[marbro]

This is the exasperating part about learning to speak Spanish using a textbook; you must guess the grammar rules because the textbook won't tell you. So, you use the English rule and hope and pray that it is the same in Spanish, and you'll be right the majority of the time but often wrong. Spanish textbooks written 100 years ago tell you the grammar rules and are more useful than recent textbooks.

[layer8]

While interesting, I rarely found knowing grammar rules beyond some very basic ones to help all that much for learning to speak a language, compared to language exposure and speaking practice.

[yencabulator]

I would be very surprised if there was even a single natural language with a complete grammar that actually describes the spoken language. It's all just conventions. Lots of people confuse common patterns with rules.

[LEDThereBeLight]

I’ve noticed this too. Any idea why modern language books get this so wrong?