Customer Reviews

Master the Basics Russian

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

 

 

If you're looking for an introduction to Russian, with dialogues and lessons, this book is not for you. It is, however, the clearest book I've found to explain the grammatical concepts. If you're self-teaching with tapes or software programs, you will most likey come to a point where you've learned an expression or a change in word endings without fully understanding the grammar behind it, this is where to look to quickly get the explanation. It does not contain much vocabulary, or full sentences, it is made up of chapters explaining particular grammatical structures and rules, so you're not going to learn to speak using this book alone.

I bought this book as an additional reference to my class textbook. I use it constantly to review key concepts. Most language textbooks are not organized to make good reference material, but this one (inexpensive) book makes up for such a shortcoming completely.

You can use Master the Basics to quickly zero in on a particular concept whether it be the parts of speech, pronouns, verbs, case declension and the concepts are presented in a very concise and straightforward manner. I especially like the well-organized charts scattered throughout as they make a clear summary with graphical-style impact that makes things easier to remember.

If you intend to pursue Russian seriously at any level, then this is a must-have book, handy and gets right to the point. Do svidannya!

I agree completely with the reviewer from Oregon. I am starting to learn Russian from a cassette series (Learn in Your Car, which I also highly recommend) and this book is a very well-organized, valuable reference. In fact, it is one of the best organized special-purpose reference books I have seen anywhere. It has plenty of tables, and very clear descriptions of things like 'Why do Russian nouns have so many cases?' After teaching myself Spanish, Russian is my next goal, and it is quite a challenge. I think I would have given up by now without this book.

This book is a "must" if you want to learn russian.
Is divided in clear chapters that covers the most important objectives. (Each chapter covers one "objective" in a clear and simple explanation).
It has the perfect size for a basic book: not too many pages and has covered all the basic questions that you can ask when you begin to learn russian.
If you are begining to learn russian you will appreciate to have this book.

The major strength of this book is the organization of the complex morass of inflections into categories and tables where one can start to see how they make sense. I have read other books which set forth the grammar but lack the concise organization that enables you to compare and recognize how the various forms compare with each other based on their function. The tables in this book look straightforward enough, but having attempted to assemble similar tables from the information in other books, I immediately recognized and appreciated what the author has achieved. The author shows a good sense of when to suggest that the principles are not as difficult to learn as they first appear and when to be upfront about having to resort to some degree of rote memorization. Another good aspect of the book are the example sentences that show how grammar is applied in practice. This is extremely helpful if you tend to be an inductive learner. The book is likewise good at presenting the numerous exceptions in a direct (and not discouraging) manner. Big thanks to the author.

lots of good tables for reference. drawn out blah blah text. interesting and useful miscellaneous information/ phrases. a good supplement, but but not to learn from.