Product Description

When it comes to learning grammar, the best way is to JUST DO IT!

For learning grammar, you'll find the most success in retaining your skills through drills, drills, and more drills. Following the formula of the bestselling Verb Drills series, Italian Grammar Drills will reinforce your knowledge and enhance your ability to read, write, and speak in Italian.

This book introduces essential grammar concepts, with practical examples to demonstrate their correct usage. You will flex your grammar muscle with the exercises included in each section.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14773 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

From the Back Cover

Sharpen your Italian grammar with skill-building exercises

If you want to be proficient in Italian, you eventually have to clear the bothersome hurdle of grammar. The best way to conquer this obstacle is through hands-on experience. Covering all facets of Italian grammar--from prepositions and pronouns to verbal forms and tenses--Italian Grammar Drills helps you learn often-perplexing topics with fun and engaging exercises.

This comprehensive book features:

• More than 200 drills that demonstrate how the Italian grammar system works
• An answer key to give you immediate clarification on any concept

Topics include:
Adjectives and adverbs * Comparatives and superlatives * Present tense versus past tense * Prepositions * Passive voice * Verbal expressions and constructions * and more

About the Author

Paola Nanni-Tate teaches Italian at Ohio State University and is the author of Italian Verb Drills.

Customer Reviews

Great!
This book is absolutely fabulous. It contains all aspects of Italian grammar, and it answers the `why is that there?', `What does this mean?' questions. It is very simple to follow as well, and has a lot of exercises to help drill the grammar point's home. There are some grammar books out there that cost around £15.00-25.00 that aren't a patch on this cheap but very detailed book. It answers everything!

Buy It!!!
I'm studying Italian at undergraduate level from scratch. I was struggling to keep up with what I was being taught and so I bought this book. It's really useful. Everything is clearly explained, there's lots of exercises to help you to practice what you have just learned and the answers to the exercises are in the back of the book. I'd recommend this book to anyone studying Italian academically or even if you just want to learn the language for fun.

Not for absolute beginners
This is not a book for beginners. Although it clearly explains very basic concepts, each chapter quickly progresses to a level that is (a) not required by a beginner (b) too difficult for a beginner.
As early as Exercise 16 on page 26(there are well over 200 Exercises and the book is 350 pages long exclud answers), the student is required to translate into Italian sentences such as "Please close the large door at the bottom of the stairs". By Exercise 22 on page 37 you need to be happy with the use of past participles in order to translate into Italian sentences such as "She has planted many flowers in the garden". In addition, by this point the text is freely using the imperfect and future tenses. A fairly good vocabulary is also required.
However for those who have more than a rudimentary knowledge, this book is extremely useful, although still lacking in some areas eg when discussing diminutives and pejoratives etc it does not give any guidance as to which ending to use, but then expects you to happily translate a dozen words into the diminutive, pejorative and augmentative in Exercise 17. In addition the book states that the augmentative is usually used in the masculine form even when referring to feminine subjects. In Exercise 17 a whole bundle of feminine words need to be translated and not one of them translates into the masculine.
Despite this, I have learnt a lot and realised that there are many exceptions to the basic rules that I had no knowledge of eg not every word ending in a will change to e in the plural.
I would say that this book is suitable for someone who has studied beginners Italian for at least a year, who is confident with the present tense and past participles and who has a fairly good vocab base.