Dutch: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) [Paperback]

William Z. Shetter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 041511277X | ISBN-13: 978-0415112772 | Publication Date: September 22, 1994 | Edition: 7th

This Grammar shows, step by step, how the language is constructed. It presents a lively and accessible description of the language using plenty of relevant examples. This is the ideal first grammar for the Dutch learner.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Dutch

About the Author

William Z. Shetter and Inge Van der Cruysse-Van Antwerpen both teach in the Germanic Studies Department, Indiana University. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 7th edition (September 22, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041511277X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415112772
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,517,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Grammar Book!, January 6, 2003

By 

"mausmaus" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dutch: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

A couple of years ago, I started learning nederlands. I bought CD's and tapes and learned lots of vocabulary, but had no idea how to put the words together to make a coherent sentence.

This book turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It explains all of the little nuances with regards to spelling, sentence structure and word usage. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a beginner in the Dutch language.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars full of flaws, but good examples, April 30, 2008

By 

C. Davis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dutch: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

I recently began studying Dutch in order to communicate better with my Dutch boyfriend, and so I thought this book would be a nice supplement to Stern's short but informative "Essential Dutch Grammar." The book is nicely organized for the complete beginner, starting with a pronunciation section (which actually is pretty vague), then moving into spelling rules and how to form plural nouns, before even getting to sentence structure and verb conjugation. So it is a nice thing to look at if you have never encountered Dutch before.

BUT! This book is loaded with spelling errors that I, with my vocabulary of maybe 50 Dutch words, was able to spot immediately. For example, in a vocabulary list illustrating the spelling rules, it says the Dutch word for reason is "redden". NO it isn't, it's "reden" with only one D. The very next page says the singular AND plural for bicycle is "fietsen", when actually the singular is "fiets" and the just the plural is "fietsen". The scary thing is that those are just the two that I noticed, who knows how many more mistakes there are. They might just be small spelling mistakes, but when you are learning a new language and your study guide has these kinds of errors, it makes you wonder what else is wrong.

Fortunately, though, the rules in general seem to be true, when compared with what Stern's "Grammar" says, so I would still give this book a shot, because it does give a lot of examples of each grammar rule. Just don't use it for a vocabulary source.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a first edition?, October 5, 2004

By 

Hannah Robbins "robbinsh" (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dutch: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

I am currently taking a first class in Dutch and using this book as the text. I have found it fine as far a grammar goes, but the organization of vocabulary is terrible. The words are not really grouped according to any theme stronger than a conversation at the end of each chapter. For example the word appel (apple) is found many chapters ahead of the verb eten (to eat). This makes both learning these word lists and carrying on mock conversations quite difficult. I don't know Dutch, but I feel in this respect I could construct a better textbook.