Customer Reviews

501 German Verbs with CD-ROM (Barron's Foreign Language Guides)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really love this new edition of Strutz's text. This improves on the old version in its look and overall layout, plus it includes 27 written verb exercises with answers and explanations and a bonus CD-ROM. Granted the CD-ROM isn't extensive (hey, it's free), but it has a handful more of different types of exercises which, like the written exercises, gives you answers plus explanations. It's enough at least to let you see if you're on the right track and where you may need do more study. Like the earlier edition, it has a very nice overview of German verb tenses, plus new additional sections on prefix verbs and word order. Know that these sections are overviews and are hardly exhaustive, but that is not the goal of this book. It's main objective is to give you tools and the fundamental knowledge to better grasp and use German verb tenses. It's a supplemental text prefect for beginners and intermediate students who need the occasional reminder of what's what and what goes where, and also it's a helpful quick review for more advanced students (and perhaps a few teachers). If you need a more comprehensive grammar book, however, then get a comprehensive grammar book.

Likewise, this book contains only 501 verbs, so if you need a lexicon or a vocabulary building text, this isn't it. You'll need the appropriate text for such needs. What this book is useful for is teaching you how to conjugate German verbs properly, even ones not included in this book. In the front section, it gives you a list of 55 "essential" verbs, which if you were to take the time to study and learn thoroughly, can serve you as models for conjugating just about any verb in German. You really can't ask for a better, more applicable tool - this is basically how native speakers understand verbs. Plus, in the section for each of these 55 "essential" verbs, there is additional attention paid to prefixes. Naturally, it's not an exhuastive account of all the prefix verbs for that root verb, but it gives you the necessary basics.

The rest of the verbs are included because they are frequently used in general German usage, although you may not encounter some of these verbs if you are a beginner or immediate student. Bear in mind as well that this is an all-levels text, so even if you don't find some of the verbs included useful now, you may find them useful in later study.

i have the book form of this item and I rate it 5 stars plus. Excellent reference for anyone learning German or just needing a review.

This is a warning for those of you who want this book in the Kindle form. Don't do it!! This book is not formatted for Kindle. The type is VERY small in 1/2 the pages, i.e., the verb listings. Changing the font does not make much of a difference. The reading is better in the landscape mode. But, you cannot search inside the book. So to look up a verb, i.e., werden, you have to page through the entire book. I have taken a match to a 10 dollar bill with this purchase.

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone seriously intersted in learning German. It's useful for beginners (55 essential verbs) to advanced speakers (all tenses, and subjunctives). The CD isn't great, but that's not the point of the product, either. This will take you all the way to fluency, if you have the discipline or have a structured method of study to use it with. Definitely helpful if you are going to study at a German University, like I am.

My German teacher told my class to pick up a copy of this and I am so glad I did. It has saved me so much time and I never get stuck on a conjugation! This book is a life saver!!!

This book is key to successfully learning German. This book helps you learn and memorize the many different verb tenses in German. Great book for learning and understanding.

OK, this book is pretty lame for the Kindle, with no direct way to search for a particular verb. But if you don't want to lug the paperback book around, here is a work-around... Do a regular search for the particular verb. Among the many hits, look for the hit that either has the English infinitive immediately following, or look for the hit that is surrounded by all the conjugations. Select that one, and bang, you're in. Maybe it doesn't take a lot longer than searching through the actual book. So if you bought this thing and feel like an idiot (like I did at first), try this approach.

I have used this book for years as a German teacher, and just ordered multiple copies to give as awards to some of my students.

I tutor a couple of students in German as well as other subjects. This a great reference tool when we encounter a form I don't remember well since it has been so many years since I studied the language myself.

Just how many verbs are you going to use in class?

This is an excellent reference and as a side benefits it helps with an understanding of English with the tenses and moods in German and English equivalents. It is written in a form that you can recite the tenses in you mind before speaking.

Your next purchase for class should be The Oxford-Druden Pictorial German-English Dictionary

The Oxford-Duden Pictorial German-English Dictionary

Everything was neatly organized in this book. The only problem I had was that it didn't tell you WHY some sentences were formed a certain way, they just threw them at you.