Customer Reviews

Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks)

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Despite its title Basic Russian is probably best suited for the student who already has a basic knowledge of the Russian language. Without any accompanying cassettes, beginning students may well have considerable difficulty with pronunciation. That aside, this book is concise and clearly presented. As the title suggests, it contains both a grammar guide and an accompanying workbook which makes learning the material much easier. Basic Russian also contains a handy vocabulary list of everyday words, as well as several appendices such as a glossary of technical terms and a list of spelling rules. By using up-to-date language (both Russian and English), and a straightforward layout, this is a very good reference work for anyone who is already studying Russian. I recommend it be used along with some audio material.

I was looking for a course book when I bought this - however, it is only a grammar book. You will not receive any introductory instruction on the alphabet, handwriting, or pronounciation. Even vocabulary is hardly explained.

It is a grammar workbook in the strict sense. The first page of the book is instruction on gender declensions. It is presumed that you can read the cyrillic.

For what is is, it appears to be a good book, though it is clearly not meant to be used alone. Also, from the word "workbook" I presumed it would include pages or space to "work" in, or to write in answers. This is not the case. There are just questions under tightly-printed sections called "exercises".

I'm going to keep the book. I believe it will be useful to me as a reference. However in not understooding what it actually was before I bought it, I will need to find a true course textbook to supplement this.

This is the most boring exercise book I have ever used. Besides that, there are spelling errors, editing errors, and exercises that are irrelevant to the subject covered. There is no innovation in presenting the material. Nouns in the glossary are not marked with their gender. I live in Ukraine. I bought the Intermediate edition (which doesn't even have a glossary and is even thinner) at the same time. After shipping and customs fees were added to an already over-priced book each volume cost more than $50. I wouldn't pay $15 for it in a book store.

My advice: buy something else.