Customer Reviews

Essential Russian Grammar (Dover Language Guides Essential Grammar)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is simply the best book I've found, and there have been many. Also, it is small. And concise. I keep giving my copies away to Russian instructors who use it also. I am an intermediate level student and have been living in Russian for 3 years. I wish I had found this sooner.

I recommend this book to anyone confused by perfective/imperfective, cases and usage of some of the more obscure participle not commonly used in English. It is excellent, concise and a great supplement to your textbook. It will give you many "ah-ha!" experiences as you finally realize what other sources are trying to tell you.

The other reviews I had read here were somewhat negative but given the low price I thought I would take a chance. When the book arrived I was surprised at how short it was and therefore had low expectations. However when I started reading it was was pleasantly surprised at how complete it was. I would not recommend it as a first or only book but as a handy guide or refresher to look up common grammar stuff it's great. If you are like me and have made a folder of notes for the common stuff to save wadding through reference books then this could be a handy alternative.

I'm already fluent in russian, and I am using this book as a review. It is an excellent book for this purpose, however, I think they might have expounded on motion verbs a little more, as this is a VERY hard concept for english speakers, as well as a very important one.

This is a brief, helpful little book. But for the beginner or intermediate in the Russian language it is perhaps too highly compact. It is best used, I think, for review rather than initial study.

This short book is packed with useful aids to improving your grasp of Russian. It is easy to understand, concise, and accurate. This is easily the best single book I have found to assist the student in learning Russian. It's small enough to be a carry-around reference guide that can be read at odd times of the day in hotel rooms, in taxis, and on mashrutki. The quality of the type-face is excellent so you can peruse this book even in fairly poor light. The examples are elegant and the vocabulary is always germane to everyday needs. I can't recommend this too highly to anyone who is serious about achieving moderate fluency in the Russian language.

I bought this on impulse when I was in Boston and I can certainly say I don't regret that decision! This is so too the point and manages to explain complicated grammar terms without over complicating things. I'm studying Russian in university and I always use this book to better explain to me things I didn't quite get. Definitely recommend it as a review or a brush up on Russian grammar.

As a 3rd year Russian major who slacked off & didn't study over the summer, I found this book perfect for quickly relearning everything I'd forgotten.

This book serves an as excellent reference guide. I agree with another reviewer, I've had several "ah ha" moments myself. In particular were the rules for the formation of active and passive participles. I'm not saying that it makes them any easier, just understandable.

Very good resource. Covers all the main points in the right amount of detail. However it wasn't easy for me to just pick up and understand completely on the first read through - going over it again certainly helps.

Some things I didn't like: it puts the formation of different cases before the usage. I just ended up reading them out of order, since that made a lot more sense to me. Also, it doesn't have all the main common sayings - an extended list would have been nice. Other than that, great book.