6 Comments
Don't know about German, but their Spanish version is pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Perfect-Complete-German-Grammar/dp/0071763600
If you only want grammar (ie grammar and examples but no exercises), this book probably covers all you ever want to learn about it: http://www.amazon.com/Hammers-German-Grammar-Usage-Edition/dp/1444120166
I have Hammer's German Grammar and Usage. It is excellent, very thorough. It covers just about everything you would need to know about German grammar.I learnt a lot from it.With it I bought the companion volume, Practising German Grammar a Workbook for use with Hammer's German Grammar. It is full of exercises which match the sections in Hammer's and can be done after these sections.Together these two books are very useful for studying German.
To some extent, it's what you are most comfortable with that makes for the best choice. Nevertheless, I don't know of anything better than Dreyer and Schmitt, "Lehr- und Übungsbuch der deutschen Grammatik" and its companion "Lösungsschlüssel". Available new from Amazon.de and used through Amazon.com.
As the name might suggest, Fandrych and Tallowitz, "Klipp und Klar: Übungsgrammatik Grundstufe Deutsch in 99 Schritten" is easy-going and covers the basics surprisingly well. If you are just starting out you may well find Dreyer Schmitt and Hammer a bit off putting. I know I did, and first breezing through "Klipp und Klar" prepared me well for moving on to Dreyer Schmitt later.
It seems to me that the problem with these books is that they are written in German. Therefore you would have to know quite a bit of German grammar in order to understand them. That's why I think for an English speaker learning German Hammer is the best option.
No problem. I only suggested them as alternatives in addition to Hammer. Hammer, by the way says in his introduction that his book is intended for people with a basic knowledge of German – so for a novice Klip und Klar might be a good start regardless. Someone mentioned at lunch today that Goethe Institute has used KuK as an intro text in many parts of the world. That's a pretty good reference for someone starting out here and needing help with Grammar.
