Customer Reviews

Using German: A Guide to Contemporary Usage

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This book is outstanding for native English speakers looking to acquire fluency in German. Although it seems to be aimed at the advanced learner, I'd guess pretty much anyone after the 2nd year of study (high school) would profit from it, because of how it explains the differences and relationships in actual usage There are many categories of usage and many examples - English and German phrases compared with each other, with detailed explanations. Note that this is a usage guide and, while certainly informed with explanations about grammatical details, it is not a German grammar. For that I would strongly recommend Durrell's other 2 excellent books, 'Essential German Grammar' and (of course), the classic 'Hammer's German Grammar and Usage'. The latter is usually said to be aimed at advanced (i.e. after 3rd year at university level) learners, but it is also an excellent reference work for anyone attempting to attain fluency and looking to understand the subtle nuances of German. I have the 2nd edition; fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, each edition seems to differ from the others, not only in content (i.e. additional information) but also layout and organisation. This makes them slightly different books, so what I'm saying is, a real 'crack' might like to have a copy of each, since they're kind of complementary (at least that's my impression).

I was totally surprised by the wealth of useful information in this book.

Most all German books explain the basics of the German language. However, German in common use is so complex due to colloquialisms. This book breaks down all the strange uses of words simplified in other German language texts, as well as providing great coverage of the different dialects across European German. It's definitely meant for an intermediate or advanced German student, preferably for those wanting to go overseas and mingle amongst Germans.

What can I say? This is probably the best book ever for advanced students of German... It covers it all from the subtle differences in word choice to Austrian and Swiss vocabulary. This book is a must for everyone who really wants to learn perfect German.

What I like about this book:

This book has a hugely varied collection of useful pieces of language information. In fact, as a single volume, this is a very efficient use of space for a lot of information. As the first steps from going from a beginner to intermediate or further, it is excellent.

What I dislike about this book:

Unfortunately, there is little unique content in the book. By that, I mean that the specialised book on each subject usually gives a fuller description than is contained here. Of the 6 chapters, most are covered in greater detail elsewhere.

Words (Chapter 2) - splitting synonyms, Farrell or Beaton
- False friends, there are a number of books exclusively devoted to these. Have a look at Fagan's bibliography for a good list.
- Word formation, mostly duplicated from Hammer's
- idioms, Some cheap guides are out there, as is the real thing
- prepositions, this section is quite detailed. Some books do better but for a comparative look, this section is quite good.
- particles, Hammer's is good here, or you could go the whole hog.
Grammatical information (chapters 3-5) - mostly cut down version of useful sections from Hammer's German Grammar and Usage
Spelling and punctuation (chapter 6) - get it from the horse's mouth in Richtiges und Gutes Deutsch or from the chapter in Hammer's.

And so on. That is not to say that any of the information here is not worth your time, but simply, as your collection grows, it will eventually become duplicated and you will find yourself rarely using it.

Where to from here:

If you have a grammar, dictionary and that is about it, this book would be great for you. It starts introducing you to and providing explanations for a whole lot of problem areas that you will encounter in your German language study. If, however, you have an enormous library of resources, there is little new in this volume.