Product Description

Demystify Spanish Grammar!!!

Spanish students always have difficulty understanding certain grammatical concepts in Spanish.

This book will Demystify...
The Written Accents
Ser & Estar
Para & Por
The Imperfect & the Preterit
And the Dreaded Spanish Subjunctive!!!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131318 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-17
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Review
"...the overall "feel" of the book is a "user-friendly" one and this book is not difficult to understand." --Matthew G. Sherwin, Amazon Top Reviewer

Demystifying is right! -- Luis Rojas, www.rojasspanish.com

Review
I can't see this book not being useful for anyone whose native language is not Spanish. Even if you are familiar with the topics covered, chances are you will see things that cause you to say, "Yeah cool, I've never really thought of it quite like that--very helpful."

"This book sets out with a very clear purpose and delivers on its promise..."

Review
This little book is a handy summary of a number of tricks that will help intermediate students to understand some of the points of Spanish orthography and grammar that they are unlikely to have mastered at the beginning level. Simpson explains such matters as accent use, por/para, ser/estar and the subjunctive with simple rules, memorable acronyms and a minumum of technical language, so that the average reader of the book won't get bogged down in the terminology-laden presentations of advanced grammars.

Customer Reviews

"I can see clearly now, the rain is gone"----GREAT BOOK, BRANDON SIMPSON !!!
Demystifying Spanish Grammar is quite a good book for Spanish students everywhere. At first I wondered if the book would be able to cover much ground as it is a shorter book than I expected it to be. Wow, was I ever wrong! This Spanish grammar book covers lots of territory and works wonders for helping students of Spanish like me understand basic yet critical concepts about nouns, verbs, prepositions and much more including those pesky Spanish accents. Great!

Here is a list of what the book covers very well:

1) Written accents in Spanish
2) Understanding Ser and Estar
3) Understanding Para and Por (worth the price of admission alone!)
4) Understanding the Imperfect and the Preterit (the simple past tense)
5) Two lengthy sections on understanding the Spanish Subjunctive (excellent)

There are answers to the exercises; a list of other recommended books (wow); an English-Spanish Glossary; extra information on Spanish nouns and even definitions of grammatical terms.

Author Brandon Simpson has an excellent writing style that spells things out remarkably clearly and the overall "feel" of the book is a "user-friendly" one and this book is not difficult to understand. You also still have the ability to re-read parts of the book that are particularly troublesome for you if, for example, you're having trouble differentiating between para and por--this certainly does throw many, many students of Spanish grammar--even the best of students can stumble and fall on this topic.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for people who wish to pursue the formal study of the Spanish language at the entry and intermediate levels. It's also a good book for people who wish to use it to review or refresh their understanding of certain concepts even when they are at the more advanced levels of study. In addition, this book is designed in such a way that you can use it for independent study or you can refer to it when a topic in class just isn't clearly understandable to you. Brandon Simpson has made a huge contribution to the study of the Spanish language; and we are better off for it.

Good For What it Is
Don't expect to learn a lot of Spanish or to spend hours reading this book. I went through the entire thing in a couple of hours. The book only goes into six grammatical issues facing foreign learners. For me I picked up a few small tips (using "ser" to indicate event location and a slightly better understanding of when to use the accent mark) but about 95% of the book was covered in my College advance grammer course. The book is good for a quick study before a test in one of the grammar areas and I suspect it is more useful for high school student (who don't have a good understanding of even English grammar) than for College students.

The book does give some acronyms to remember for when to use "ser" vs. "estar" and is good for people that need acronyms to jar their memory.

All in all the material, though sparse is well explained and will be useful for students that have difficulty with the concepts covered.

Several lessons on a few key points of Spanish Grammar from a talented tutor
Look, I don't know much about Spanish. Most of what I know or can dope out I picked up through my music studies and having to try and read lyrics and texts in various European languages. The only language I studied at all was a year's worth of German as an undergraduate. So, I know a little about what students go through in trying to learn a new language. If you are beyond Spanish 101 and want to get some real help in understanding some key basic elements of the grammar of Spanish works, Brandon Simpson's little book can help you.

Simpson says you should consider this book like sessions with a tutor and I think that is spot on. He sets out to help you with a few problems that his experience tells him most students studying Spanish struggle with.
1) Demystifying the Written Accents in Spanish
2) Demystifying Ser and Estar
3) Demystifying Para and Por
4) Demystifying the Imperfect and the Preterit HIDE/STARS acronyms.
5) And two chapters dealing with the Spanish Subjunctive.

He provides several mnemonics to help you remember the rules, as most good teachers will do, several sets of exercises to help you see if you really understand what you have read, and several appendices to help you get at key information and a list of other books to read and study. Simpson also provides contact information so you can get a hold of him yourself and ask questions.

A handy and useful book. Just remember that it is a few lessons with a tutor to help you learn a few key lessons rather than a big text on the all and all of Spanish grammar.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI