Speed Up Your Spanish: Strategies to Avoid Common Errors

‘Excellent book. The chapters put together and systematise a lot of material that is often taught in an anecdotal or haphazard sort of way, if at all. Students will learn a great deal from the book and have their confidence in using Spanish considerably boosted as a result.’ – Jonathan Thacker, Merton College, University of Oxford, UK

‘An invaluable, highly original and methodically sound approach to correcting and eliminating common, yet difficult-to-eliminate errors.’ – Manuel Delgado, Bucknell University, USA

‘The user-friendly format and page layout makes Speed Up Your Spanish a highly practical reference source for students and teachers.’– Ma Victoria García Serrano, University of Pennsylvania, USA

False friends, idiomatic expressions, gender and capitalization are just some of the areas that cause confusion for students of Spanish. Learning how to avoid the common errors that arise repeatedly in these areas is an essential step for successful language learning.

Speed Up Your Spanish is a unique and innovative resource that identifies and explains such errors, thereby enabling students of Spanish to learn from their mistakes while enhancing their understanding of the Spanish language.

Each of the nine chapters focuses on a grammatical category where English speakers typically make mistakes in Spanish. Each chapter is divided into sections that classify the concepts and errors into subcategories. Full explanations are provided throughout with clear, comprehensive examples and exercises to help the learner gain an in-depth understanding of Spanish grammar and usage.

Key features:

• carefully selected grammar topics and examples based on the most commonly made errors
• exercises throughout to reinforce learning
• shortcuts and mnemonic devices providing vital learning strategies
• a Companion Website available at www.speedupyourspanish.com providing supplementary exercises as well as audio files.

Suitable both for classroom use or self-study, Speed Up Your Spanish is the ideal resource for all intermediate learners of Spanish wishing to refine their language skills.

Javier Muñoz-Basols is an Instructor in Spanish at the University of Oxford.

Marianne David teaches Spanish at the Trinity School in New York.

Olga Núñez Piñeiro is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at the University of Westminster.