The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Spanish Phrases

This Spanish language guide is extremely well-laid-out and reader-friendly, about the best I've seen. It is my choice as a reading companion for learning Spanish on the train or the plane when it is not my natural urge to pick up other materials. I find it a painless and interesting way to soak up a tremendous amount of Spanish. "The Pocket Idiot's Guide" is particularly useful for travelers -- check out some of those chapter titles: "At the Airport," "Traveling to Your Destination," "Hotel Hospitality." The 15 chapters are organized from the human perspective. "Painting the Town Red," for example, is composed of "Seeing the Sights," "May I Suggest," "Colloquially Speaking," and "So What Do You Think?" The word[s]/translations and pronunciations are in tables, and there are also sample sentences. The tables and sample sentences are preceded by commentary that I find to be entertaining and useful. The one large chapter focusing only on grammar and the appendix on idiomatic expressions have also been helpful to me, along with various extra pointers in all the chapters. This guide will be invaluable for people seeking to achieve an advanced level of Spanish.

This book should only be used as a supplement to something more comprehensive. The book isn't big enough to go into detail about certain parts of grammar, like prepositions. But I don't think the author intented to provide too much detail on grammar. I like not having to look up a lot of words - everything includes an English translation. What puzzled me was that the author went to the trouble of showing the pronunciation of everything, which was great, but neglected to indicate which syllable should be stressed. She could have put the stressed syllable in bold print like some dictionaries do. I took off one star for that.

I took Spanish for three years in high school then promptly began to forget it as soon as I left. When I recently changed jobs and found myself working very closely with a rather sweet Costa Rican woman, I felt bad since she spoke Spanish half the time and I didn't understand it very well. I picked this up as something I could carry in my purse and look over during my lunch hour and it is fabulous. It has helped bring back most of what I've learned and I feel my grasp of the language is better than it was when I was taking courses. I highly reccomend this book for those starting out or coming back to Spanish.

I am currently in the ninth grade and I'm taking Spanish. I wanted an extra book to help me with my studies and when I came upon this one at the bookstore, I decided to buy it. It has been an excellent guide.The thing I liked best about this book is that the sixteen chapters are divided up into subjects, such as "All About You" (greetings & salutations, family members, possession, etc.), "Is There A Doctor On Call?" (symptoms, parts of the body, illnesses, etc.) and "How To Be A Social Butterfly" (sports, places to go, movies, etc.). It also talks about Spanish accents, pronunciations, cognates, masculine & feminine nouns and much more! Located in the back of the book, you'll find a Spanish/English and English/Spanish dictionary.If you are studying Spanish for school or just for fun, "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Spanish Phrases" is a definite must have!

I just came back from a week at a Spanish language immersion school in Antigua, Guatemala. Since our whole family is interested in doing mission work with our church, and most of our trips are to Spanish speaking countries, I really want to put an effort into my continuing study of the Spanish language. This book is the best thing I have ever seen. It is re-emphasizing all of the things that my teacher taught me at language school, and makes them even more clear. I am buying an additional copy for my husband so I don't have to share. This book is a keeper that will be with me when I travel.