Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish: A Creative and Proven Approach is one of the best Spanish Language learning books out there. The “key” is that English speakers already knows hundreds if not thousands of words in Spanish and this book gives you the rules to unlock those keys.
As you progress through each chapter, you’ll go through each of these categories, followed by exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises are short and sweet but really help to reinforce the chapter’s material.
Madrigal’s is organized into thirty chapters. You can generally cover one chapter in about 20-30 minutes, if not faster.
Here’s an example of a lesson:
Lección Número Dos – How to form Spanish words from English words that end in “ist”, “ous” and “ion”. The use of these words in sentences.
You can convert many English words that end in “ist” into Spanish words by add the letter “a” to them.
IST = ISTA
the pianist = el pianista
el pianista | el oculista | un artista |
el violinista | el capitalista | un novelista |
el dentista | el comunista | un optimista |
Conversación
¿Es popular el pianista?
Sí, el pianista es popular
¿Es inteligente el pianista?
Sí, el pianista es inteligente.
Now wasn’t that pretty easy!
Pricing (Amazon)
- Paperback – $12.25
- Kindle – $9.99
Verdict
Although the software programs recommended on this website can serve as holistic systems for learning Spanish, I still find Madrigal’s Magic Key to be a great resource. It will give you some great pointers for building vocabulary and accessing vocabulary that you never knew you had.
A while back, as I was walking my dog one evening, I received a party invitation email from a friend. I typed out a reply to him and as I was about to hit send, I realized I’d written the word invitación even though I’d never explicitly learned the word. Therein lies the magic in Madrigal’s approach.