Customer Reviews

A Reference Grammar of Dutch: With Exercises and Key (Reference Grammars)

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I would recommend this grammar to anyone who has some background knowledge of Dutch and who needs an easy-to-use reference work. The grammar is clearly explained, the exercises are adequate. All examples are provided with English translations, and the book distinguishes between beginning and intermediate learners of Dutch. As a result, it tells the reader what is essential and what is more sophisticated knowledge. The book tries to be "user-friendly:" This means that grammatical terminology has been kept to a minimum. The only part that I did not like about this book is that the topics are arranged alphabetically. So, if you are interested in, say, the present tense formation of Dutch, you look it up under "present tense", the past tense is located under "past," etc. Such an organizing principle does not give a clear overview of the verbal system in Dutch. The same can be said about pronouns, adjectives, etc. This organization of topics also defeats the need for an index at the end of the book. But, in spite of this shortcoming, this is a good tool for intermediate learners of Dutch.

I would recommend this grammar to anyone who has some background knowledge of Dutch and who needs an easy-to-use reference work. The grammar is clearly explained, the exercises are adequate. All examples are provided with English translations, and the book distinguishes between beginning and intermediate learners of Dutch. As a result, it tells the reader what is essential and what is more sophisticated knowledge. The book tries to be "user-friendly:" This means that grammatical terminology has been kept to a minimum. The only part that I did not like about this book is that the topics are arranged alphabetically. So, if you are interested in, say, the present tense formation of Dutch, you look it up under "present tense", the past tense is located under "past," etc. Such an organizing principle does not give a clear overview of the verbal system in Dutch. The same can be said about pronouns, adjectives, etc. This organization of topics also defeats the need for an index at the end of the book. But, in spite of this shortcoming, this is a good tool for intermediate learners of Dutch.

I bought this book because i wanted to learn dutch starting from the beginning and found it very useful as it explains all the grammatical uses of different articles, verbs... For me it is very useful but I also had to buy a dictionary to understand all the words in the book, maybe you should learn some words before starting this book but it's highly recommended.