Latin Grammar (Barron's Grammar)

A surprisingly concise and indispensable reference book. The user-friendly format (love the blue boldfaced print used in examples) and smaller size make it ideal for quickly looking up a specific subject. One amusing, but quite odd, aspect of this book is the recurring subject of rabbit killing in example sentences. Makes me think... a primer for a Latin language Watership Down, or maybe ancient Roman Elmer Fudd. Interfice Cuniculem! Seriously though- like most of Barron's language books -this is an excellent, completely useful reference tool. If you pair this with Barron's 501 Latin Verbs- Optime!

This appears to be translated from a German grammar. No authorship credit given, but R. Maidhoff is credited as editor. In terms of length, the natural comparison is to Charles Bennett's New Latin Grammar.The first ~100 pages of this book are devoted to morphology, the next ~70 to syntax, while the final ~80 pages are verb tables.Barron's grammar has these pluses:1/The information is accurate. Since the name of recognized classical scholar is not associated with the book, this is worth mentioning.2/It has an extremely attractive typeface and visual layout. Reminds me of the French Bescherelle grammars for modern languages for the clean layout and use of a pallet of colors to underscore word formation (what is the stem, etc).3/Verb tables are excellent. The summary of the principal parts of important verbs is particularly well done. Rather than an alphabetical list for the a-conjugation, for example, the verbs are classified into forming the perfect with v, with u, with reduplication, with lengthening, etc.4/Grammatical terminology is well chosen and explained in the text and glossary. The Latin equivalent to English grammatical terminology is given.5/The syntax is well executed with good commentary on some of the difficulties facing beginning students in parsing Latin sentences. Many students may find this syntax more accessible than the more ambitious but denser treatments of syntax in older grammars such as Bennett. Also, where Bennett makes contrasts to English ("where English uses...Latin uses...") this book provides less help for Latin composition, probably appropriately, given how Latin is taught these days.The grammar has these potential negatives:1/Lack of any historical explanation for points of morphology or syntax. To take a simple example, -is is given as an alternative to -es for the accusative plural of i-stem 3rd declension nouns without any comment. A grammar such as Bennett stops at such points with a clarifying historical explanation.2/The Latin sentences in illustration are largely made up. Bennett is based on Latin authors and gives sources for quoted material. Bennett will distinguish among differences across authors and time periods.3/The index is not very detailed.4/No section on phonetics, accent, or prosody.In summary, this is not a "serious" or detailed Latin grammar even compared to Bennett which has about the same page count. But then this is a Barron's book obviously targeted at learners rather than developing scholars and learners should find it very accessible and helpful.

The layout of Barron's Latin Grammar is perhaps the best part of the book. It's attractive and not crowded. The information is also efficiently presented.NOT FOR NOOBSIn my estimation this isn't a book for someone just learning Latin. The brevity of explanation will probably not be enough.FOR MORE EXPERIENCED STUDENTSStudents who already have a grasp of the Dative usage and who know or once knew their 'Monebo' from their 'Monebam' might find this a great resource to refresh their understanding, and/or bring themselves up to speed on verb forms and syntax.I got this from the library to check out, but I'm not going to purchase it at this point. My current Latin 'project' is teaching my children. We're just starting and this book is too much for my noobs at this point. It's the type of book I might have found very useful when I was learning Latin at Uni.**from the library

Written for the US market rather than that of the UK where I live, with some complicated wording. I have, however, found much of it useful for revision. Particularly good on Latin verbs and a useful companion to Barron’s excellent 501 Latin Verbs. Would have liked more charts for nouns, adjectives etc, similar to those for the verbs.

Product as expected. Learning Latin is grammatically intense and every study source helps.

Might be a good book but the experience was bad, see headline.