Barron's 1001 Pitfalls in Spanish

Jeez... I thought after living in south america quite a while, being trilingual (and from a bilingual family), being an english teacher AND a spanish teacher.... this book would probably not benefit me much, but I was bored at Barnes and Noble and browsed through. I was AMAZED by the depth of this book. I must say that I spent at least three hours paging through it before actually buying it; I use it frequenty when performing translations. I also have had several native spanish speakers leaf through it and tell me they are also amazed..it has all of those little grammar rules and exceptions to the rules that even native speakers screw up sometimes, especially when speaking coloquially (just like my you did that good - I mean, well....). On top of that, I think this book would actually be useful to people on many varied levels. You may not be able to use the WHOLE book at any one level, but I can see any person of almost any conceivable level getting quite a bit of information out of this book. One would just read closer to the beginning or end of the chapter according to Spanish level.

I bought my original copy of 1001 25 years ago, just prior to moving to South America for two years. What I discovered through this book is that there are subtle differences between English and Spanish that only the most discerning English-speaker might notice. However, native speakers will recognize right away that they ways you express some thoughts are not quite right. By carefully reviewing 1001 on a regular basis, I was able to incorporate those differences into my Spanish and become more fluent. I am delighted to see that this book is still in print. (I just bought a copy for a friend.) I would recommend 1001 to anyone who is serious about speaking Spanish correctly.

After hoping I would find a book like this, I ran a search and happened across this excellent reference. It explains the little tricky gaps that are usually left mysteriously unfilled in Spanish classes. I found the book to be well-organized into sections such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives etc. The authors give an explanation of the grammar rule and then show you how that is broken by a pitfall. 1001 Pitfalls doesn't have any exercises to hold your hand, but it's still a great book for brushing up on the finer points of Spanish grammar. I think it would be great as a reference book for all students of Spanish, not just advanced ones (even though it is perhaps a little more geared to the advanced student). All in all, this is an amazing little Spanish grammar reference that every Spanish student should have.

Finally a book that clearly goes over all those confusing little rules that leave you saying "it just sounds right, that's why". I lived and studied in Spain and got a BA in Spanish, but this book has given me rules for things I thought you just had to learn by memory. It is just what I was looking for: a review of the obscure grammar that isn't given much attention in normal studies. If you have been studying Spanish and want to refine your knowledge, this book is for you. If you are just starting out you need something with the basics, but this book is a MUST for teachers!

This is a very good book although the reader has to have a basic knowledge of Spanish, both in vocabulary and grammatical structures. This is because it is not a textbook but a reference as you can see from the construction of the book. First the parts of speech in Spanish are explained in alphabetical order, beginning from adjectives up to verbs. Then the sentence structure and special topics such as measurements and pronunciation are dealt with. It is not intended to be read from cover to cover, page by page, although it is still highly recommended to read it through at least once because, someday, you would want to make sure whether you should use imperfect or preterite in a particular situation and this book will sure come in handy. The topics are selected meticulously and explained in a structured and easy to understand way with abundant examples. If you are a learner who has a basic knowledge of Spanish this book will be useful and you will find yourself consulting it from time to time. But if you are a beginning learner who still has some grammatical issues to study you should wait buying it until you have become familiar with the language.