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

I'm a serious polyglot and I've been learning these languages separately but by trying to compare the similarities and differences between each of them too. I found out about this book my chance, and it was exactly what I've been looking for. I've always preferred to learn several languages at once rather than one at a time, and this book is just brilliant if you are someone who wants to learn all 4 of these romance languages. It's impressive how comprehensive the book is - it goes into very detailed grammar points, as well as pronunciation of the alphabet/letters, everyday basic phrases, etc and compares each language side by side. I no longer need to compare the languages myself, as the author has done the work in this book. I just need to work through the book and I am confident I will get there. A lot of people think you will get confused if you try to learn several languages at once, but in fact it's just the opposite. If you learn them at the same time, you can compare the similarities and differences between them and thus it will be easier to separate them in your brain. It will also be faster to learn them all because you will see the connections between them in your brain, thus speeding up the process compared to learning them one by one. So yes, an excellent book that should be a must-purchase for any serious language learning wanting to learn these 4 languages as quickly and as comprehensively as possible.

In a world of AI, the amount of work a human undertook to make this book is phenomenal. Knowing three of the languages, the comparison tables make the fourth language so much less painful to learn. This is an amazing book and as a seasoned language learner I think this is absolutely essential for anyone who knows at least one of these languages. Highly recommend!

The book lives up to its title. It is a masterly work of scholarship - yet very easy to follow. Specialists in either linguistics generally or any of the specific languages will be more than satisfied. Its sections are well chosen, and the layout is always clear. It covers a good number of key areas relating to the grammars selected. I know nothing about the author - other than what I found online. I am a specialist in language studies and will make use of this admirable book. I hope he will move onto either more languages, or further aspects of grammar. Anita Pincas University College London, Institute of Education (retired) .

I bought this book because I wanted to learn both Portuguese and Italian and, having studied French and Spanish at university, I thought this would be a great way to quickly learn the other two languages. The book covers all the grammar you need and is a great resource, however, my one criticism is that there are regular mistakes throughout the book. It is almost like the book had not been proof read before it was published which is why I am only giving it 4 stars. Having said this, it is still a very useful book and I would recommend it to others on the basis that it's a good tool if you already know one or more of the languages, just bare in mind it's not perfect (yet). Hopefully, the author will publish an updated one with corrections!

Having read some other reviews I expected this book to be riddled with mistakes. In the preface there is a link to a list of corrections and a request by the author to report more so I started going through that expecting to have to mark them up, only to find they are all corrected in my edition, including those indicated by other comments here. I already know some French and Spanish and am using this book to facilitate my Portuguese and Italian learning. So far I am very impressed both with the quality and thoroughness.

I LOVE this book. Literally, love it. I am a fluent Spanish speaker, mediocre in French and Portuguese and learning Italian. This is the book I have been waiting for for years... Thank you so much to the author for making it happen!! It is so well thought out; an absolute MUST for anyone who has a love for all four languages and is trying to put them together. Best purchase I have made in quite some time.

Perfect for who wants to learn or get better at thouse languages. Specially bcox all comparisons are on same page so you see the difference between then without having to find it in another page, its all there. Amazing!

Really handy if you speak many languages.

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 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.