German: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Essential Grammars)

Dr. Donaldson writes English clearly--a rare gift in a grammarian attacking a complex subject. He also gives both British and North American vocabulary where necessary. The bases are covered very completely and illustrated with bilingual examples. There are so many bad language books out there (which, alas, I have purchased or examined), that this is a treasure. Vielen Dank' Herr Doctor!P.S. You might also want to get his vocabulary book as a companion.

I originally used the PDF file on ScribeD and liked it so much that I came here and bought the book. This is an excellent resource for describing the grammar of the German language that is only touched on piece-meal in textbooks. The power of this book is that it is clear, concise, complete, and up to date. The information is sensibly grouped and ordered in a way where you can easily find it. It covers nuances of the language that many students never learn or are so briefly covered that the student quickly forgets it or never fully understood it in the first place. It covers everything from the rules on German spelling (including the 2006 spelling reform) to old noun declensions (Dem Deutschen Volke) that are now only found in formal writing or ancient texts. This book is an excellent reference tool for questions on grammar & usage and also makes a pleasant read for someone wanting to make sense out of the German language.

Nicely packaged. Thanks for the quality work and also this helps AAC in HIV work with the AIDS Actions committee. Good all around.

This book is good as a basic guide to German grammar, especially morphology. However, I don't think I can recommend it for anyone but the beginner. Firstly, the index is very basic.Secondly, essential information on the syntax and word order of German is either missing or difficult to locate. For example, the really basic rules governing the order of dative versus accusative noun objects and pronouns in the German sentence is either missing or buried somewhere within, where it is hard to locate. This is really basic material. Every high-school student of German learns that dative indirect nouns precede accusative direct noun objects and that with two pronoun objects it's the other way round. If this information is within, I couldn't easily locate it.There is an very good section on the order of adverbs in 9.4 and this is indexed. However, it is oversimplified for the sake of brevity--this can be a great advantage for someone starting out, but the learner should not expect all German sentences to conform to these rules, as in fact they are somewhat inaccurate, even for simple sentences.The various grammatical points are illustrated with excellent examples throughout and the layout of the book is really very easy to follow and exceptionally clear.My opinion is that with an added section on syntax and word order in its own section--even if it repeats piecemeal treatment scattered throughout the book--this Essential German Grammar would fulfill its title and garner a five-star review, at least from me.

This book is one of the better guides when you have a question regarding a specific part of the German Grammar. It is clearly written, in almost plain English (Aussie/British) and reads well. While not a great textbook to work with, if you have questions about the rules behind dative, or the simple past this book provides not only excellent explanations, but as well clear examples to base your own work upon.

Excellent summary plus extra details for the experts as well. I like this Routledge series for foreign languages. They go beyond the standard grammar and reading exercises and provide numerous good examples to study and emulate..

This is a really great primer for anyone who is trying to learn German and wants to understand the basic (and more advanced) aspects of German grammar. A comprehensive and comprehensible read.

Very good and simple. Quite recommended.

I have worked through a good number of German grammar books and this is the only one I have come across where the author explains the principles in detail compared to other grammar books currently available which just assume you will get the point with a one-liner explanation and an example or two. Reading through this book I found myself saying "Oh, that's why! I never realised that!"

英語で書かれたドイツ語文法としては白眉の文法書だと思います。著者はゲルマン語の研究者でオランダ語やアフリカーンス語の文法でも有名な方です。その著者によるドイツ語文法，コンパクトながら，学校文法的な倦怠感のない，言語学者の文法書になっています。言語学を専門としない著者による一部の日本のドイツ語の教科書にまだ残っている，au, ei, eu と同等に「二重母音」として ie を紹介してしまうような信じられない間違えや，動詞の語尾変化を中心にして時称に触れてしまう（実際の用法を説明しない）不親切さはまったくありません。また例文は英訳もついているので，英語とのコントラストが非常によくわかります。ゆえに英語とドイツ語両方の勉強にもなります。例えば英語ならば "to" で済んでしまう方向規定の補足語の表現についても nach, in, auf, zu, ３格, an のそれぞれ場合と使用の判断基準をしっかりと記述してくれています。統語論に重点を置いて書いているので，格支配，語順，文の必須成分の種類などを学ぶにはとても良い参考書でしょう。これほどコンパクトにもかかわらずに内容がしっかりしている本は，現時点では日本語のドイツ文法書ではみつからないと思います。

Liked the book through a .pdf copy, bought it to rightly reward author and publisher, but Kindle version has these problems:- tables in appendix, not in the main text, you must jump back and forth- tables content gets cropped out- no titles to table, a total messI gave up on the Kindle version and use the .pdf