Customer Reviews

Essentials of Swedish Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Swedish

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As any native English speaker trying to learn Swedish had found out, there is a real lack of useful Swedish learning tools out there. One of the very few items that I can recommend without reservation is this basic grammar by Viberg et al. - it does a great job of covering all the major grammar points without bogging the learner down in obscure terms or arcane exceptions that will rarely be encountered in real, spoken Swedish. In a practically minded manner, limits itself to using the vocabulary that a person needs to pick up in their first few years of study. Finally, it is exceptionally well organized - do you need to find out how adjectives are declined in Swedish? Well, you can find the appropriate section very easily by looking in either the well organized table of contents or the detailed index in the back. Twenty minutes of no-fuss, no-muss reading and you'll learn all you'll ever need to know about adjectives. It's a great book to have in your backpack to pull out while riding the bus - it's such an easy read, it feels more like pleasure reading than studying. Highly Recommend!

Unlike other Swedish grammer books for English speakers, this book is both compact and easily "carryable" but also complete and full of fantastic examples. This book gives Swedish examples and translates all of them into English. The book tells you how English and Swedish are similar or different, which makes it easier to memorize the rules of Swedish. Furthermore, the book makes good use of bold print and different type sizes to draw your attention to the most important part of the rule being taught. Because of the great use of examples, this book is a very good choice for English speakers who can't define every part of speech; this book defines the parts and shows you how they work. (This book explains the difference between "who" and "whom" better than any English teacher I've ever had!)

Extremely well written and organized - especially for the beginning student requiring a quick reference for the essential rules of grammar (word order, construction of clauses, sentences with more than one verb). Easy to read tables, well organized by topic, and LOTS OF PRACTICAL EXAMPLES. I love this book, and highly recommend it for the new student of Swedish. The only thing lacking is a glossary - but thats what dictionaries are for.

I sort of stumbled into learning Swedish through my genealogy research. I learned Latin in high school which has proven the BEST LEARNING TOOL FOR ANY LANGUAGE........I started French 2 years ago, and for 2001 Swedish. This book is really easy to follow and understand. The authors use English examples and comparisons which make learning Swedish so very easy!! 10 times easier than French. You do need a good solid understanding of English grammar such as: the parts of a sentence i.e. verb, subject, object, adverb, adjective etc... This is my first Swedish language book and I would recommend it for any beginner!! Too bad there is not a video or cassette that goes with this book.

Just thought to add that I bought the bilingual baby video for Swedish for my 7 month old and it is quite helpful for both of us!!

Hej People,

Swedish is a very wonderful language, even easier than English. And the book "Essentials of Swedish Grammar" even makes the study of the Swedish language even easier and faster.

If you believe in photographic memory, this book is will work for you. Not only that the book is easy to understand, it is also easy to memorize photographically.

As a student studying European Languages in the University, I would say that "Essentials of Swedish Grammar" is one of the best Grammar books I am using.

This book will surely help you in studying Swedish.

Happy reading and good luck to you all.

(written by my thirteen-year-old daughter)
When I was 12 years old I decided that I wanted to learn Swedish. Since Swedish was going to be my first foreign language and I was learning it by myself, I figured that I should spend my money wisely and only buy a few items. Along with a Swedish-English/engelsk-svensk Dictionary and a book on conjugating Swedish verbs, I bought this. I'd say that if I had to choose only one of those three items to buy, it would be this one because it explained the grammar of all sorts in a manner that even a 12-year-old could understand.. When first I decided that I wanted to learn Swedish I read up on it and learned a bit about its rules. I was especially daunted by the prospect of learning the definite and plural forms of the word, which confused me to no end. However when I read this book I understood it perfectly, along with other things that confused me, like "rolig", "roligt", and "roliga", for example.
I have had this book for a little over one year, and I have read it through, and still go back sometimes to refresh myself. I must say that I do not regret buying this book!
(By the way, its size made it perfect for carrying around---many a morning before school I spent reading this book throughout last year.)
My only woe is that they do not have the same book for Finnish..!

I have been teaching myself Swedish and found this book to be a great help in understanding the language. The Essentials of Swedish Grammar does a great job of comparing Swedish to English, which makes it very easy to understand and learn. This book is a must for anyone who knows the bare basics of Swedish and would like to learn more.

I am currently studying Swedish independently and needed a good grammar book. This book is great if you want to study the language! The terminology is very simple - you need no knowledge of linguistic terms to understand Swedish grammar through this book. I highly highly highly highly suggest this book for anyone who wants to study Swedish independently or as a good resource for students of Swedish in any area.

Jam-packed with examples that make every single grammatical rule make sense. Not too much explanation, just the bare bones of rules and helpful comparisons to English grammar. This book is really helping to fine tune my Swedish and it's easy to read too.

What I really liked about the book is that you can actually find the information that you need, you can learn a lot just with it alone. Complements are a must, though...but it's portable size makes it great to have anywhere to take advantage of time...

I strongly recommend it.