Practice Makes Perfect: Italian Verb Tenses

I read some of the other reviews of this book and was really surprised. The purpose of this book isn't to teach you how to SPEAK Italian. That should be done with a text that is designed for that purpose, such as Prego, Da Capo or with a tape series like Pimsleur. You can't learn to speak a language from a book - that must be done by actively speaking the language, making mistakes, learning through trial and error - basically making a fool out of yourself. :) So I disagree slightly with reviewers who complained about the lack of stress marks (although I understand their frustration). When you read Italian in the newspaper or in literature, authors and journalists are not going to put stress marks in their works. So you don't want to become dependent on them as you learn Italian. You'll find in many books, stress marks are used less and less as you commence through the book. I think that it is a slipperly slope to come to expect them everywhere. This book, however, is excellent for learning how the tenses work. If you don't know what a verb means, it's good practice to look it up in a dictionary or try to discover the meaning of the word through the context that it is used, if possible. I used this book in my own Italian learning experience with my Italian teacher, and it not only helped me to use and understand the tenses, but it also helped me to teach others about the verb tenses too! This is a good reference when you need to remember how verbs in certain tenses are conjugated. Examples are plentiful and the charts and usage explanations are easy to understand and well laid out. I don't think that this book is designed to be anything more than that, and for the price, at just over $9, can you really go wrong? In my opinon, this book does what it is meant to do - teach you how to conjugate verbs, how to use the tenses and practice those tenses with relevant exercises. If this is what you need and are looking for, then this book is for you.

I'm nearly done with this workbook and I have purchased the rest of the workbooks that have been written by this same author simply because I like the teaching method used in the books. The exercises are systematically arranged to bite off verb tenses one type at a time. It seems easier to pick up that way. However, anyone interested in this book needs to have at least a fundamental understanding of the language first-- basic vocabulary, pronunciation, sentence structure and some limited experience with pronouns, prepositions and articles. The first chapter jumps in with conjugating regular, present tense verbs but expects you already know how to say things like "the clouds" or "a new car". This workbook would be a good second step after a crash beginner's course or set of beginner's CDs (that's how I started). I have an intermediate knowledge of the language and the beginning of the workbook has been really good review. The rest is new to me. Sitting with a pocket dictionary while I do the exercises is helpful (like I knew how to say "snowman" before this!). Now I've just ordered her book on prepositions and pronouns. This book really drills you on verbs, but to the exclusion of everything else. If you're self-teaching through books, workbooks and CDs as I am-- you're going to want to approach it from all angles, else be left asking WHY? (I say this out loud to myself even) when something that doesn't have anything to do with verbs leaps out at you as confusing. An audio component (CDs) is critical to learning the language in addition to the workbooks. I take a workbook with me wherever I go. I leave one in the car and when it looks like I'm going to have a wait somewhere, I pull it out and work on it. Of all the workbooks I have by Paola Nanni Tate, I like this one the best. Buona Fortuna!

I am of Italian descent and wanted to learn the grammar, etc so that I could speak the language (which I forgot for many years) properly. I am taking Italian classses and we have used exercises from this book in class along with out textbook. It has been very useful.