Customer Reviews

The Big Yellow Book of German Verbs: 555 Fully Conjuated Verbs (Big Book of Verbs Series)

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First of all, this book is a must have. If you need to rationalize this purchase, just look at it as the best $15.00 you'll ever spend on a German verb book. I own several dictionaries and a few verb-only books. I have the most recent Webster's New World 575+ German Verbs, and I love it too.

The Webster's version is a nice one for taking to a class in your bag, or for a quick reference. There are a few reasons why The Big Yellow Book is the better of the two. I will say here that there is nothing that isn't in The Big Yellow Book that is in the Webster's, but there is a lot missing from the Webster's that is clearly laid out here in this book. Don't be fooled by the 575+ Webster's number to the 555 Big Yellow Book; the Yellow Book wins, hands down!

The main thing I love about the Big Yellow book is the fact that it clearly lays out the separable prefix verbs (Webster's does not do this except in one or two cases); this is often already known by most people who have a basic understanding of German, but many verbs can be tricky as to whether it is separable or not; some verbs are both separable and inseparable each having different meanings.

The second thing is that the cross-reference section in the back is extremely complete. Many verb dictionaries have a fairly adequate one, but the Big Yellow Book is the most complete I have ever seen in a dictionary; it also features some really obscure verbs like "umnachten" [to enfold in darkness] and many other more obscure verbs. Honestly, it is by far and away the most complete all-in-one verb dictionary I have come across.

The Big Yellow Book also offers a very extensive list of idioms for the "Top 50" German verbs (all the other verbs list between 8-15 idiomatic uses). These "Top 50" have entire pages dedicated to idiomatic uses of verbs in conversation, which if you have learned anything about German it is the fact that the idioms get a little far from the meaning you expect. This is really useful for anyone wishing to communicate with any hope of sounding like a Deutscher(in).

The Big Yellow Book has a very in-depth study of grammatics for the first 38 pages. I found this entire section quite useful to cementing these concepts in my mind. The grammatic section even covers the 1999 Spelling Reform (for verbs), which I have never seen in a verb-only dictionary.

The only complaint I could make is a very minor one, the book is wonderfully laid out and I would change none of that, but they put the verb auxiliary "haben" or "sein" in a place that takes a moment to get used to, because it is not in the heading or directly below the verb in the heading. The book leaves ample space to place it near the verb entry. Like I said, it is only a minor complaint I could make.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn German, especially conversational German. Both the cross-reference section of odd verbs and the largest use of idiomatic expressions I have ever seen in any dictionary make this a must have. Seriously, buy this book! It really is the most bang-for-your-buck you will find, even against dictionaries that run close to $75 or more. Literally, this book has 1,000s of verbs that are, or easily are, fully conjugated. Viel Glück!

This is an excellent book. I have been self-teaching myself german for the past year or two, and this has helped a lot!
While this book is larger and may resember a medium sized cities phone book, the knoweldge it contains will outweigh any trouble that may be caused by carrying it around!

It tells you if it is a top 50 verbs, it also gives a bit of a grammar lesson for those that need a little brush up on what tense is! If you are learning german, by-pass the "white" books that have less verbs.

This book is super! Has every verb tense laid out for you, with plenty of sentence examples of everyday uses. I use this book all the time! It was seriously the best $15 I have ever spent on a book.

Best resource available for verb conjugation in German. Each page contains conjugations for a single verb along with many examples of the verb in usage.

Beginners can benefit from this resource as well, once they learn the infinitive form of a verb.

The cross reference in the back, covers thousands of additional verbs and points you to one of the 555 that complies to the same cunjugation rules.

The best $15 you'll ever spend on a language reference book!

For those with a basic background in German, this book is invaluable. It starts off with a chapter of concise and useful information about German verb conjugation and usage in general, followed up with 555 of the most-commonly used ones. For the vast majority of people learning German, this book will contain more than enough data, presented in a way that is easy to understand. Highly recommended.

If you're studying German, learning the verbs and their correct conjugations is so important.

Here, you get 555 verbs with about 12 different tenses conjugations, commands and sample usage. There are also some verb exercises in the back, an index of irregular verbs, and all the verbs... plus a CD rom with more exercises. All that and it's inexpensive... sehr, sehr gut! It may be a little 'huge' to carry around though...

The book itself is a very good refrence. I find it very useful and tend to keep it at hand when I'm writing in German.

The only thing is, I couldn't get the included software to work.

The title says it all. This is a big book that has hundreds of conjugated verbs. It is the perfect book for those who are interested in the written aspect of the german language. It helps make the writing of sentences easier. If you are looking for a book on verb conjugation, this is the best book I've found so far.

I have only used the Big Yellow Book of German Verbs a few weeks, but it has become one of my favorite resources for self-study. Not only are there fully conjugated verbs, but, in addition, there are many example sentences demonstrating sentence structure, common expressions and grammar. It is certainly what I need at this point in my understanding of German.

One of the hardest things about learning German is understanding it's complex verb conjugations..... Not only does this book clearly conjugate and explain a plethora of important verbs.... it also highlights the top 50 verbs, and has thorough explanations of German language structure at the beginning of the book..... The included CD rom is also the cherry on top (so to speak)....
Very happy about having purchased this book.