Angela Howkins - Practising Spanish Grammar

third edition

Christopher Pountain
Teresa de Carlos
Angela Howkins

Practising Spanish Grammar has been designed as a workbook in Spanish grammar specifically to accompany John Butt and Carmen Benjamins A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish (B&B), to which it is cross-referenced, though it is of course possible to use the exercises independently or with any other good grammar of Spanish. Coverage of B&B is, we hope, comprehensive, with particular concentration on those areas of usage which we know from experience English learners of Spanish find difficult.

The exercises are graded as follows:

Level 1: Basic exercises, suitable for revision of the essential points of Spanish morphology and syntax, and using straightforward, everyday language. These could be used by sixth-formers, and by degree course students for revision.

Level 2: More difficult exercises which involve more ambitious language, especially authentic texts, and cover all the points of standard usage. These will be particularly suitable for thorough revision by post-A-Level students or by competent A-Level students who are looking for a challenge.

Level 3: Advanced exercises which involve mini-research projects, explanations and commentaries, or language which is stylistically marked or otherwise difficult in some way. This level also includes some work on non-standard usages. These are intended particularly for practical language classes at university level, and will lead on naturally to the formal linguistic and stylistic study of Spanish.

Although we have tried to pay attention to a range of varieties of Spanish, variation within Latin America especially is so great that we cannot realistically achieve comprehensiveness in this respect. We have attempted, therefore, to give special attention to some Mexican and Argentine usages which differ from the Peninsular norm. We hope that teachers using this book will not find this limitation too inconvenient, and that they will be able to adapt exercises and answers, where necessary, to their own usage.

A key has been supplied for all but the open-ended exercises, so that the book can also be used for private study.

We are grateful to John Butt and Carmen Benjamin, who suggested this project in the first place and commented on some of the material, and to Lesley Riddle of Arnold for her encouragement and forbearance during the books preparation. We owe a particular debt of gratitude to Lynn Ingamells, who brought her vast experience as a Spanish language teacher and examiner to bear in looking critically at a number of sections of the book, and to Coral Neale, who gave us tea, sympathy and the benefit of another native speakers point of view when most needed. We must also not neglect to thank several generations of our students, whose difficulties, questions and errors have hopefully helped us to target the exercises appropriately. We would of course be very grateful to receive comments on the exercises from practising teachers who use them in the classroom and will ultimately be the best judges of their effectiveness.

Christopher J Pountain
Teresa de Carlos
Department of Spanish and Portuguese,
University of Cambridge