Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Italian Grammar, Premium Second Edition

This workbook is fantastic. I am very pleased with the logical layout and the in-depth discussions of verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. This workbook has so much information in it, it can easily replace a textbook and be used on its own. The exercises are relevant and straightforward, but also varied.Something I didn't know, however, before I bought it: this book is intended for intermediate users. Don't let this discourage you from purchasing it, though. As long as you know a few of the basic concepts of Italian, and understand a little about how languages work in general, you will be able to begin at the start of this workbook.One thing it is slightly lacking in is vocabulary. There are many other books in the Practice Makes Perfect series intended to work together, so while this book will certainly help you with all the grammar you could need for an Italian I/II level understanding, you'll need to either get the other workbook(s) or find some other source of vocabulary. I have been so pleased with this workbook, however, that I intend to complete my collection of the series.I highly recommend this product to anyone who wants to study Italian on their own for fluency (not recommended for "travel"-type learning).

I'm about halfway through this book and can easily say that among all of the books I've tried for language learning, this one is up there among the best. The author knows their stuff and the exercises are set up in a way that is really helpful. I should note that I've been doing Rosetta Stone and Duolingo in addition to this book and a couple others in the Practice Makes Perfect series, and your results will likely depend on the various methods you employ alongside this book. For me, understanding the grammar and getting the repetition of Rosetta Stone and Duolingo helped me to retain what I was learning and understand the reasons behind the statements. I would definitely recommend this as part of your regimen, but also understand that by itself it won't be nearly as helpful.

I bought this before a long trip to the south of Italy/Sicily, and it definitely helped me. However, I can speak both Spanish and Portuguese, so I probably got a lot more out of the book than someone who was trying to learn Italian without a background in another Romance language, because most of the grammatical structures remain nearly the same between them. Would recommend if you are looking for an easy way to learn Italian verb conjugations, basic grammar, and basic vocab.

This is really the only book that you need to navigate the tricky roads of Italian grammar. The language of the Italian peninsula is considered an easy language to learn, and it is, AFTER you master the nuances of why Italians speak the way they do.This is my second copy of Practice Makes Perfect, the first one having fallen apart after repeated, and sloppy, use. In the meantime, I purchased other grammar books, but none were as effective as this one. My only complaint is that sometimes the article is not given with the noun, but this is a common problem with Italian language books.

I am teaching myself Italian for an upcoming trip. I meant to buy a grammar book, but bought this. What I really like about it is that from the first step, if you've been doing any basic practice, then you'll be able to jump in, follow the quick lessons, and then do the exercises. Don't forget that the back has a dictionary that will cover most of the words that you might not remember in the book.Couples well with flashcards and some basic grammar practice.

Excellent instruction in Italian grammar, especially the sections on the verbs that are so difficult as the tenses of the verbs multiply. Very good exercises and very helpful glossary. Highly recommended! However, I would keep in mind that Italian is a very difficult language, but it is the most beautiful sounding of all the languages in the world.

I'm only about a chapter in, but it is amazing what they have tried to cram in here so far. While I give it credit for keeping a fast pace, it seems poorly organized and lacking depth. For instance, they give you one sentence on why a rule applies "most of the time" and then the very next thing is why it doesn't apply. Assuming this is to take you from novice to "complete italian" understanding, I wish the beginning had more focus on the basics. For example, what are the different tenses/forms of "the". Seriously, four pages in and they not only want you to know the meaning behind a ton of words, but the singular, plural, masculine and feminine forms of them. You have to be diligent and proactive in taking ownership of the material and figuring some things out yourself.

The book is very thorough, and goes way beyond the detail presented in the class I'm taking. I bought the book so that I could have additional drill, and wanted to be able to skip around. It has been that and more. I did not understand that I also was getting an additional source of new vocabulary words. The only downside to the book is that if you are not familiar with the words, you need to have a dictionary to look them up.