Hammer's German Grammar and Usage,   ISBN:9780071396547

Customer Rating: 

An excellent reference for beginning, intermediate, and advanced German speakers. Explanations are clear and thorough. I should have purchased this book years ago!

Customer Rating: 

This is hands-down the single book I would want to have if stranded on a desert island. Words cannot describe the awesomeness that is this book. Mr. Durrell's masterpiece demands superlatives. As far as printed material goes, this is all you need to go from intermediate to fluent in German. (Of course you still need to practice speaking, listening, and writing to become fluent). I am a U.S. citizen now living in Germany, and this book vastly improved my German. I can't say enough about it. Get it! Keep a copy next to your bed and review a chapter before you sleep. What makes it so good? It's comprehensive without being watered down. It's dense and succinct without lacking necessary examples. It's accurate - I have impressed native speakers with my command of German word usage learned from this book. Simply wonderful!

Customer Rating: 

Hello, I'm an American student of German. I have taken two college courses before picking up this book. I am a big fan of German music. I enjoy German bands that play schlager, Rock, Euro härte, Euro Techno, and even more traditional music.

I have not finished this book yet. Although, from my initial look. I see a very complete set of rule of German grammar for the English speaker.

This book is very dense. I would suggest, for most that have just started learning German, to consider a good overview of German before looking at this book, and consider reading it latter as a review or reference.

This book is a necessary addition for any English student's library seriously studying German.

Customer Rating: 

As other reviewers have already emphasized, this is an excellent English language resource for German grammar. An incredible amount of detail is given, and attention is paid both to general rules and specific exceptions, even down to the most obscure and archaic. Both difficult and simple grammatical terms are explained through examples in English, which makes this book an excellent tool for coming to a deep understanding of the German language.

As mentioned by others, this is no book for beginners. Only high-intermediate and advanced students should look into using this grammar, as it assumes a rather high level of proficiency on the student's part. However, for more advanced students, the explanations and detailed examples are priceless, shedding light on even the most complicated German passages.

A word of caution to teachers: please do not merely have your students read and memorize sections of this textbook. Hammer's Grammar is very complex and includes a large amount of exceptions, a number of which are no longer in common use. Classmates I've had have expressed frustration over having to memorize exception after exception to a rule that seems rare in itself. This book is best used as a reference for advanced learners, and ought not to be the setting in which general grammatical rules are taught. Rather than reading and memorizing, it would be better for students to study this book topic by topic, complete with class discussion, re-mastering the principles before moving on to the many exceptions.

There are also a number of slightly odd English sentences in this book that might confuse the reader. Beware, and proceed at a slow, steady pace.

Customer Rating: 

This is an excellent book for those working on learning German. * HOWEVER * If you are like me and were never able to gain a firm grasp of the English language while in high school you should get this book and a book called "English Grammar for Students of German" to use along side of this one to help you understand the basics in basic terms. You generally need to have a decent grasp of the mechanics of the English language before learning a foreign language. This book goes into great detail and is absolutely packed with information on the mechanics of the German language. Getting the workbook that goes with the book IS A MUST, as just reading about German is worthless. Get the workbook and work the exercises on a separate piece of paper. This makes it so you can rework the exercises again later if needed. Be diligent and work in the workbook everyday. As you go through out your day and have thoughts pop into your head try to think of how you would write a sentence in German that would equal that thought.

I am glad I bought this book as I will have to stretch myself to get through it. It's a great learning tool.