Buy used:
$19.88
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime
FREE delivery Monday, May 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: This item shows wear including moderate wear to edges and cover.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Sentence Builder (Practice Makes Perfect Series) 1st Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 204 ratings

There is a newer edition of this item:

Practice Makes Perfect helps you put your Spanish vocabulary and grammar skills together!

You may have all the vocabulary down pat and every grammar point nailed--but without the skill of knowing how to put these elements together, communicating in your second language would be nearly impossible. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Sentence Builders picks up from where other grammar books leave off, showing you the variety of structures and how to combine them to make solid sentences. And like every Practice Makes Perfect title, these books feature crystal-clear explanations, numerous realistic examples, and dozens of opportunities to practice, practice, practice!

Read more Read less

Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Gilda Nissenberg is an experienced educator and faculty trainer, who authors curriculum for beginning and intermediate Spanish high school courses for Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Southern Region College Board (GA), and the New York College Board. She is the author of Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar.

About the Author

Gilda Nissenberg is an experienced educator and faculty trainer, who authors curriculum for beginning and intermediate Spanish high school courses for Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Southern Region College Board (GA), and the New York College Board. She is the author of Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ McGraw-Hill Education; 1st edition (July 22, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0071600396
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0071600392
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.75 x 0.5 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 204 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Gilda Nissenberg
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
204 global ratings
Great workbook!
5 Stars
Great workbook!
When I was truly at an intermediate level, I would have found this book to be extremely useful. (and on the back cover there is indeed an indication that this is meant for students at the intermediate level) Even though I'm past that stage, this book was still somewhat helpful to me. If you want to go through this book, make sure you're confident with verb tenses. If you're not at this point, I suggest borrowing or purchasing a good verb workbook like "Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses" or "The Ultimate Spanish Verb Review and Practice", both of which I found to be excellent. None of the other Spanish workbooks I've gone through (including at least 4 from this Practice Makes Perfect series) have focused on punctuation, abbreviations, acronyms and spelling like this book does (even though only one [somewhat long] chapter is dedicated to these). In another chapter there is a list of 45 abbreviations that are used in text messaging and emails (examples: "a2" instead of "adios", "bs" instead of "besos", "mxo" instead of "mucho", etc). I was kind of fascinated by some of these. I liked the sections of idiomatic uses of verbs in certain expressions. "Dar" for example has a list of several expressions including "dar la cara" (to face [up to] someone or something), "dar con" (to find), "dar la mano" (to shake hands - which is different from "dar una mano" which means "to lend a hand"). There are idiomatic expressions as well that do not focus on a particular verb. There is a review of the subjunctive - that's something that the author doesn't assume you've mastered at an intermediate level, which is good news for many people. The practice exercises on the subjunctive in this book will be helpful. I liked the exercises in changing a passive construction to the passive reflexive (So that the two ways to say, "The city of Santo Domingo was founded in 1496." are: "La ciudad de Santo Domingo fue fundada en 1496." and "La ciudad de Santo Domingo se fundó en 1496." You must "change" one into the other.) In this book you'll get practice using "el que", "la que", "los que" and "las que", as well as "cuyo", "lo que","lo cual" , "la cual", "los cuales" and "las cuales". You'll also learn how to use "que" and "quien/quienes" after different prepositions. There is an answer key at the back of the book for the exercises (of which there are many!). You're allowed to be creative with some of these exercises which is fun but of course the answer key will not help you as much by giving you a specific answer. Rather, the answer key might show a "sample answer" instead which could be nothing like what you wrote. It's still useful to have a sample answer though. In the last chapter you use what you learned earlier on in the book to write about different subjects, in different verb tenses, and in a couple different formats. Part of this is using what you learned about how to write the date, greetings and closings in both formal and informal letters and how to write addresses on envelopes (because in many Spanish-speaking countries, addresses are longer and the order of the information in the lines varies from the way we're generally used to writing and seeing them in English). This is another Practice Makes Perfect book that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2013
After having worked through this book completely, I can recommend it highly. It is a stand-alone workbook that has many writing exercises for each grammar point explained. I especially appreciated all the forms of address in letter writing, which hardly any book covers. Details of Spanish punctuation are also covered. Also valuable was the chapter on idioms and colloquial sayings, as well as the one on interjections.

Possibly the most valuable insights I got from this book are the concise guiding principles found in Chapter 17 on when to use the present perfect subjunctive (pg. 167), the imperfect subjunctive (pg.169), and the pluperfect subjunctive (pg. 171) verb tenses. From these principles, it was easy to draw up a simple table that shows at a glance which subjunctive tense to use with which tense in the main clause. So logical---this alone was worth the price of the book.

The only drawback I can point out is that in the chapter on relative pronouns, el/la cual and el/la que are not given a thorough enough explanation. I still felt confused when I finished the chapter. When does one use these instead of que or quien? It was only after working through the same material in the book "Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions" (2nd ed.) by Dorothy Richmond that I learned that whereas que sets up both restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, el/la que and el/la cual are used only in nonrestrictive clauses.

This book is great in the breadth of its coverage.
20 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016
I have to seriously brush up on my Spanish for professional reasons. I have a number of tools in my arsenal, but so far I'm getting the most value out of this book. I find the lessons clear and practical and I like the systematic approach. I also like this book because not only did I learn a lot of new things, I got a better understanding of many things I thought I knew, but apparently didn't grasp as well as I thought. Oh,my favorite thing so far is that I'm learning a lot important nuances that allow me to speak more naturally and better express the same kind of sentiment in Spanish as a I would in English. That's a big plus. The exercises are like doing sentence drills in a way, which I like. I wish there were even more of them. As others have mentioned, this is not a book for pure beginners. I would think you'd need to at least be an upper beginner although intermediate level might be more ideal.
13 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2023
Very well built book, great for extra Spanish practice for my son.
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2010
First of all, I want to say thanks to Amazon for having my order for Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Sentence Builder promptly shipped and delivered. With that said I must add that this is an excellent book for intermediate to advanced students of the language. Anyone who has purchased numerous learning Spanish products already knows that Practice Makes Perfect has some of the best books for learning Spanish. This book will help you in understanding and also forming the structures of sentences in the Spanish language. And as you become more skilled at forming sentences in the Spanish language your confidence increases and help your ability to speak Spanish with fluency also grows.

Here's my list of my favorite 7 products for learning Spanish that I think will help anyone who wants to learn or improve their Spanish. As you can see from many of my recommendations, I enjoy reading stories in Spanish because I believe reading stories really make the language stick in your head.

1. 
Easy Spanish Reader w/CD-ROM: A Three-Part Text for Beginning Students (Easy Reader Series)
I enjoy learning Spanish by reading because I believe reading helps make the language stick. Make sure that you get the version of this book that comes with the additional CD which contains recordings of passages from the book so that you can download them to your Ipod or mp3 player and improve your ability to understand the language when you hear someone speak it.
2. 
Spanish Stories / Cuentos Españoles (A Dual-Language Book) (English and Spanish Edition)  This is my second favorite Spanish reader.
3. 
Short Stories in Spanish: New Penguin Parallel Text (New Penguin Parallel Texts) (Spanish and English Edition)  Another great book for anyone who likes to learn the langauge by reading.
4. 
First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book (Beginners' Guides) (English and Spanish Edition)  A very popular book for learning the language by reading that I also enjoyed immensely.
5. 
Verbarrator Version 1.1 (Windows Version)  This fun and interactive software has been a tremendous help for me in allowing me to now master what was once the most hardest part of learning Spanish for me (learning how to cojugate Spanish verbs).
6. 
Spanish for Reading: A Self-Instructional Course  This book has done wonders to help my Spanish reading comprehension.
7. 
Correct Your Spanish Blunders: How to Avoid 99% of the Common Mistakes Made by Learners of Spanish  If you are studying Spanish on your own and not with the help of a Spanish instructor, I strongly recommend that you get a copy of this book.
28 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2017
I've been taking private Spanish lessons for about 8 months now, study for hours a week on my own, have created a lot of my own study materials and have 4 years of Spanish high school Vocab. I'm a solid intermediate student. HOWEVER, though I excel in the bits and pieces of Spanish grammar, I struggle putting it all together. I understand the basics, and probably a decent amount more than that...but I'm still not GOOD at it. I don't have any one book or reference that can help drill me with the essential structure of the language. And that's where this book comes in!!! It helps illustrate the simple to complex all in one book. It gets exhausting cross referencing stuff on the internet. It also gets exhausting trying to connect this peice of info 3 chapters ago from my teacher with this new piece of info in my text book. This is the first reference I've been able to find that makes putting it all together nothing but a bunch of exercises away from you!

Just a note: if you're expecting a normal book with normal pages think again - this book is literally printed on newsprint. The thinnest, cheapest paper there is. The kind of paper you can rip with the tip of your pencil or and aggressive eraser. It's worth it to just make copies so you can write, edit, make notes and corrections and not have it fall apart or bleed on the next 10 pages of the chapter.
33 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

amazon enthusiast
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on May 13, 2017
Good practice. Easy to understand. Helpful for homework assignments.
Noel, London
5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Book for Avoiding Pitfalls
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2012
Having studied other grammar books and found them a bit heavy-going, I can honestly say that his is an excellent read that gives a rapid understanding of how to put sentences together correctly. With just the right amount of information in each section, the reader is not overwhelmed and there is useful information about why grammar is structured the way it is, helping the student to navigate the pitfalls of the language easily.

I was genuinely surprised at how comfortable this book was to read cover to cover withouth my head splitting. I'm so impressed, I full intend order the equivalent text for my French study. Very satisfied!
3 people found this helpful
Report
Kris
5.0 out of 5 stars good for practice
Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2017
it is very helpful once you know the basics.
Leslie Whalley
5.0 out of 5 stars Spanish Sentence builder
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2011
This book contains lots of tests where you complete a sentence
or say if its a phrase or sentence, it gives you a list of possible
answers to select from. it teaches you about punctuation and spelling,
letter writing and how to use pronouns, adjectives and adverbs.
Like most Spanish books you buy, and this is no exception, it is
based on latin american and I'm learning Castillian (Spanish Spanish).
But there are only a few differences and these tend to be pronounciation.
Another book which helps you understand how to put your Spanish into words.
8 people found this helpful
Report
Philippe Marois
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect!
Reviewed in Canada on September 26, 2016
Perfect! - Spanish will be easy and fun to learn! :)