Reviews Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish

Looking for reviews of Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish. In this review of Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish. I will begin by telling you what I don’t like about the book. There is very little that I don’t like about this book but it is in need of a overhaul. This book teaches certain vocabulary words that you would never use in the 21st century. For example, this book covers words and phrases related to sending a telegram and writing with a type writer.. When was the last time that you sent a telegram? And when was the last time that you even saw a type writer. This outdated vocabulary should be replace with vocabulary about sending email messages, posting to blogs, making cell phone calls, an using a laptop or a computer.

Many of the online reviews of Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish have pointed this out. Despite the archaic vocabulary, this is still one of my favorite books for learning Spanish. I have recommended it to so many of my native English speaking students. That’s because the method that this book uses will allow a native English speaker to instantly learn lots of new Spanish vocabulary words simply by taking the English words that he already knows and by making certain subtle changes.

Another feature that I am sure you will find valuable is the amount of content found in this book. This book is packed with 496 pages of learning Spanish information. I will conclude this review of Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish by saying that the book is very reasonably priced.

 

Review of the The Spanish Subjunctive Up Close

The Spanish Subjunctive Up Close covers one of the most difficult topics of grammar for English speaking students learning the Spanish language. As any student of Spanish already knows, in order to speak proper Spanish you must learn and master the subjunctive mood and its four tenses:

• The Present Subjunctive
• The Imperfect Subjunctive
• The Present Perfect Subjunctive
• The Pluperfect Subjunctive

This book contains lots of exercises and answers to help the student learn the Spanish subjunctive. One of the things that I really like about this book is that many of the answers have detailed explanations.

Some of things that you will learn from this book are when to use the subjunctive and when NOT to use the subjunctive with adverbial expressions such as:

• A pesar de que (despite, in spite of)
• acaso, tal vez, quizá (perhaps)
• así que, así como (such that)
• aunque (although)
• cuando (when)
• de modo que, de manera que (in such a way that)
• después de que, luego que (after)
• hasta que (until)
• mientras (while)
• por más que, por mucho
• que (no matter how much)
• siempre que (as long as)
• tan pronto como, en cuanto (as soon as)
• una vez que (once you have)

This book also does an excellent job of explaining to the student when to use the subjunctive in hypothetical situations, also known as contrary-to-fact sentences.

Although the author says that this book was specifically written for intermediate and advanced students of the Spanish language, anyone who is studying Spanish and has already learned the present indicative and preterit tenses can benefit from this book. This book can be successfully used by students who are learning the language on their own. And students who are learning the language with a Spanish instructor can also benefit immensely from this book.

 

Review of Mastering Spanish Vocabulary A Thematic Approach

This book has a ton of vocabulary for you to learn. This book has 24 main chapters of vocabulary topics. I will name some of the vocabulary topics for you.

• Personal information
• The Human Body
• Health and Medicine
• Mental Processes and States of Behavior
• Shopping, Eating, Drinking and Clothing
• Living Arrangements
• Private Life, Social Relations
• Education, School, University
• Occupation and the Job World
• Leisure Time, Recreation, Sports, Games
• Travel and Tourism
• Visual Arts, Music, Literature
• History, Religion
• Government, Society, Politics
• Business and the Economy
• Communications and Mass Media
• Nature, the Environment, Ecology
• Time and Space
• Colors and Shapes
• Numbers
• Americanisms

The subchapters of this book cover very interesting topics where you will learn vocabulary words that cover the following topics:

• Plants
• Trees
• Flowers
• Animals
• Sexuality and Reproduction
• And many other topics

This book is for travelers, students of Spanish, and people who simply love learning foreign languages. According to the publisher of Mastering Spanish Vocabulary, this book has over 9,500 Spanish terms that you can learn.

But I want to make sure that you are aware that a great deal of the Spanish words and phrases that are taught in this book are typical of the Spanish that is spoken in Spain instead of the Spanish that is spoken in Latin America. I recommend this book for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners of the Spanish language.

 

Review of Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish

“Madrigal’s Magic Key To Spanish” is designed to teach students new to the Spanish language how to speak, read, write and think in Spanish. I have recommended this book to some of the students who I teach Spanish to online. And one reason why I recommend this book is that it will teach beginner students how to quickly build a large vocabulary of Spanish words. In the very first chapter of this book, you will learns lots of new Spanish words simply by taking the English words that you already know and making small changes to them.

I will give you an example of one method that is used in the very first chapter of this book in order to teach beginner students new Spanish vocabulary words. By taking many English words that end in “or” you already know many Spanish words. But you have to put the stress on the last syllable of the word to form the Spanish equivalent. For example:

• El actor
• El doctor
• El tractor
• Interior
• Exterior
• Superior
• El color
• El error
• El conductor
• El favor
• El profesor

Without a doubt, “Madrigal’s Magic Key To Spanish” fulfills its promise to easily teach the reader thousands and thousands of new Spanish words even if the student has never seen or heard a Spanish word before.

The book also promises to teach the student how to develop perfect pronunciation by using the book’s pronunciation key. However, I do not think that any student of the Spanish language can develop perfect pronunciation from reading a book. You must listen to native Spanish speakers to develop perfect or even proper pronunciation.

Some of the topics that you will find covered in this book are:

• How to greet people
• Expressing future action
• How to form the past tense
• Conversations using “ver” and “trabajar”
• How to use Spanish adjectives
• Numbers in Spanish

One feature that I really like about this book is that after every 10 chapters there is a section called “Test Your Progress.” In the “Test Your Progress” section of the book the student is given several tests to make sure that the student is learning and retaining the material covered in the book.

 

Review of Easy Spanish Reader

“Easy Spanish Reader” is a book that is designed to teach beginner students how to read in Spanish. The author of this book believes that the best way to learn a language is to start by learning to read the language. The stories in “Easy Spanish Reader” progress and each story becomes a little more difficult than the previous one. This process enables the reader to build reading comprehension skills in the Spanish language.

This book is divided into 3 sections:

1. Enrique and María
2. Historia de México
3. Lazarillo de Tormes

Enrique and Maria involves the story of two high school students who belong to their high school Spanish club.

This book has lots of translation exercises to make sure that students learn the Spanish grammar topics that are covered in this book. The translation exercises also help the student to learn Spanish vocabulary.

Historia de México covers some of the most important history of Mexico involving famous people such as Cortes and Miguel Hidalgo.

And Lazarillo de Tormes is a famous work of Spanish literature.

I strongly advise you to not only read this book but also read the stories out loud. By reading the stories out loud you will also improve both your ability to read and speak Spanish. If possible, try to have a native Spanish speaking friend listen to you read the stories. That way he or she can correct your pronunciation.

What I like most about this book is that each short story is followed by a brief quiz of about 10 to 15 questions to test the student’s reading comprehension. To get the greatest benefit from these quizzes, you should try to have a native Spanish speaking friend read the questions to you. And then you should try to answer the questions out loud in Spanish. If this is not possible, you can still benefit from doing the quizzes on your own and without the assistance of a native Spanish speaking friend.

The stories in “Easy Spanish Reader” are interesting and entertaining. And if you are a beginner Spanish student you will enjoy learning Spanish with this book.

 

Review of the Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms

The Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms is a very interesting book to read. This book is intended to be read by students, travelers and language-lovers. According to the book’s author, this book has over 4,000 commonly used idiomatic and colloquial expressions in Spanish and close to 8,000 English translations.

In addition to a Spanish-English dictionary, this book also has an English-Spanish dictionary so that you can easily find the Spanish equivalent of any English expression.

This book includes humorous expressions, figurative expressions, slang, proverbs, and many other types of expressions. I even found several vulgar expressions. Some of the common expressions that you will find in this book are:

• Por si las moscas
• Ser un diamante en bruto
• Ser el ombligo del mundo
• Poner los cuernos a alguien
• Hacer de tripas corazón

Although I would not recommend this book for anyone who only has a beginner’s level of understanding Spanish, both intermediate and advanced students will find this book helpful and interesting.

 

Spanish Vocabulary Words for When It Is Snowing

El clima – La Nieve
The Weather – The Snow

Nieve
Snow

Estuvo nevando, cayó mucha nieve.
It was snowing, a lot of snow fell.

No puedo salir, ¡estoy atrapado por la nieve!
I can’t get out, I am trapped because of the snow!

Aquí no nieva, no conozco la nieve.
It doesn’t snow here, I don’t know the snow.

Hay que palear la nieve de la casa, ¡no hay por donde pasar!
The snow on the house has to be shoveled out, ¡there is nowhere to pass!

¡Hay mucha nieve aquí! Hagamos un muñeco de nieve.
There is a lot of snow here! Let’s make a snowman.

Los niños están jugando en la nieve.
The children are playing in the snow.

Algunas variaciones
Some variations

Cayó mucha nieve
A lot of snow fell

Estamos atrapados por la nieve
We are trapped because of the snow

No conozco la nieve
I don’t am not familiar with snow

Aquí casi nunca nieva
It hardly ever snows here

Hay que palear la nieve
The snow has to be shoveled

Tenemos que quitar la nieve
We have to remove the snow

Limpiemos la nieve
Let’s clean out the snow

Hagamos un muñeco de nieve
Let’s make a snowman

Juguemos en la nieve
Let’s play in the snow

Juguemos con bolas de nieve
Let’s play with snowballs

Spanish Vocabulary Words for the Weather or Rain

Lluvia
Rain

1. Se largó el agua
   It started raining
2. ¿Está lloviendo? No, apenas está lloviznando
   Is it raining? No, it is hardly drizzling
3. ¡Qué aguacero!
   It is pouring down!
4. ¡Por fin escampó!
   It finally stopped raining!
5. Anoche caminamos juntos bajo la lluvia
   Last night we walked together under the rain

Algunas variaciones
Some variations

1. Se largó el agua *
   It started raining
2. Se va a largar el agua
   It is going to start raining
3. Ojalá no se largue el agua
   I hope it doesn’t start raining
4. Está lloviznando
   It is drizzling
5. Ayer estuvo lloviznando
   It was drizzling yesterday
6. Ayer lloviznó
   It drizzled yesterday
7. Es solo una llovizna
   It is just a drizzle
8. ¡Qué aguacero!
   It is pouring down!
9. ¡Por fin escampó!
   It finally stopped raining!
10. ¡Ojalá que escampe!
    I hope it stops raining!
11. Parece que va a escampar
    It seems it is going to stop raining
12. ¡Escampémonos allí! (Venezuela, Colombia)**
    Let’s take shelter over there!
13. Anoche caminamos juntos bajo la lluvia
    Last night we walked together under the rain

* En otros países: Se largó la lluvia, se soltó el agua, se largó a llover, se vino el agua, empezó a llover.

** En otros países: Refugiémonos, guarezcámonos.