Customer Reviews

German Grammar Drills (Drills Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
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2 star:		(2)
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"German Grammar Drills" fills a need for students of the language who find the newer teaching approaches short on grammatical elements. The book very systematically presents areas of grammar, beginning with simple ones like noun genders and plurals, and thoroughly reviews the basics. Following the review there are a variety of comprehensive practice drills in workbook format. All answers appear in the back.

Areas covered include noun cases, prepositions, adjectives, contractions, verb tenses, imperatives, reflexive pronouns, modal auxiliaries and double infinitives, conjunctions, relative pronouns, prefixes, comparatives and superlatives, passive voice, subjunctive mood and infinitive clauses.

The book advertises itself as "perfect for beginning and intermediate learners." But a note of caution for beginners: the practice sentences, even in early lessons, contain words and grammatical constructs, including verbs in tenses other than the present, that the new student may not yet have encountered. A self-motivated student with a dictionary can readily overcome this one problem.

I recommend this book most highly for any student really determined to master more than just the tourist's basic stock phrases that many books, especially those for the adult learner, seem to overemphasize. Mastery of this book equals mastery of the German language.

Though I am a beginning German student, I am fluent in both Spanish and French, and therefore know a little about learning a foreign language. I purchased German Grammer Drills, German Sentence Structure, and the German Verb tenses. The books all state that they are 'Perfect for the Beginning and Intermediate Learners", but this is not the case. The books give a few examples in English, but almost all of the exercises are in German. That's would be ok, if there were a vocabulary key given in English. But there isn't, which makes it a very difficult book to use. In order to use this book, I would have to sit with a dictionary and look up words in almost every sentence. This is very time consuming and impractical. The exercises in the book would be great for someone much farther along in their German studies. The exercises are simple and not complicated, but the fact that there are no translations makes it extremely difficult to use. One of the first exercises asks you to provide nouns that use the same endings as those in parentheses. There is a list of 15 different endings. As a beginning student, I haven't learned enough vocabulary to be able to think of enough nouns to do the exercise. There is no vocabulary given to draw from.
I think it's a great book to use as a review after you have learned quite a bit of German - to brush up on your skills. But this is definitely NOT the book for a beginner.

This is the perfect guide as I attempt to refresh my German comprehension in preparation for a trip to Berlin (my last study of the language was more than 10 years ago). The book is extremely well-organized and methodical, and the explanations are clear and useful. The bulk of the book is devoted to exercises, which I find nicely designed to illustrate the concepts. The answers are all at the end.

A bonus to me is that the layout and font are very easy on the eyes, and the book does not feel cluttered with gimmicky charts, diagrams, or illustrations (as far as I can see, there are none).

The only downside, mentioned by another reviewer, is that the book is not truly a beginners book. Someone with no prior experience in the language will likely find this book a little overwhelming. Not only does it assume familiarity with vocabulary (which is easy enough to look up), but it assumes some exposure to typical German word order, the conjugation of verbs, and the change in articles and adjective endings according to case.

If you know the basics however, I highly recommend this volume!

When I registered for my immersion class in Germany, I had to take a test, so they'll know which class/which level you're in. The test was like the drills in this book. Next time I take another immersion class, I will definitely practice with this.

It's not only drills, it also explains grammar rules in very simple, easy to understand terms.

Helpful!

I've been learning German for about a year now, all through self-study and Livemocha.com. I found this book to be very challenging, for the same reason another review stated: Many sentences that are either examples or parts of the drills use vocab or syntax that have not yet been explained. I actually had to keep a German dictionary by my side while working through this, which made the process three times as slow. It was either that, or resign myself to not understanding about 1/4 of what I was writing.

Another reviewer stated there's no clutter and the font is nice...it's true, however I also found it a little dry. I'm a very visual person, the kind that color codes my notes, so the absence of ANY kind of decor within the book made it seem monotone and inaccessible at times.

That being said, my ability to read German has improved greatly since I first began, so it achieves its primary function. Learning a language requires so much dedication, determination, and PATIENCE, all of which are required to complete this particular book. Think of it as a labor of love.

I bought this book because my teacher tries to stay away from the grammar as much as possible and unlike most people I actually enjoy grammar. This book was not helpful at all, it ended up confusing me more then it helped me. I do not recommend this book at all, it's only a waste of time and money. I looked at other grammar books and found this one: Interactive German Grammar Made Easy by Lisa Kahlen. I highly recommend Interactive German Grammar Made Easy because it not only explains things in a simple and easy way but it also comes with a CD that has a native speaker to read the sentences to you. Interactive German Grammar Made Easy also has many exercises in the book and on the CD.

The pages of this book are well laid out and appealing because they ar A4 size, the writing is well laid out and the print is not crowded. It is user friendly to write in it without having to minimize the size of my handwriting.
On the negative side, some might find the pages a bit on the bland side as there are no images or decorations or cartoons, but not a problem really.


The content is logical and thorough starting with " Determining Gender" (a greatly chapter drilling you in all the tricks to know gender) to subjunctive moods and infinitive clauses chapters.(27 chapters)
It includes review tests for sections and the whole book at the end.
The answer key is well laid out and easily readable.

I would not recommend this book for a total beginner unless you are happy to look up any unknown words.There are no vocabulary boxes or lists. On the plus side the vocabulary is not trying to be difficult. There are also some excercises which ask you to finish a sentence or write one given a cue , so for these you would need a teacher to mark your response.
I am pleased I have bought this book! I have two other ones on grammar but I would not give up this one.

I find this work very helpful, if working with grammar, is something you call fun. I am a beginning German learner but believe that intermediate German speakers would find this workbook to be helpful for review purposes also.

I speak German daily and wanted to improve my grammar overall. I use this workbook to re-enforce lessons from Schaum's Outline of German Grammar, 4ed (Schaum's Outline Series). Highly recommend both books.

I'm taking German in college, and I thought I'd use this to brush up and become more comfortable with certain parts of grammar. It is pretty helpful, but I wish there was more attention over things like adjective endings. It's almost like the more complicated the grammar, the less explanation. Overall, it's still useful. However, I don't think this is exactly for the "beginner" as it says it is. It has all grammar of German, and some of this can be pretty new to beginners. If you're starting out, save this book for later when you've already learned some of this. Use this for practice on your own.