It’s perfect for me and how I learn. Starts off very basic with lots of exercises and explainations. I learn best by doing and writing and this book is great. It is a great pairing to Duolingo. I have been in the app for a few months before I bought this book. It is a great addition, it helps me to work outside of the app.

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’m working on the 7th chapter of this book and have been pleased. Well written, good exercises, and good value for the money.

I bought this book for my boyfriend who works with a lot of people who speak Spanish, so he wanted to start learning. It’s the perfect book to help him immerse himself in the language. Only one small problem… I accidentally sent it to MY address instead of his work address! So now, instead of mastering Spanish, he’s probably wondering why I’ve gone radio silent on my language support. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here at home, flipping through a Spanish book that I can't use. Five stars for the book, minus zero stars for MY mailing skills. Here’s hoping my next shipment ends up at the right place next time! 😆 Update: I ordered the book again, and I just found out today that it made it to him safely and he loves it! He looked it over and said it looks really comprehensive and that by the end of it he should know intermediate Spanish! Glad that it made it to him my second go around ordering it. 😅

It is a super great addition so my spanish on line practice..very easy to reference, well organized. I can't do without it.

Very well written, quickly cleared up some little grammar issues that have been defeating me. For me, perfect progression of lessons.

I started learning Spanish via the app, Duolingo. I bought this Spanish book to help me understand and the basics. This is a great resource. It really does teach you Spanish by building up the concepts. It explains a lot of grammar concepts better than Duolingo. It still takes a lot of work to learn; sometimes I have to read the explanations over and over again before it finally sinks in. I recommend buying the spiral bound version of this book. It’s easier to flip through the book with the spiral binding. Buy a mechanical pencil with a big eraser for all the mistakes that you will naturally make as part of the learning process and enjoy learning Spanish!

First of all, let me advise you to buy THIS copy which contains the beginner AND advanced together--instead of the books separately. It's a great value and each one has its benefits. The beginner book is a great foundation and starts with the nuts and bolts. Granted, some reviewers claim it's not designed for a 100% beginner, but I think it's fine as long as you have a dictionary and online translator. The advanced book takes things a step farther. Some of the lessons may appear, at first, to be repeats of the beginner book. But they're not. They fill in the gaps and expand on the same topic. For example, the beginner book will cover the difference between ESTAR and SER. But the advanced will cover these two verbs in the past tense and imperfect tense. As another example, the beginner book will introduce you to the multi-purpose word QUE. But the advanced will expand it with LO QUE, EL/LOS QUE, LA/LAS QUE. Again, it's very well-designed and the progression is logical. I found myself many times wondering about a certain confusing idea...only to find it discussed in the next paragraph. The feel of the book is clean and solid. The font is very easy on the eyes. The organization of titles and subtitles makes it easy to reference back to certain topics at a later date. You can also look up key words or topics in the index. They could have allowed for more space in the areas where you write your answers in, but that's not a big deal. I just wrote smaller and extended my answers to beneath the lines. Before this book, I purchased the yellow Madrigal one that people rave about on YouTube. Honestly I was disappointed and stopped using it after just 2 days. This book blows it out of the water. I know this sounds nerdy but I found myself having a hard time putting it down. I don't feel like it's a chore to work through the exercises. At no point did I ever find it either too easy or too difficult. I was continually learning. If something was a review for me, it actually explained the idea better than I was previously taught on "Duo". After just 7 months, I scored a B2 (upper intermediate) on the DELE language placement exam. I feel like my written Spanish is very good and I can read most things--only being limited by vocabulary. This book has helped me "lift off". At this point, all I need to do is immerse myself more in the spoken language and put into practice what I've learned. There's really not much more that a book can teach you. I highly recommend it! PROS: -Feels solid in hands, with clean pages and font -Covers EVERYTHING (verbs, nouns, adjectives, articles, pronouns, dates/times, numbers, etc.) -No typos that I've discovered -LOTS of practice exercises (with answers in back) -Logical progression of topics -Each chapter has Reading Comprehension section at end which builds your skills -Includes common idioms in the back of book -Separates the "vosotros" form so that you can skip over it if you don't live in Spain -Effective at showing difference between formal/usted and informal/tu. CONS: -The phone app included is not useful and seems poorly designed -Space for writing answers can be too small in certain exercises -Translations are included for Spanish sentences in the lessons but NOT for exercises