~I've spent many hours in the last few years going through 5 or 6 books in the Practice Makes Perfect series. This was my first Italian PMP book but I knew what I should expect and this book did not disappoint.

~It is well organized, and organized in a way I've come to expect (explanation of the topic presented in the chapter, followed by examples in the form of sentences or phrases usually, followed by many exercises, in this case often translating sentences, filling in charts with the conjugation of verbs into a certain verb tense, answering questions [there is more but I won't list all the types of exercises here - but that's another thing I like: the variety of exercises and the wide range of topics the chapters cover]). Answers are in the answer key in the back of the book as usual, and at the back you'll also find the Italian - English and English - Italian glossaries as well as irregular verb tables.

~To let you get a better idea of what's covered in this book, the list of chapters is as follows:

1) Nouns and titles (common nouns, gender patterns, spelling adjustments in the plural, mass nouns, proper nouns and titles)
2) More about nouns (including nouns of Greek origin, altered nouns, compound nouns)
3) Articles (the indefinite article, the definite article, and uses of both)
4) Adjectives (descriptive adjectives, invariable adjectives, comparison of adjectives)
5) Pronouns (subject and object pronouns, stressed pronouns, other pronouns)
6) More pronouns (object pronouns with compound tenses, double pronouns, attached pronouns)
7) Demonstrative (the demonstrative of nearness, the demonstrative of farness, demonstrative pronouns, indicating words and expressions)
8) Possessives (possessive adjective forms, the third-person forms, possessives with kinship nouns, possessive pronouns)
9) Partitives (partitives with count nouns, alternative forms, partitives with mass nouns, partitives in
the negative, adjectives indicating quantity)
10) Present tenses (the present indicative of regular verbs, irregular verbs, using the present subjunctive, irregular verbs in the present subjunctive, and special uses of the subjunctive)
11) Past tenses (the present perfect, irregular past participles, the past subjunctive, the past absolute, irregular verbs in the past absolute)
12) The imperfect and pluperfect tenses (the imperfect indicative, the imperfect subjunctive, the pluperfect tenses)
13) The progressive tenses (the gerund, the present progressive tenses, the imperfect progressive tenses)
14) The future and conditional tenses (the future, future perfect, the conditional [past and present], hypothetical sentences)
15) The imperative (regular forms, the negative imperative, irregular forms of the imperative)
16) Reflexive verbs (forms, compound tenses, imperative forms)
17) Prepositions and adverbs (prepositional contractions, uses of the prepositions, adverbs of manner, other kinds of adverbs, comparison of adverbs)
18) Sentences (interrogative sentences, question words, negative sentences, objects, conjunctions and relative pronouns)
19) Numbers (the cardinal numbers, telling time, the ordinal numbers,numerical expressions, dates)
20) Miscellaneous topics (the verb "piacere", the passive and the impersonal si, other)
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~A chapter on a verb tense will introduce the new tense but the exercises that follow review the new material as well as material on other verb tenses from previous chapters so you build on what you learned earlier.

Some specific things that I liked most or were most useful to me:

~ practicing using negative sentences (non... affatto [not at all], non... mai [never], non...nessuno [no one], non...niente, nulla [nothing], non... più [no more, no longer], non...neanche/nemmeno/neppure [not even], non...né..né [neither...nor] and non...mica [not really, quite]

~how to use the relative pronouns correctly (che, cui, chi, ciò che, quel che, quello che)

~using adverbs like: allora, anche, ancora, anzi, appena, finora, fra/tra poco, già, invece, in fretta, insieme, lontano, male, nel frattempo oggigiorno, ormai, per caso, piuttosto, poi, presto, prima, purtroppo, quasi, sempre, solo, spesso, stamani, stasera, subito, tardi, vicino.

~suffixes in Italian and how to use them (-uccio/-uccia , -uzzo/-uzza, -one/-ona, -etto/-etta, -ino/-ina, -ello/-ella)

~basic math in Italian in the Numbers chapter (how to use +, - , ÷ , x, = )

~using piacere correctly

~using "fare" in causative constructions (example: Sara fa lavare i piatti a suo fratello = Sarah has her brother wash the dishes)

~how to say could, would, should, could have, would have, should have

~using the impersonal "si" ("Si beve quel caffè solo in Italia" = One drinks that coffee only in Italy, "Si è felici in Italia" = One is happy in Italy)
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Practice Makes Perfect did it again and published another awesome book for their series. I think any high-beginner to intermediate student of Italian should add this to their library. It's not particularly fun, but worth the several hours it takes to get through! The knowledge brought me more confidence. ( )