peter | May 6, 2008 | Reply
I use a Dutch-Spanish grammar book, which only has about 100 pages aswell, but it explains just everything in a clear way with loads of example sentences. Grammar books don’t have to be big, they have to be clear.
Ramses | May 6, 2008 | Reply
@Ramses: I almost didn’t pick up the book because it was so thin. Thankfully I actually took a look at it and discovered it was pretty easy to understand and covered a lot of things I had questions about.
peter | May 7, 2008 | Reply