Comparative Grammar of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French: Learn & Compare 4 Languages Simultaneously

I cannot thank the author enough for writing this innovative book. I always wanted to learn Portuguese, further my French and begin Italian parting from Spanish (my native language). This book does it and puts in context which is one things I like the most about this book. I like the examples used by the author. However, I did find some MINOR mistakes, but the author does point that out at the beginning of the book. I think that humble statement pumps the star count to five. He does not claim to have everything figured out, nor does he claims a secret technique that promises faster learning in less time. No, he does not do so and I like that he is not pretentious about anything. He parts from the premise that one can learn more than one language at the same time. In this case: Romance Languages. This is a true fact, and I did not need a PhD.D. thesis (Which he (author) did and demonstrated that it is indeed possible), to support my opinion, since it is something that can be attested through my own experience. My mum taught me basic French since early age; I also received a bilingual education—English and Spanish—from K to 12—, since I was raised in Puerto Rico (a U.S. Territory). It is incredible how much these three languages are alike. The author uses Castilian Spanish as his reference for Spanish, which came as a nice surprise for me, since this is the one Puerto Ricans/Cubans are more familiar with, because of our common 400-year history shared with Spain. On another note, written Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that the author had to use synonyms for many words that mean the same in both languages. I figure this is a great technique to not make them so alike, and bring that monotonous aspect to a minimum. And this is good, because it builds vocabulary at the same time. However, do not expect to have this book as the one source for your learning, use dictionaries, verb books and other grammar works from each language to enrich the experience as you go along. I've taken my time with the book and have come to gain a lot. The book has many informative nuggets throughout, which, again, I like because those bits make it more fun to read. I definitely recommend this book to any person looking to begin studying the four main Romance languages, spoken by millions around the globe. Btw, if the author is reading this, write another book for Catalan (Català), Galician (Galego), Asturian (Bable), Romanian and/or other minor Romance languages like Mirandese, using Spanish as the backdrop for learning. I think doing so will incentivise people to learn more than just the four "popular" Romance languages and prevent these other languages from dying.

I bought this book immediately upon seeing it on Amazon because the concept is fresh and challenging. I'm not disappointed. The book is replete with charts, example sentences, and comparison of details, and it covers a full range of grammar topics. It doesn't completely cover pronunciation of the alphabet and markings however, only of two-letter combinations, so other resources (preferably with audio) will be needed to learn that aspect properly, which would be true anyway. I look forward to using this book in tandem with apps and other books to really speed through and devour the basics of these four languages together. This kind of consolidation is just intellectually satisfying; for best results, study Latin too!

I love this. I love it. It is so well-done. I love it. Have I said that I love this?! I am long-time, casual speaker of French and Spanish. I recently decided that I would like to add Italian to my languages, so I started buying teach-yourself-Italian books from Amazon. Its algorithm made note of that and recommended this one to me. Though I have only begun to use it, I find it delightful, informative, effective and full of easy-to-use, yet thorough and detailed information. For someone who wants to learn a new language (Italian) and refresh older ones, it is an exceptional tool. I can't recommend it highly enough

Love this book, great accomplishment, a must for every scholar of Romance languages whether you know just one or you know more. It's good for language learners too if you already know one Romance language. This may sound superficial but I like the larger type, making it easier to read, but it also may make it a little harder to see the comparisons (as in a compact chart). It's geared toward language learners, so it is not organized for linguistic purposes. I missed seeing the obvious referral to linguistic concepts, but it is easy enough to fill that in yourself. Things I would love to be in it that weren't: - a comparison of sound changes. - a comparison with Latin (in appendix showing how verb tenses, endings etc, change and rearrange) - Even though these are not common -learning- languages, it'd be easy to add in Catalan and Romanian. - a section on vocab where different - false friends, essentially the same word, but has a different meaning. - list of words that have different gender - some tables could be more compact and more comprehensive (especially the reference tables near the back - A section on sentence examples that compare 'how you say it' can be different. Not a problem with this book, but I wish there were such books for Germanic, Slavic, Indic, Dravidian, Bantu, and Chinese. Who's in charge of this? Get on it!

This book is a great resource. You can read it as a book cover to cover or feel free to jump around and look up certain aspects of languages. It serves as a great desk reference. The one thing I hope the author will consider as an add-on is making an audio portion to go along with the book (or as a separate online purchase) where native speakers in each language begin by saying the entire alphabet in their language and then repeating the words throughout the book at least twice for those users who may not be familiar with one or more of the languages. This way users can hear the words for the different languages side by side to really know and understand the pronunciation differences and assist their own speaking and reading aspirations. Great book!

I’m so happy I got this book. The charts make it so easy to compare and understand the nuances and differences between the languages. I had a question and emailed the author, within 2 days I received a clarification to all my doubts. Excellent work by the author and as a linguist I feel fortunate to have found it, to consult and to refresh my memory when needed.

A book like this is the one I always wanted to have, it is a great work by the Ph.D. Mikhail Petrunin. I think this would be very useful if adopted by colleges and universities... This book makes the complicated easy! This book has motivated me to venture into simultaneous learning of Romance Languages. I use this book to learn grammar and vocabulary, and I am also following the Rosetta Stone language course that helps me improve accent and pronunciation. So far it has been a very good combination and also very pleasant. And the best of all is that I do it at my own pace and I don't have to leave the house. On the author's website www.quadrilingual.com, I find that Mikhail Petrunin is working on a new project titled "Comparative Grammar of German, Dutch and Afrikaans", I hope that once he finishes it he will also put it up for sale on Amazon, I will be ready to buy it too. Thanks Mikhail, good job!

While I’m certainly no linguist, I do aspire to be a polyglot. After having muddled through French prior to college (and again in graduate school), it took an attempt at teaching myself Italian and Spanish that disillusioned me re: the idea of studying each Romance language sequentially. There were too many similarities in grammar, idioms, and vocabulary, so the effort felt needlessly duplicative. Therefore, when I saw Dr. Petrunin’s book it was literally an answer to my prayers: a straightforward approach to using those similarities to the language learner’s advantage. I understand that he is now doing the same thing with the West Germanic and Nordic languages, efforts that I’m breathlessly anticipating. This is a great book and certainly worth the while of anyone interested in learning as many of the great Western European tongues as she can. I have two copies as I would not want to be without it.

Muy exhaustivo y fácil de seguir. Todos los errores que se mencionaron en anteriores comentarios ya fueron corregidos.

I bought this book with pretty high expectations, and I’m really happy to say it exceeded my expectations! The information is very useful and helpful. I really like the way the book is organized too. It teaches basic concepts of all languages at the beginning and then gets more advanced as your progress through the chapters. There are some cool cultural notes included as well. I definitely recommend any book by Mikhail!

Simple à utiliser, mais il faut connaître l'anglais puisque les explications sont en anglais.

Sono di madrelingua portoghese, ho imparato il francese da adulta e ora sto imparando l'italiano. Questo libro mi sta aiutando nello studio di questa nuova lingua. È molto utile per registrare concetti di base di ogni lingua, ovviamente non approfondisce molto ogni idioma, sarebbe impossibile, ma lo trovo comunque molto utile. Lo consiglio a tutti i miei amici, soprattutto a coloro che amano le lingue latine.

I love it. I am studying all the four languages, and this book is a great help.