Easy Spanish Step-By-Step

I actually bought this book in 2016, and for whatever mistaken reason I didn't start working through it until today. Since 2016 I've managed to learn, completely on my own, a fair amount of Spanish from a huge range of resources. However, with all the reading, vocabulary building, and even several trips to Spanish-speaking countries, I've been frustrated by my relative lack of progress in (a) speaking Spanish spontaneously or (b) understanding the everyday Spanish spoken by natives. That means that when I run into someone who knows some English, I can usually limp my way through. But when I run into someone who knows NO English, it is pretty nearly always a complete fail to communicate.I've been trying to figure out, for a while now, what is missing and what I can do about it. One of my challenges is I don't even know English grammar in a formal sense. Another issue has been that the thousands of words of Spanish I've memorized, have not been presented – and exercised – in a sufficiently methodical and interesting way. Lack of auditory and spoke practice has been another issue. Another has been little practice in sentence construction, because material is either too trivial or too complicated.Through time I've attempted to address many of these impediments. However, I haven't found a single, simple, practical, ENGAGING book to tie everything together . . . Until now. This book is just short of 300 pages, and it somehow manages to find that middle ground of teaching complete intermediate Spanish, without being overwhelming.How does it do this? Vocabulary words are CAREFULLY chosen and presented to fit together into sentences to cover a huge range of most-common situations. For example, in an early chapter this book presents numbers, times of day, months, seasons, etc. and ties all these things together. Another thing I noticed is that the words which are covered are generally well-balanced, using things such as opposites, so they are learned more memorably and able to be interchanged within sentences. It's a small thing - which most books neglect - which makes the material flow really well.A lot of essential "glue" words and syntax is presented and EXPLAINED in a smooth, complete way I've not seen before. An example of this is the presentation of que, tan, and como on pages 113-1115. These words are ESSENTIAL and a large part of natural speech, but I've never been able to understand them well enough, in context, to feel comfortable using them in my own phrasing.I'm going to leave my review off here, because I broke away after getting to page 120 to write this recommendation. This is NOT a “beginner” book. But it is also not a particularly advanced nor complicated book. That is quite a balancing act, which most Spanish books fail at rather miserably. So what is it? Well, I suspect (but will never know) it is the sort of book a smart beginner would benefit immensely from getting early on and reading, and reviewing, at sensible intervals. I have a funny feeling that if I had found and read this book 6 years ago I would have made considerably more progress, more naturally, than I otherwise made cramming vocabulary and syntax in small, disjointed chunks.

I purchased this book as a gift for several prison inmates in Virginia who expressed an interest in learning Spanish, and the feedback has been fantastic! The "Easy Spanish Step-By-Step" guide is straightforward, well-structured, and truly lives up to its name. The step-by-step approach breaks down high-frequency grammar and vocabulary in an easily digestible way, making it accessible even for those with no prior background in Spanish.The inmates using it have shared that they’re making significant progress and feel confident in their ability to communicate effectively. They particularly appreciate the practical exercises and reading comprehension sections, which allow them to immediately apply what they’ve learned. The lessons build on one another in a logical sequence, so it’s easy to follow and stay motivated.This book is a great investment for anyone who wants to achieve Spanish proficiency quickly and efficiently. Whether for personal use or as a gift for others looking to learn the language, I highly recommend it!

This book emphasizes grammar, vocabulary and gender distinctions. I think it overwhelms the student with too much information on each page. It’s helpful to learn new terms and how to spell them. I just wish it would be presented in a more limited manner. The solution is to take each page at a slower pace.

The media could not be loaded. Easy Spanish Step By Step is a book that is written by Barbara Bregstein. She is a translator and Spanish professor with more than 30 years of experience teaching Spanish in New York City colleges.The book is based upon the concept that the quickest way to learn Spanish is by having a solid foundation in the basics of Spanish grammar. There are number of things that I really like about this book:1. The author gives down-to-earth explanations when explaining the rules and concepts of Spanish grammar. She does a great job breaking-down these complex rules and topics of Spanish grammar so that anyone can easily understand them.2. According to the author, she covers over 300 verbs in this book. Of course, I didn’t bother to count them :-)3. The book has a lot of reading passages to help you improve your reading comprehension skills in Spanish.4. What I like most about Easy Spanish Step By Step is that the book has lots of exercises to help reinforce the Spanish that you are learning. On the average, each of the 13 chapters have 5 or 6 exercises.One thing that really stands out about this book is that it is very thorough. Besides teaching basic Spanish such as numbers, dates, time, days and months, the author also covers just about every Spanish grammar topic imaginable. From nouns, articles, and adjectives to differentiating between the Spanish verbs “ser” and “estar.” From subject pronouns, direct pronouns, indirect pronouns, and interrogative words, all the way to regular verbs and irregular verbs. From Spanish adjectives and adverbs all the way to present tense verbs and future tense verbs. And of course she covers those two topics that, we, native English speakers find most challenging about Spanish grammar: reflexive verbs and the Spanish subjunctive.When using this book, I do recommend that you follow the author’s advice. She recommends that you do not use the book as a reference book by skipping around from one part to another. Instead she recommends that you take advantage of the grammatical progression of the book and study each chapter one after the other so that you can easily learn and retain the material. Hence the name Easy Spanish Step-By-Step.In closing, I’ll leave you with the 3 learning-Spanish resources which are currently my favorites. (My list of favorites changes from time to time so you may want to check my list periodically.):UPDATED 02/10/20231. Learn Spanish for Beginners and Adults: Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level One – New and Improved Version (Lessons 1 to 30) This is my favorite program for learning how to actually speak the language and how to understand spoken Spanish even it is spoken by fast-speaking, everyday native Spanish speakers (as opposed to Spanish instructors and airline personnel). With that said, it is not one of the best for learning how to read and write the language. For reading and writing there are far better choices. But to accomplish spoken fluency which includes developing a native-like accent and pronunciation, and being able to understand even fast speaking native speakers, this is the best I've found.2. 501 Spanish Verbs, 8th edition (501 Verb Series). If you think you can accomplish fluency in Spanish as an adult without mastering conjugating Spanish verbs, you are only fooling yourself. This book is an absolute essential resource for learning how to conjugate Spanish verbs. It will show you how to conjugate every Spanish verb tense imaginable. The version I have also includes a bonus CD which teaches both regular verbs and irregular verbs.3. Learn Spanish For Adult Beginners: 3 Books in 1: Speak Spanish In 30 Days! (Learn Spanish For Adults) This is a very comprehensive 3-Books-In-1 learning-Spanish book and a new favorite of mine. The first two books cover Spanish grammar as well as helpful Spanish phrases. The third book consists of very short but interesting stories to help you to learn to read Spanish.

This book is a wonderful resource to learn Spanish. The book is well organized and an app is available to use to support language learning.