This textbook boosts the confidence of persons teaching Spanish as a second language, who may lack confidence in their understanding of tricky areas of expression. Their previous training did not enable them to control (much less explain to others) the many “danger zones” which challenge graduate students serving as teaching assistants, in-service teachers, and others who use Spanish professionally. It offers original and insightful analyses, abundant examples and helpful English comparisons. It dismantles the machinery of grammar into manageable parts. It is not intended for those wishing to learn Spanish (since it skips the basics to focus on the “rough spots”), but for those who know Spanish well, yet need to overcome their nagging limitations in crucial areas, e.g. subjunctive, reflexives, pronouns (neuter, relative, personal), adjective placement, ser/estar, preterite/imperfect, commands, gender, passive and impersonal expressions. There are special sections on words easily confused with each other, use of the accent mark, irregular verbs, and sentence structure. It is ideal for self-study or to supplement courses in composition, culture and Spanish linguistics. It benefits native-speaker teachers unfamiliar with the “why” of their language. The result is a better prepared teacher and a more promising learning experience for the students.

(abridged and revised) This reference grammar offers intermediate and advanced students a reason ably comprehensive guide to the morphology and syntax of educated speech and plain prose in Spain and Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Spanish is the main, usually the sole official language of twenty-one countries,} and it is set fair to overtake English by the year 2000 in numbers 2 of native speakers. This vast geographical and political diversity ensures that Spanish is a good deal less unified than French, German or even English, the latter more or less internationally standardized according to either American or British norms. Until the 1960s, the criteria of internationally correct Spanish were dictated by the Real Academia Espanola, but the prestige of this institution has now sunk so low that its most solemn decrees are hardly taken seriously - witness the fate of the spelling reforms listed in the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortograjia, which were supposed to come into force in all Spanish-speaking countries in 1959 and, nearly forty years later, are still selectively ignored by publishers and literate persons everywhere. The fact is that in Spanish 'correctness' is nowadays decided, as it is in all living languages, by the consensus of native speakers; but consensus about linguistic usage is obviously difficult to achieve between more than twenty independent, widely scattered and sometimes mutually hostile countries. Peninsular Spanish is itself in flux.

Practising Spanish Grammar can be used independently or as the ideal companion to the sixth edition of the widely acclaimed A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish (Butt, Benjamin and Moreira Rodríguez). Thoroughly updated, this fourth edition of the workbook features an improved organization which closely mirrors that of A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish, sixth edition. The selection of exercises has been fully revised and expanded with new exercises on a variety of topics including possessives, conditional, future and past tenses, and polite requests. Designed to stimulate and engage even the most grammar-shy students, this is an ideal resource for Spanish learners at CEFR Level B2-C1, ACFTL Intermediate-High to Advanced.

Adopts a conversational, non-technical tone and presents an array of language samples to foster proficiency in the Spanish language. KEY TOPICS: Features important rules and constructions for nouns, articles, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, interrogatives, conjunctions, prepositions, verbs, and functional expressions. MARKET:Spanish language teachers will find this concise review a non-threatening tool with an abundance of useful data, exercises, and transitional text.