Dorothy Richmond - Spanish: Practice Makes Perfect

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To Daisy Richmond and Lily Richmond, the greatest loves of my life

Pronouns and prepositions are two aspects of language study that often fall through the cracks. It is not unusual to encounter individuals who have studied Spanish for years and whose vocabulary and ability to conjugate verbs are impressive, yet who trip over pronouns, unable to distinguish between direct and indirect object pronouns, and who dont really get para and por.

To say that Spanish pronouns and prepositions are undertaught and underlearned is an understatement. Mastery of them is essential for all students who desire to communicate with native speakers of Spanish or who simply wish to absorb the wealth of literaturefrom the classics to the latest fan magazinesin Spanish. Though vastly different on the surface, mastery of both requires meticulous attention to detail, careful study of both vocabulary and theory, and almost endless repetitive practice and use, until that magic moment when one simply uses pronouns and prepositions without thought, without effort, without regret for the time and energy spent learning them.

Current books on the market invariably fall short of providing sufficient discussion, examples, and exercises that allow the student to properly learn how to work with Spanish pronouns and prepositions. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions meets the need for explaining and practicing these two vital parts of speech.

The challenge of this text, for both the author and the student, is to take on these two very important, yet often ignored, aspects of the Spanish language. For every student who takes this challenge, I offer you congratulations and wish you great academic fortune.

It is a great honor to have a textbook go into subsequent editions because it means that the book has done its intended job well. Thus, my first thanks go to the many students who made such extensive and productive use of the previous editions of Pronouns and Prepositions that another edition was warranted.

As ever, I am happy to be working with Christopher Brown, my longtime editor, publisher, and friend at McGraw-Hill who oversaw the production of this book and with whom Ive worked on several titles. I am ever grateful for Christophers intelligence, attention to detail, and kindness.

My daughters, Daisy and Lily Richmond, continue to inspire and challenge me in all ways significant.

In order to work with any systema software program, a car, an organization, or a languageone must know its constituent parts, how to use them, and what each part means and contributes to the whole. This book deals primarily with Spanish pronouns and prepositions, which are crucial to the Spanish language system.

A pronoun replaces an understood noun. Therefore, in order to use a pronoun, the speaker/writer and listener/reader must already be in agreement on what or whom the noun refers to. If you breeze into a room and announce, I saw him last night, you will be greeted by blank stares and the question Whom did you see? On the other hand, if you made this same announcement after you and your friends had been talking about the ghost of Elvis, you still might get some stares, but everyone would understand whom you meant. And being understoodputting what is going on in your mind into someone elses mindis the essence and aim of all communication.