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Using Hammer’s German Grammar | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Mitchd42 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 3896 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 3 30 March 2014 at 4:26pm | IP Logged |
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I am going to purchase Hammer's German Grammar and Usage as I've heard it is the best
German Grammar book, but how does one use it to learn German Grammar? It seems so complicated and intense for a way to learn grammar from almost scratch. Edited by Mitchd42 on 30 March 2014 at 4:30pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4053 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes  Studies: German | Message 2 of 3 30 March 2014 at 6:55pm | IP Logged |
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Hello Mitch,
In reading your post, it is not clear to me whether you are well-advanced in your study of German or if you are just beginning. My comments presume the latter. Please forgive me if my assumption is wrong. Recently, as part of my self-study programme to learn German that began a couple of years ago, I bought "Hammer's German Grammar and Usage." I had already purchased and worked through a fair amount of material: self-study methods, classroom methods, grammars, verb books, and graded readers. While I am sure that other independent learners have had experiences that differ from my own, I have found that most introductory language courses provide only minimal explanations of grammar. I have learned to accept this a generally a valid approach, particularly given the limitations of space. Unfortunately, at times, some of the explanations of grammar can be either so cursory or so poorly written that they can leave the independent learner bewildered; hence the need for comprehensive grammars. Most grammars are comprehensive, well-written expositions of the entire range of usage of a language. A good number of them are directed to the needs of intermediate and advanced students who already have a sound understanding of the fundamentals and who have acquired a fairly extensive vocabulary. For a beginner, using these grammars can be a challenge because the examples often employ vocabulary and sentence structure that can have the unintentional effect of masking the underlying grammatical points ... for a beginner, that is! Furthermore, they explore refinements of grammatical issues that are instructive for advanced students but that are beyond the grasp of beginners. Finally, many grammars are "reference texts", NOT course books and do not contain meaningful exercise material. IF you are just beginning your study of German, I suggest that you NOT try to learn the language by studying ONLY a grammar, be it Hammer's (which is dedicated to the needs of advanced students) or any similar offering. Rather, concentrate on ONE basic introductory course and supplement it with a VERY basic summary of grammar and, when you have gained an understanding of the fundamentals, then move on to more advanced material. Here is a short list of suggested titles: BASIC SUMMARY - WITHOUT EXERCISES Essential German Grammar, by Guy Stern and Everett F. Bleiler, published by Dover Publications Shaum's Easy Outlines, German Crash Course, by Elke Gschossman-Hendershot et al, published by McGraw-Hill BASIC SUMMARY - WITH EXERCISES German Demystified, Hard Stuff Made Easy, by Ed Swick, published by McGraw-Hill Interactive German Grammar Made Easy, by Lisa Kahlen, published by McGraw-Hill INTERMEDIATE SUMMARY - WITH EXERCISES Shaum's Outlines, German Grammar, by Elke Gschossman-Hendershot et al, published by McGraw-Hill (note that, at this level, you might find yourself looking up a lot of words in the dictionary). ADVANCED STUDY Hammer's German Grammar and Usage, by Martin Durrell, published by Routledge (This is "reference text", NOT a course book. Nonetheless, even if you're just beginning, you can always consult this compendium for clarification.) SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE? Reading German, A Course Book and Reference Grammar, by Waltraud Coles & Bill Dodd, published by Oxford University Press (If you're at the intermediate level, you might enjoy this book.) Edited by Speakeasy on 30 March 2014 at 6:57pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| dumbl3d0re Newbie United States Joined 4727 days ago 11 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 3 31 March 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged |
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I for one have read the book cover-to-cover twice, which in all honestly is useless,
because it's too much information to retain much of it (but it was interesting). But I would say it's not really made as a learning guide; there are no exercises or tips or things like that. It's more of a reference. When I have a question or am unsure about something I'll go get it off the shelf and look it up. The book has sections like "translations of -ing into German" (or something like that), so when I need to know how to translate an -ing form I look it up in HGGAU. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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