Reviews

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Barron’s Italian Verb Workbook: Some Good Content, But Not My Favorite Exercise Design

3 Italian, Books

Barron’s Italian Verb Workbook by Marcel Danesi is intended to work for true beginners, but I think showing up with a little background would be helpful, since you start right in on present-tense conjugations on the…

Pimsleur Italian Unlimited at the Bookstore, 2012

5 Italian, Audio Lessons, Multimedia

When I first studied Italian back in 2009, I did 90 Pimsleur Italian lessons in less than three weeks. You are supposed to do one a day. I guess that is an indication of how much I loved them. I would absolutely 100…

You Can Speak the Word You Want Translated...

5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Apps, Dictionaries

I have a tendency not to get around to downloading iPhone apps onto my iPhone, but fortunately I have a husband who will take my phone and do it for me. I’m very glad he stuck this app on…

A Confidently Titled Italian Grammar

3 Italian, Books

I have mixed feelings about Barron’s Mastering Italian Grammar by Beatrice Rovere-Fenati. I find the grammar explanations responsible and thorough, but there are annoying popout bubbles that interrupt the larger grammatical narrative and brightly tell me…

Test Your Grammar Skills

3-5 Italian, Flashcards

Guess what! Since I began writing this review, I have learned that these are now out of print. They are, or were, a box of 600 flashcards focusing on grammar rather than the usual vocabulary. I believe I bought them by…

These Are Great

5 Italian, Flashcards, Vocabulary

I love flashcards, and I love the design of these. For $9.95 you used to be able to get a thousand of these cards with Italian on one side and English on the other. And a cute box to house them,…

An Ambitiously Titled Book: Complete Italian Grammar

4 Italian, Books

I like Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Italian Grammar by Marcel Danesi. It has clear explanations. In terms of level: according to the preface, Complete Italian Grammar is for intermediate and advanced learners. Although this…

Advanced Italian Grammar: Some Great Practice

4 Italian, Books

Practice Makes Perfect: Advanced Italian Grammar by Marcel Danesi is part of a series of compact, more focused books within the larger Practice Makes Perfect series from McGraw-Hill. Overall I like this one. Advanced Italian…

McGraw-Hill's Italian Vocabulary: Quirky But Entertaining

4 Italian, Books, Vocabulary

McGraw-Hill offers Practice Makes Perfect vocabulary books for multiple languages. I have found them odd in ways, with silly sentences providing awkward transitions between groups of thematically linked words. But I like them nonetheless, and I…

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