Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Easy Spanish Step By Step is a book that is written by Barbara Bregstein. She is a translator and Spanish professor with more than 30 years of experience teaching Spanish in New York City colleges. The book is based upon the concept that the quickest way to learn Spanish is by having a solid foundation in the basics of Spanish grammar. There are number of things that I really like about this book: 1. The author gives down-to-earth explanations when explaining the rules and concepts of Spanish grammar. She does a great job breaking-down these complex rules and topics of Spanish grammar so that anyone can easily understand them. 2. According to the author, she covers over 300 verbs in this book. Of course, I didn’t bother to count them :-) 3. The book has a lot of reading passages to help you improve your reading comprehension skills in Spanish. 4. What I like most about Easy Spanish Step By Step is that the book has lots of exercises to help reinforce the Spanish that you are learning. On the average, each of the 13 chapters have 5 or 6 exercises. One thing that really stands out about this book is that it is very thorough. Besides teaching basic Spanish such as numbers, dates, time, days and months, the author also covers just about every Spanish grammar topic imaginable. From nouns, articles, and adjectives to differentiating between the Spanish verbs “ser” and “estar.” From subject pronouns, direct pronouns, indirect pronouns, and interrogative words, all the way to regular verbs and irregular verbs. From Spanish adjectives and adverbs all the way to present tense verbs and future tense verbs. And of course she covers those two topics that, we, native English speakers find most challenging about Spanish grammar: reflexive verbs and the Spanish subjunctive. When using this book, I do recommend that you follow the author’s advice. She recommends that you do not use the book as a reference book by skipping around from one part to another. Instead she recommends that you take advantage of the grammatical progression of the book and study each chapter one after the other so that you can easily learn and retain the material. Hence the name Easy Spanish Step-By-Step. In closing, I’ll leave you with the 3 learning-Spanish resources which are currently my favorites. (My list of favorites changes from time to time so you may want to check my list periodically.): UPDATED 02/10/2023 1. Learn Spanish for Beginners and Adults: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level One – New and Improved Version (Lessons 1 to 30) This is my favorite program for learning how to actually speak the language and how to understand spoken Spanish even it is spoken by fast-speaking, everyday native Spanish speakers (as opposed to Spanish instructors and airline personnel). With that said, it is not one of the best for learning how to read and write the language. For reading and writing there are far better choices. But to accomplish spoken fluency which includes developing a native-like accent and pronunciation, and being able to understand even fast speaking native speakers, this is the best I've found. 2. 501 Spanish Verbs, 8th edition (501 Verb Series). If you think you can accomplish fluency in Spanish as an adult without mastering conjugating Spanish verbs, you are only fooling yourself. This book is an absolute essential resource for learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs. It will show you how to conjugate every Spanish verb tense imaginable. The version I have also includes a bonus CD which teaches both regular verbs and irregular verbs. 3. Learn Spanish For Adult Beginners: 3 Books in 1: Speak Spanish In 30 Days! (Learn Spanish For Adults) This is a very comprehensive 3-Books-In-1 learning-Spanish book and a new favorite of mine. The first two books cover Spanish grammar as well as helpful Spanish phrases. The third book consists of very short but interesting stories to help you to learn to read Spanish.