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This book is very direct and to the point, exactly what I needed. The book almost presumes you may have once know much of the parts of speech, cases, functions and tense and really is a refresher course to bring back some lost knowledge. It becomes difficult to relate Nominative vs. We "just know" English because we've learned it as children and understand what is right/wrong in speech by hearing it -- not as easy in German learning it as a second language.
I guess, for the price, you can only ask for so much.I suggest looking for an unused Used copy on Amazon from students that took courses but were too lazy to actually crack open this valuable book. I'd give the product 5-stars but it leans on the "German Textbook" phrase a few too many times. Although it might be a bit redundant with other text, repeating the information benefits the reader. I found one on amazon for $9 and the binding hadn't even been bent yet. I'd also like to see charts on der/die/das with their cases/functions and such, which I've not found present yet. I've been taking German language classes for six years and, at 33, but I've lost a lot of the "younger years" in terms of English grammar.
Rather then giving you a couple great examples for weak and strong verbs or other complex examples, it will tell you to "consult your text book," which makes this a secondary booster-pack of information to a mysterious second book. Such is life with school books I guess ;-) Dative and all the information about direct and indirect objects and possession.While most people know their grammar in typical speech, without being able to break down your English language into a structure it is extremely difficult to learn German's structure for proper sentence creation. This book calls out many of the basic holes in your knowledge from participles to dangling prepositions and after teaching you the English concept it goes through the German structures to show you the differences or commonalities.
I've been making a little progress but I kept getting hung up on the grammar and realized my biggest problem is my weakness in English grammar.Based on some of the comments here and the title of this book, I decided to give it a try. In addition, it has brought back some of the things I learned as a kid in Catholic school.I'm certain that this little book will be a great addition to the study materials I've been putting together. I'm just learning German for the fun of it. I find the book an easy read that helps me understand why German sentences are structured as they are. I'll be taking an Introduction to German class at the local public school and I think I'll be well prepared to understand the instruction.If you are like me and just learning German for the fun of it, read this book and I'm sure your understanding of the language will improve no matter what other materials you've studied. Until now, I've just been reading books and working on the Tell Me More. course.
I refer to it nearly every time I work on my German homework. I highly recommend this book, it helps clarify areas that are most likely foggy unless you are acutely aware of grammar terminology. I guess it depends on your learning style, but I need all the examples I can get- so this book is perfect for that. Being a student of German, I found it really difficult to keep up with the grammar terminology that I hadn't heard about since elementary school. This book gives a lot of examples of each different grammar topic, so it works well as an aid/handbook along side your German textbook.
The sentence structure and grammar is the toughest part about learning this language, so having this extra resource is very helpful. great tool to accompany you in learning German.
I have found it extremely helpful in making it easier to understand a foreign language and all it's rules of grammar. This handy little book is essential to learning the German Language.
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