Complete Spanish Step-by-Step, Premium Second Edition

Actually retained some of my brief grade-school exposure to Spanish language and helping my high-school-aged kids through their flashcard learning, many years ago. Currently refreshing through an in-person class with a native speaker who is a professional interpreter. Her recommendation of Duolingo to support our class sessions has been so appreciated. As a bibliophile, I quickly realized my personal need for additional, supporting written resources. Appreciated reviews of this text by Amazon purchasers and can affirm with my findings: Defines relevant grammatical basics and correlates English to Spanish usage. Succinct, yet builds my comprehension through the engaging and progressive presentation of the material. Exercises are thoughtfully developed and comprehensive. Answers are included in the back of the book. Encourages pronunciation technique resources for robust conversational usage. In association with publishers McGrawHill and the provided (or outside apps) adjunct electronic resources, Ms. Bregstein’s text is THE BEST user-friendly text in my opinion!

This book has been very useful and instrumental in helping me learn to speak Spanish. I incorporated this book into my routine of listening to and watching novelas. It starts out with the basics and every chapter build upon the previous one. Pros: Plenty of reading and comprehension exercises It’s a large book, so you’ll be learning for a while Teaches you everything from the basics all the way up to advanced Cons: There are some parts that ask you to translate Spanish to English.

Really interesting studies and fun facts.

I’ve been using this Spanish book for practice and overall it’s been really helpful. There are tons of pages for practice, which makes it great for building repetition and reinforcing what I’ve learned. The only thing I wish is that it went into more depth on some topics before moving on—it sometimes feels a little rushed. That being said, it’s a solid resource for extra practice, and I’ve gotten good use out of it.

This is an excellent source for learning the Spanish language and grammar step-by-step. It is a well-structured book that helps beginner to intermediate Spanish learners cover the most important grammatical concepts with exercises, new words, and explanations. I would strongly recommend it for serious learners.

I have no Spanish language background. I never studied it. But I’ve been learning through an app for a few months, and although that’s been great to build my vocabulary and introduce me to a new language, I wanted a more in-depth understanding. This book is providing that! It has exercises which I’ve found so helpful, and the written lessons are well-explained. As I’m going through the intro section (this book has two main parts, an intro and an advanced), I appreciate the chance to master the basics in a way I can’t do with an app. It’s a great way to learn; writing plurals of nouns (la to las and el to los) makes those rules so much easier to understand. Reasons are given why accents go on certain syllables, when to use ser vs. estar—all things I could learn through osmosis in an app, but for my style of learning I much prefer to see things written out and to learn the “why” behind the rules. Of course there are always exceptions, and in this book those are given in example groups as well. All that being said, if you are coming in like me with zero background in the Spanish language, I did find using an app first to introduce me to the sounds and pronunciation nuances to be essential, and a vital tool for beginners. So I would recommend both study methods! Use an app for listening and speaking practice, and get this book for a greater foundation and understanding.

I took 2 semesters of Spanish at a local university 8 years ago, and promptly forgot everything because I had no opportunities to use it. Now, I find myself needing it, so I added this book to the list of things I am doing to rebuild my skills/relearn the language. As a linguist, ESL, and French teacher, I have a good idea of how languages can best be learned; this book does a good job of helping a dedicated learner work through it. I am using it along with a subscription to Babbel (which is ok, but doesn’t give enough explanation; this book is a great companion to Babbel, though), some podcasts, music, reading in Spanish, etc. The exercises here present the right level of challenge, and answer keys to check your progress are included. I only have 2 complaints: 1. The paper quality leaves something to be desired. When you erase your answers because of an error, you take some paper with you; 2. I ordered the spiral-bound version, and unfortunately, it has a habit of un-spiraling itself, which is extremely annoying. Also, though it comes with an app, don’t get too excited about that. It’s not great.

It took a little longer to ship, but it’s worth it. I highly recommend the spiral bound edition since it’s a lot easier to go from the worksheets to the answer guides without breaking the binding. As for the lessons themselves, I really like them. I’ve used Duolingo and Babbel. I find Duolingo to be too cartoonish and lacking real explanations. Babbel is more comprehensive and “grown up” and provides better instruction when it comes to why things work the way they do in Spanish. This book is like Babbel on steroids. A really great, comprehensive study guide. That said, I was lucky enough to receive a grant to pay for private Spanish lessons. This book is no replacement for private lessons or regular interactions with Spanish speaking friends, but it is a great resource, nonetheless.