Gramática de uso del Español - questions

[kanewai]

I'm intrigued by the Gramática de uso del Español course books. I really like the native-language grammar courses I'm using for French (CLE International) and Italian (GP: Grammatica pratica della lingua italiana). I find good reviews of this course, but can't find any previews of what's inside.

I'm curious on how the levels they offer (A1-A2; B1-B2, C1-C2) differ. In general, I find it useful to start one-level below where I think I am. The review, even of the basics, often helps. However, there are also courses where even the "advanced" sections are painfully basic (Living Language, Great Courses). The perfect course for me would be A2-B1, but that's not offered!

What are people's thoughts on the A1-A2 level - too simple for an intermediate learner, or a solid place to start a review? It's expensive, so I don't want to buy a course book I won't use.

Alternatively: are there any other Spanish-only grammar books out there similar to CLE or GP, preferably with audio?

[Kraut]

These are free and downloadable. If you use them online, you may use the Edge Browser to give you inbuilt text-to-speech voices in Spanish

https://marcoele.com/gramatica-a/

https://marcoele.com/gramatica-b/

[Cavesa]

Oooh, one of my favourites! And I expected a few more members to appear here soon

I'm intrigued by the Gramática de uso del Español course books. I really like the native-language grammar courses I'm using for French (CLE International) and Italian (GP: Grammatica pratica della lingua italiana). I find good reviews of this course, but can't find any previews of what's inside.

The organisation and styles of exercises are extremely similar to the CLE, I'd say perhaps even a bit more thorough and dense, but not overwhelming. When I find mine, I can post a few pages (mind you, I've been moving several times lately, so I am not sure which book is in which box in which city or even country)

I'm curious on how the levels they offer (A1-A2; B1-B2, C1-C2) differ. In general, I find it useful to start one-level below where I think I am. The review, even of the basics, often helps. However, there are also courses where even the "advanced" sections are painfully basic (Living Language, Great Courses). The perfect course for me would be A2-B1, but that's not offered!

They differ in contents, the difficulty, and only slightly in style of the exercises. There might be a slight difference between GdUdE and the Progressives. I cannot vouch for it now, but I think the GdUdE doesn't revisit everything in every book, it rather does stuff once and well, and then moves on. And no, you will not find the advanced course painfully basic, I believe
There is a A1-B2 course offered, but I cannot see any reason to buy it instead of twice as much material for the normal books A and B.

What are people's thoughts on the A1-A2 level - too simple for an intermediate learner, or a solid place to start a review? It's expensive, so I don't want to buy a course book I won't use.

Not too simple. When I did the Yellow book, I was more like B1 with some rust. I loved the book, it was systematic, sometimes a good review, but usually even those chapters brought at least a few new and nice examples, while the more challenging ones covered my gaps well. I'd recommend any B1ish learner to consider the A level of this series (but not necessarily of the others, I'm gonna mention)

Alternatively: are there any other Spanish-only grammar books out there similar to CLE or GP, preferably with audio?

Yes. Not sure about the audio part, I usually don't care about it in my grammar workbooks. But there are several series. There is Gramática by Anaya. A1-A2 (I don't recommend it to an intermediate necessarily, it is simpler than the GdU), B1 (which made me feel as if there was nothing but subjuntivo at this level. but it did a good job!), B2 (very good, but I think this series is overall a bit easier than GdU), and there is now a C1-C2 level (which I haven't tried yet). There are a few move series, like Dale a la gramatica (which goes up to B2 and looks like a nice exercise book series, but not that systematic or focused also on explanations), but most of them don't go that far.

Nothing seems to even try to compete with the GdUdE in most aspects. Perhaps Kwiziq, but that is a bit different (and it being bilingual makes it different from what you're asking for)

These are free and downloadable. If you use them online, you may use the Edge Browser to give you inbuilt text-to-speech voices in Spanish
https://marcoele.com/gramatica-a/
https://marcoele.com/gramatica-b/

Yes, I've noticed these before. How did you like using them? Do you find them as thorough and high quality as the paid alternatives?

[clara]

If you're in the US, I've read that the McGraw Hill series is a licensing of Gramático de uso. I'm inclined to believe that's true, since the authors are the same. You can preview them on Amazon. Here's a link to the Intermediate (B1-B2) book.

[SCMT]

I have and use both the A and B GdUdE books, and in my opinion, the A series is NOT too basic for an intermediate learner. The books are so comprehensive and cover so many topics that it will provide both a good review and introduce things that at A2-b1 will be new. There is also naturally a lot of overlap between the levels, and I don't think you would be lost with the B book, either.

If I were in your position, if you like native only grammars, I would start with A, but know that you will probably wind up owning both.