Customer Reviews

English With Ease: Mastering the Basic Ingredients of English

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This little book has everything that anyone needs to really understand how English works. Even spelling! It's worth the purchase price for the spelling section alone!

The publishers in all those other countries that are publishing it obviously know something....

When I was in school, English grammar was taught like the Ten Commandments: "Here are rules. Follow them always; question them never."

When I was in Organic Chemistry lecture in college, the professor took the old saying, "Oil and water don't mix," and he explained _why_ the oil and water don't mix. But his explanation was complex enough that we students needed an entire year of freshman chemistry as prerequisite, in order to understand his words.

What's my point? It took me many more hours to learn the here's-why rules of chemistry than that don't-ask-why rules of English grammar, but now I understand how chemistry works. Whereas up till now, I considered English grammar to be merely a collection of arbitrary, meaningless decrees.

But Dierdre Honnold's book changed that. The English language has a system (surprise, surprise), and she explains that system. Very seldom does she fall back on "I can't explain this rule, but it's a rule, ya gotta obey it." Everything that she writes about, has been covered in other grammar books; but I guarantee you that no other book explains anything more clearly than she explains it. And so often I said to myself, while reading Dierdre Honnold's book, "_Now_ I get it!"

The chart on page 50 (what I call the "Shopper's Guide to Verb Tenses") explains exactly what each verb tense means; and if you want to be precise in writing a sentence, it lays out exactly which tense to use. This single page is worth the price of the book.

I call the book a "miracle" -- well, here's the miracle: With just two simple rules, she explains how to correctly spell 99-plus percent of English words.

One warning must be given. Though it doesn't pull down my five-star rating, potential buyers need to know that this book is self-published, and it was five weeks after I ordered the (new) book before the book was shipped. So if you have a term paper due in two weeks, buy yourself a used, not new, copy.

Are you sick of not being SURE of how to say what you want to say, either in writing or orally? Do you resent the fact that you spent (at least) 12 years in school, and they never taught you to master your own language? I was in that same boat ‹ until I saw "English with Ease." Actually, I took a class from the author first, and in the class, she used a lot of the materials from the book. It was amazing ‹ a real eye-opener! English really is easy ... if it's presented right. And that's what the author does. All that nonsense they tried to make you memorize in school is unnecessary. Not all of it, of course, and that's where Dierdre (the author) really shines. She knows exactly what you NEED to know, and even more important, what you DON'T need to know, to understand English. I learned more in that one two-week class with her than I learned in all my years in school. Her students all said the same thing: "Why didn't they teach us this in school?!" I don't know why they don't, but everyone should read this book so they can finally understand the English language! ‹Jo Chandle

In the first three pages, I learned things about English that I never learned in school. Everyone should read this book from cover to cover. They wouldn't need all those huge grammar books (that no one ever uses or learns from). This is all they need.

"English with Ease" was awarded three prizes by the Sacramento Publishers Association - BEST BOOK, BEST REFERENCE and BEST TEXTBOOK. People love it! Find out why!

After all comments i found over internet i concluded that this book must be probably the best way to learn grammar. You are not sure ? If you are really interested as i am, access the URLs below for a consistent revision (i'm not the author). Note: The reason why the text is not copied here is due to text length constraints.

Note: Just to avoid influencing the actual rate i gave it five stars in advance. Be warned that i'm just a buyer and did not read the book until now. Sure i'll correct the rating after reading it...