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 am using this book as a supplement to Rosetta Stone. it gives very understandable explanations. The only thing I am unhappy with is the discrepancy between the answers to the practice questions and the same sentence shown in the example. I have asked a friend in Italy about the correct answers and sometimes it is the answer in the back and sometimes the example in the lesson.

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 love this book. I find doing excercise drills really useful for learning a language and this book is perfect for that. You will need a basic knowledge of the language, and will need to supplement it with some listening and speaking exercises to really improve your Italian, but for practising the rules it's perfect. I can't go to Italian classes (as I have a young child) so this really helps me keep up my Italian knowledge. It's great for revising and practise. Highly recommended!

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.

Superb book.. full of exercises! Great for learning Italian!

Great help! Maybe some pronunciation would have made it even better. But the exercises are good. Maybe I could have used some more.

I really like having lots of exercises to do. And the author even gives etymology at times when it is helpful. If a word comes from Greek or even German it behaves differently and I appreciate that kind of detail.

イタリア語を英語で勉強したいと考えている変人にピッタリのテキストです というのは冗談で基本的な冠詞や名詞などから動詞や時制までしっかり学べます。 割と向こうでは有名定番の教材らしいです(スペインやフランス語なども) 基本的なルールを示してから複数の例を紹介、 そして理解した所で基本的な問題を解いていく一般的なタイプ。 普通の問題集と異なり前のページに戻れば文法解説を見ることが出来ます。 専門的な用語(名称)などが英語での解説なので苦労はありますが 日本語ではわからない微妙な単語の違いなども英語で理解出来ます。 参考までに自分が購入した時は1800円程度でした。 とりあえず片っ端から問題を解いて基礎を固めていきたいという方にオススメ。 逆に問題を解くのは好きではなく文法知識だけ欲しいという方には向かない印象です。 何事も実践です。数をこなすしかありません。 文法をいくら覚えてもそれを使えなければ意味が無いのです。 Practice Makes Perfect！

Love using this book to help me with verb conjugations with information about the different tenses. It's great to practice with the exercises it provides in the book. This isn't a scary book and doesn't bore you to death, it tells you quickly what each of the tenses are used for and when to use them. It's not just a whole book of information which will frighten you away. I have tried reading other grammar books and I simply forget what they have told me because they give you so much information that you end up forgetting what you learned, they are just words upon words upon words. This book, however, is more concise and gets straight to the point and makes things simpler to remember and follow