Customer Reviews

Understanding and Using English Grammar (Third Edition) (Full Student Edition without Answer Key)

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This book is a comprehensive reference grammar/workbook for non-native speakers of English. If you are trying to choose between Azar's grammar books, the "Blue" book is intended for intermediate to advanced students, while the "Black" book is for beginning to intermediate and the "Red" for raw beginners. A grammar outline from the "Blue" book is also available without exercises.

The book is divided into chapters covering notorious grammar points, including: verb tenses, modals, passive voice, gerunds and infinitives, singular and plural, adjective clauses, noun clauses, connecting expressions, and conditional sentences. There are also appendices covering terminology, question formation, negation, articles, phrasal verbs, and error correction. On average, each chapter has 15-20 articles covering a single grammar point or contrast in detail. Atypical article starts with a grammar description, which is usually presented in the form of a diagram or chart, supported with several examples and explanations. Then follow several exercises, which mostly require the reader to write in the correct form of the word, although oral exercises are common, and there are occasional editing exercises.

The book's strength is the clarity of its grammatical explanations, and Azar's simplified diagrams of verb tenses are now standard in many ESL classrooms. Students who crave grammar instruction will adore this book. They like to read the grammatical descriptions, and they get a sense of accomplishment from filling in all the blanks. But will this really improve their grammar? If a student is completely unaware of how a grammatical rule works, then this book will go a long way towards making the rule clear. The exercises help reinforce each topic, but it takes a lot more implementation of a rule than the 20-50 sentences found in each set of follow-up exercises in this book to make a rule automatic. Does doing exercises improve grammar at all? The jury is still out on that one, but from my own classroom experience, even students who zealously complete every exercise in the book correctly show little consequent progress in their written or spoken grammar. My own personal belief is that students improve their grammar mostly through extensive exposure to grammatically correct language, either spoken or written, and what little exercise they get from this book won't make that much of a difference (as long as they understand the rules they should be watching out for).

Nevertheless, many students enjoy working with this book because they think they are spending their study time on a worthwhile topic. That leaves the way open for hidden collateral gains. Azar uses a wide range of vocabulary in her examples and exercises, and most students will develop their active vocabulary by using this book, especially if they are encouraged to pay attention to new words. Many of the dialogs that Azar uses are inane classroom dialogs- -if they could only cover real information worth learning about, then she could maintain the readers' interest more, as well as expose students to real world information. In any case, if grammar is what you want, it would be hard to beat this book, due to its clarity, accuracy, and exercises.

The geniuses that controlled my education decided that I should skip fourth grade reading because they caught me reading Mark Twain in third grade. I can't imagine what in the WORLD they were thinking, as I came to learn years later that in fourth grade reading they taught - you guessed it - grammar! And boy, did I suffer. My written grammar was absolutely horrendous for years, and even though I continued to be placed in advanced or honors English classes throughout high school, whenever my papers were returned to me the "concept" side came back with an A, and the "grammar" side came back with a D or an F.

There's no substitute for learning young, but this is the closest thing to it. I've never seen a grammar book that's easier to understand than this one. Forget the Idiot's Guides or Dummies books, and invest a little more in this one and the accompanying workbooks. If you're really interested in boning up on your grammar skills, this will be of tremendous assistance.

Also, if you're looking to buy the workbooks, remember that this is the THIRD edition, that it is in blue, and so you should conduct your search for the accompanying workbooks by first identifying those that are blue, and make sure that they're for the third edition. There are several editions available here on Amazon, so buy wisely.

I am a professional ESL teacher and this book is probably the most popular one with both the students and the teachers. The grammar points are divided up very well and there are good explanations and examples for most points.

The reason this book is so popular is that the exercises are very simple, something like this:

The children (is/are) playing in the yard right now.

You simply have to choose the right answer from the two. This simplified approach makes learning grammar very easy, but many students want something more difficult and some complain that the book is a little boring. But when has grammar ever been exciting?

Definitely, it's the best book I have ever read about English Grammar, as an English Teacher in Honduras, I found a very clear an easy way to explain one of the matters that usually are bothersome for students, Grammar. I strongy recommend this book for every person who really wants to learn English Grammar. Hector Reynaldo Acosta Espinal San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Central America roboplex@yahoo.com

I bought this book when I was an ESL student in U of T. The book did the great job to help me understand tons of subtle grammer problems. The sentences in the book are very useful and you can almost hear every where in daily life. I use them all the time when I talk to my classmates and co-workers.Whenever I have questions on English I always consult it first.

I am a international student. For understanding and using english naturely, I have read a lot of "Grammar books." So far, my all of english abilities:speaking, writing, reading, and grammar are not good. This book is really helpful. I recommend to many international student!!

I originally bought Azar "Blue" as a required text for my ESL Teacher's Certificate course. It was near perfect as a grammar refresher/learning tool. As a teacher, I have continued using it for some three years and have found it to be the easiest for students to understand and work with independently. I've looked at a number of alternative grammar texts, but have yet to find one that is as well-organized and clear in its explanations. One small criticism: it has occasional content flaws. Penguins, for example, do not inhabit Antarctic AND Arctic regions. The two lower level Azar texts ("Red" and "Black") are also good reference works.

I recommend this book to those who are seriously studying English as a foreign language. Not only does it explain the basics of grammar, but it also includes many drills that enable you to clearly understand each rule. The index in the back of the book is very useful.

This workbook is a perfect workbook I've ever met. They tell us how to pronounce in spoken English. It's so useful. If you also have Spanish version,I'd like to get one.

It is good,ship is fast,the book looks new. Generally I like it.Keep going!If the price could be lower, that would be better.