Product Description
Syntactica, the companion software application tool, can be found at http://mitpress.mit.edu/syntactica


This introductory text takes a novel approach to the study of syntax. Grammar as Science offers an introduction to syntax as an exercise in scientific theory construction. Syntax provides an excellent instrument for introducing students from a wide variety of backgrounds to the principles of scientific theorizing and scientific thought; it engages general intellectual themes present in all scientific theorizing as well as those arising specifically within the modern cognitive sciences. The book is intended for students majoring in linguistics as well as nonlinguistics majors who are taking the course to fulfill undergraduate requirements.

Grammar as Science covers such core topics in syntax as phrase structure, constituency, the lexicon, inaudible elements, movement rules, and transformational constraints, while emphasizing scientific reasoning skills. The individual units are organized thematically into sections that highlight important components of this enterprise, including choosing between theories, constructing explicit arguments for hypotheses, and the conflicting demands that push us toward expanding our technical toolkit on the one hand and constraining it on the other.

Grammar as Science is constructed as a "laboratory science" course in which students actively experiment with linguistic data. Syntactica, a software application tool that allows students to create and explore simple grammars in a graphical, interactive way, is available online in conjunction with the book. Students are encouraged to "try the rules out," and build grammars rule-by-rule, checking the consequences at each stage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

perfect for starters
It is an introduction to syntax textbook especially perfect for undergrads. It is illustrated throughout the book. The chapters are short and clear-cut. I would recommend it to students who are new to the field of syntax. Although I have only read a few chapters, and so far so good! ... Read more

Product Description
Learning English with the Bible Answer Guide serves as a tool to assist English teachers who are using the Learning English with the Bible Textbook as their English grammar curriculum. Answers to all ... Read more

Product Description
Short lessons on essential grammar topics include a reproducible passage that highlights key skills in context. Engaging, low-prep activities, such as Noun Toss, Verb Safari, and No-Pronoun Zone Partner Writing, motivate students and help them apply what they’ve learned. Lessons and activities cover parts of speech, subjects and predicates, sentence structure, phrases and clauses, and more! For use with Grades 3–5. ... Read more

Product Description

Korean: An Essential Grammar is a concise and convenient guide to the basic grammatical structure of standard Korean. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging Grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Korean in short, readable sections.

Key features include:

• clear explanations of grammatical terms
• frequent use of authentic examples
• the Korean alphabet used alongside McCune-Reischauer romanization system
• a full glossary of explanations.

Customer Reviews (1)

The best korean grammar book

I have look at many Korean language books and this is
the best so far.Hope that it can also be on Kindle. ... Read more

Product Description

Intermediate Korean: A Grammar and Workbook comprises an accessible reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume.

This workbook presents twenty-four individual grammar points, covering the core material which students would expect to encounter in their second year of learning Korean. Grammar points are followed by examples and exercises which allow students to reinforce and consolidate their learning.

Intermediate Korean is suitable for both class use as well as independent study.

Key features include:

• clear, accessible format
• many useful language examples
• all Korean entries presented in Hangul with English translations
• jargon-free explanations of grammar
• abundant exercises with full answer key
• subject index. 

Clearly presented and user-friendly, Intermediate Korean provides readers with the essential tools to express themselves in a wide variety of situations, making it an ideal grammar reference and practice resource for students with some knowledge of the language.

Customer Reviews (3)

A little clarification on "intermediate"
This is indeed a very good grammar textbook on intermediate Korean.

This book provides both intermediate vocabulary and grammar lessons their corresponding exercises/solutions.

After mastering the contents of this book, you should have a conversational level Korean. But your vocabulary and grammar should be somewhere around a 2nd grade to 3rd grade level. In other words, this book doesn't teach any sophisticated Korean.

If you already have a conversational level Korean, you might benefit from a more advanced workbook. If you want to understand basic Korean grammar and vocabulary, I highly recommend this book.

Great intro to korean grammar
Was at a dead end whilst learning Korean due to the complex and often contradictory grammar, but this book helped fix that. It walks you through the basic grammar, takes into account the multiple politeness levels and provides exercises that really help you to remember them. It's not a total beginner's guide, so you should have at least some understanding of the basic concepts of Korean grammar and particles, and this book will help you realize how to use them. I have one complaint though, the hangul text cannot be viewed any larger than default, and by default it is quite small and hard to read at a distance for a novice.

This book is INDISPENSABLE, period.
You have to buy this book if you are learning Korean. It explains EVERYTHING you need to know about Korean grammar, and not only that, it does it in a simple way, and even has activities to practice with, including full answers, and plenty of examples, and lots of vocabulary words to improve or refresh your vocabulary skills with. While you should still use an overall language teaching book, like Intermediate College Korean or whatever for overall vocabulary, grammar and even cultural learning, this book has a very different approach which will speed up your Korean learning tenfold. Here is why: instead of gradually and continuously building on prior lessons, constantly adding complexity to what you are learning and requiring that you fully master the previous lessons, this book only treats EXACTLY the point of grammar being taught at the time, so it's extremely easy to understand what is being taught. You also improve or refresh your vocabulary because each chapter uses different vocabulary (including a list each chapter) as the raw stuff to construct the example sentences with. Then you have practice activities at the end of the chapter. In my case I found reading the example sentences enough after a few chapters, since my Korean level was already pretty good after finishing Intermediate College Korean, and I was super-impressed that I was able to read this whole book in just a few days and retain what I had learnt. Andrew Sangpil Byon has simplified Korean down to its simplest parts and separated each one, and done a separate section on each little part, making this the easiest route to intermediate proficiency (i.e. full mastery of grammar, but not necessarily yet of vocabulary) that I have ever seen. This is one book that I think will have to become THE book of Korean grammar. Get it! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...
Sharon Eliza Nichols is a very witty woman, and she does have a way with words. While still a college student, she created a Facebook group devoted to showing off photos of signs representative of the poor grammar, bad spelling and misused punctuation that we so often see in our daily lives. This expressive entrepreneur then decided to take it a step further and share these with the world in her book I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious Errors, Disconcerting Bloopers, and Other Linguistic Slip-Ups.

For those of us who appreciate reasonable use of grammar and spelling, she has been a delight.

The photographs in her book are from contributors, and to see them in print like this is quite amusing, to say the least. Some are simple blunders in grammar, while others are truly egregious spelling errors, and even though this reviewer is often irritated to see such mistakes in print or on the `Net, seeing them as photos does make one smile.

The book is divided into ten chapters, and the first one, devoted to food and drink is in itself worth the price of admission. It contains photos of menus, signs, messages and posters from various restaurants and eating establishments. Many of these images have been popularized on the Internet and in email attachments, and that's understandable, as her "I judge you when you use poor grammar"group on Facebook has grown to over 430,000 members, with over 8,100 images of these photographic examples.

Ms. Nichols, along with her contributors and editors, has given those of us who appreciate good grammar a number of reasons to smile. If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then this book is like an encyclopedia.

A picture book for people who like to feel smarter than other people.
This book is a series of photos containing errors and poor word choices. The first few photos may be entertaining, but the errors are so repetitive that they eventually become only annoying. Imagine an e-mail forward with way too many attachments and you'll have a good idea of what to expect.

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious Errors...
The photographs of actual non-standard English is amusing, but I guess it was the wrong time of year for me to order it. i am a composition teacher in a community college, and I did not get the humor from it I thought I would. At the end of the semester, I am frustrated with even more eregious errors such as subject-verb agreements that I have marked over and over all semester and have observed littleevidence of improvement in my students, so it is harder to make me laugh at extra apostrophes and inventeed contractrions. I was hoping for something that might make my students learn their mistakes by laughing, but at this point, not much will make a difference.

There is nothing wrong with the book. It just did not do for me what I imagined. I am alreadyoverloaded with the topic. I will revisit the book at the beginning of next semester, perhaps with a fresh start. The students might be easier to amuze then as well, before the fatigue sets in both the class and teacher.

Your degree of satisfaction with the book will depend on your purpose.

I Judge You When You Belittle Unfunny Mistakes
When mistakes due to spelling, wording, or placement create an amusing or bizarre effect, you get a book like Fail Nation or Caution: Funny Signs Ahead. When mistakes are simply incorrect, you get this book.

I am a Grammar Nazi, so I sympathize with the frustration of poor English use growing increasingly abundant in today's society. However, this book makes me feel bad for being a Grammar Nazi. When flipping through this book, I get the impression of a disgruntled, condescending teacher publishing students' homework mistakes, which makes me feel stupid via proxy. None of the images in this collection are funny or even particularly noteworthy (PROTIP: a picture should be able to stand on its own merits, and a caption should only add icing to the cake). When the pictures of hilarious gaffes were handed out, Nichols must have showed up late and had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Is it really worth paying for a compilation of misplaced apostrophes and other uninteresting typos?

Belittling others purely for being wrong does not a funny book make. I would feel amused if a mistake I made was funny and was included in one of these books, but none of these could be considered amusing in the slightest. If the idea was to teach by example a la Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the cavalier attitude is completely unnecessary. Making fun of others is best done with a light-hearted--not ham-fisted--touch, in a way that doesn't make the editor look like a mean-spirited, holier-than-thou literary bully. However, the selection is such that I'm not sure even an attitude adjustment would be much of an improvement.

Overall, I don't think it was worth even flipping through in the bookstore, much less buying. If feeling superior to others is your cup of tea, however, this book may be for you!

Great gift for those who love grammar.
I bought this for some one who hates poor grammar. She thought it was great. This isn't a book you sit and read but it is entertaining. ... Read more

Product Description
A tested approach to learning biblical Hebrew in an ideal package for the first-year Hebrew student. This clear, accurate, and pedagogically sound textbook emphasizes the basics: Hebrew phonology (sounds) and morphology (forms). This grammar does not use jargon or technical language, but uses terms easily understood and remembered so biblical Hebrew can be used with regularity and authority. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

the right choice for me as a self learner
After I decided to learn biblical hebrew by myself, I compared some of the most popular first-year grammers, including:
* Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar: Second Edition by Gary D. Pratico
* A Handbook to Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar by Page H. Kelley
* A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew (Revised Edition) by Leong Choon Seow
* and this one, by Russell Fuller

I chose this one as my starting point. Now, after finishing more than 4/5 of the program, I think I made the right choice. While the first two are more popular, Fuller introduces the fundamentals of Phonology and Mophology in a quite clear system. In this system, you can know the rules of WHY of this ancient language, after you know WHY, the problem of HOW seems easy. I have to quote another reviewer's words again: 'If you get the fundamentals in place, the rest will follow.'

And the workbook is really a plus, the exercises are designed carefully, by following them constantly, the rules are ingrained in me, as the authors promised in the introduction of the book. So if you use this grammer, I highly recommend that you do all the exercises, they really worth the effort.

The organization of the verb system in this book is another plus. All the other three grammers organize verb system by the 7 stems of biblical hebrew, under each stem both strong and weak verbs are introduced. But in this book, the 7 stems of the strong verb are introduced first, and the weak verbs are then divided into ten categories, introduced one by one after the strong verb. This organization works fine for me: by a sound memorizing of the 'boxes' and 'thematic vowels' of each stem of the strong verb, the weak verb system turns out somewhat easy for me. Anyway, verb system is much more difficult than noun system of first-year biblical languages, both Greek and Hebrew. and this book makes it somewhat easy.

There are complaints too, the biggest one is: sometime I feel the authors didn't dig deep enough about the rules, they didn't give enough observation, as Mounce did in BBG. Almost in every chapter I had to observe and find out the under-ground info by myself. Some examples:
(1) in ch7-9 (particles), the author said 'they can only be learned through memory, mostly'. But in fact, after analyze the rules, I found most of them obey the rules of ch2-6 nicely.
(2) in ch12 (pronominal suffixes of noun), the author didn't tell me at anywhere that the noun is in construct state. After I noticed: 'construct state of noun' + 'pronominal suffixes', everything is clear.
(3) in ch19-25 (verb), the author didn't tell me clearly that participle would reduce its thematic vowel in all active stems and would not reduce in all passive stems. I had to conclude this from the exercises.
(4) nearly in every chapter after ch12, I would just overlook the section of 'steps of creating forms', since I always feel I've found a better procedure to create the form, based on a deep understanding of the rules introduced in the text.

Generally speaking, I highly recommend this grammer to self learners of Biblical Hebrew, it deserves more attention in the market, IMHO. I think you can use this text in the first year of Hebrew study, and then use Pratico or Kelley in the second year as a review. But when you use it, maybe you should do what I did: find out the hidden rules yourself.

Purely deductive, very thorough
I am a doctoral student in biblical studies who wanted to know Hebrew as well as one of my professors does. His name is Eric Mitchell and his blurb adorns the back of this book, so this was the logical place to start.

There are two main schools of thought on how to learn a language. The inductive method argues for immersion in the text; hence you learn enough to read, say Genesis 1 and go for it. Then you pick up what you can as you go. The deductive method, alternatively, argues that the fine details of a foreign language are too significant to be learned in an ad hoc manner. The down side is that it seems to take forever before you can use your skills. I used the inductive approach for Koine Greek, Latin, German and French, but it just wasn't cutting it when it came to Hebrew. I am grateful that Dr. Fuller has provided all three parts of this set (grammar, workbook and DVDs) for people like me who needed the help.

Language acquisition is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon. This may not be the place to start for you. But if you really are inquisitive and like puzzles and remembering SKNMLVI rules like me, this is a good fit. I cannot wait to complete the course and know everything in it.

Fuller's System Works
Does it help a person learn Hebrew?That's the highest measure of a Hebrew grammar.Fuller and Choi's textbook passes that test with flying colors ... for those who are willing to work hard.The textbook focuses on the fundamentals and the workbook provides constant practice.For diligent, motivated students, the repetition in the exercises will give ample opportunity to sharpen skills that when mastered will make reading the Hebrew Bible fun.I took Dr. Fuller's class.That's when I really learned Hebrew.I know his system works, because it worked for me.I'm excited that now I have a textbook to use for reviewing what I've learned and helping others read Hebrew.Caution:Lazy students will not find this grammar helpful.

Deny The Invitation
With the utmost respect to the authors I must say this was wasted money. I have resold them here on Amazon. The DVDs, which are not available on Amazon, are poorly done for the amount of money they cost.

I wish I had read the Journal reviews of this title before purchasing it. The most recent journal book review, stated that a beginning student would be better off going to another title instead.

Let me recommend Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar
Kelley's book presents 'baby Hebrew' in a manner much more inviting than Fuller.

Best Hebrew Grammer
Though no one is able to make Hebrew easy, Fuller provides the best method I've seen to learn and understand Biblical Hebrew. The instruction is clear and the work load is manageable. Thank you Dr. Fuller! ... Read more

Product Description
Are you worried that how you speak or write is holding you back at work? Do you fear you're making frequent conversational errors, but just aren't sure what's correct? Ever stumble when choosing between "who" and "whom," "affect" and "effect," "lay" and "lie"?If so, then When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People should be at the top of your reading list. This comprehensive, easy-to-use reference is a program designed to help you identify and correct the most common errors in written and spoken English.After a short and simple review of some basic principles, this book is organized in the most useful way possible-by error type, such as "Problem Pronouns" or "Mixing up Words that Sound the Same." You choose how to work your way through, either sequentially or in the order most relevant to you. Each unit contains tests at the end to help you reinforce what you've learned. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Okay book --- not impressive
This book contains some helpful grammar tips, but lacks of examples;When I read, it was initially attractive, but the attractiveness was fading when I read 1/3 of the content.In short, this book can be easily compressed to 1/3 of its current pages.

When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People
It was just what I was looking for.I could not remember why I speak the way I do.I needed a refresher course on the rules so that I could help my daughter and a co-worker with their grammar.This book has been a great aide!

Missing a page
Page 44 is blank.The sentence that starts on page 43 does not continue on page 45, it is just gone, along with all the other information that is supposed to be on that page.

Also, on page 32 they define adverbs incorrectly.But on page 41, in a more detailed explanation of adverbs, they define the word correctly.

Marvelous, indispensable aid for good writing
If you want a marvelous, indispensable aid for good writing, this book is it.Simple, lively examples are offered along with clear explanations free of jargon.A wonderful gift book.

Because this book has permanent value, it should be in hardcover.The book is better than Strunk.

Enjoy the guidance,
From a would-be writer who appreciates help.

... Read more

Product Description

This second edition of Finnish: An Essential Grammar has undergone profound revisions. The chapter on basic sentence structure has been rewritten and syntax has been given more space. Sections have been added on phrase types, simple clause types, and types of complex sentences. A section on discourse particles has been added. The vocabulary of the copious example sentences has been updated to give it a touch of the twenty-first century.

The section on modern colloquial Finnish has been considerably expanded. Internet addresses helpful for any learner of Finnish are provided which make is possible to automatically analyse the grammatical structure of any Finnish words and sentences.

It gives not only a systematic account of the structures of the written language, but also features the characteristics of colloquial Finnish. No prior knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader and grammatical rules are clearly explained without jargon.

Features include:

• pronunciation guide, including the tendencies in present-day colloquial Finnish
• thorough descriptions of morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure)
• clear rules and an abundance of concrete examples
• inflection tables
• subject index
• internet addresses to online software for grammatical analysis of Finnish.

This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Finnish independently and for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.

Customer Reviews (18)

Complete Finnish Grammar
Best book on Finnish I've yet to see. I purchased two other books on Finnish prior to this particular book and they were both structured for people who are new to learning languages. If you're new to learning languages, start with Spanish, certainly not Finnish. Finnish has an insanely difficult case system and since it's a member of the Finno-Ugric branch of languages, it has very few words derived from Indo-European. Thus you'll never find an English cognate unless the word was borrowed into Finnish. This book does an outstanding job of explaining how each case works, how it's inflected and goes into detail about consonant gradation. If you know linguistics and you want to learn Finnish grammer, this is the book for you!

Note: Finland is NOT part of Scandinavia. Looking at their languages should be clear enough to understand this.

Excellent Learning Resource!
This book is more than just a grammar reference; it is an excellent resource for learning Finnish. The language's many complex endings and cases are set forth with clarity and abundant examples. The book also provides a lot of vocabulary-building opportunities along the way. I'm very impressed, and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning Finnish.

This book is AMAZING!!
I bought this book a few months ago when I decided that I wanted to learn Finnish and had difficulty getting beyond the pronunciations.So, I switched to Terttu Leney's "Teach Yourself Finnish" to get into the language a little and then after a few chapters in that book, have picked Karlsson's book back up.Although I have no prior experience in the language and am teaching myself, I have gone from complete confusion to being able to write in Finnish fairly fluently in about 1 month as a result of what I have learned from this book.

As a complete beginner in the language, I would say that this book is a must have.While some of the cases, tenses, and word forms are confusing initially because they don't have any direct correlation to English, when you begin working with the language, the explanations by Karlsson make perfect sense.

I started e-mailing an acquaintance who is a Finn, and he was more than a little surprised that I was able to write that well in Finnish.His comment was: "I didn't know that you could write that well."This was confirmation to me that Karlsson's book was well worth its cost.

This book does not have any exercises in it, which was my initial frustration.So if you are a beginner like I was, you will need to purchase another resource that gives you exercises to practice with.However, once you begin learning, if you read the chapters in Karlsson's book that correspond with what you are learning, I think that you will find that his explanations are much more comprehensive. Hyva osaa.

A fantastic reference, beautifully organized, with copious examples
Well, the ground isn't exactly thick with Finnish textbooks, so I figured I'd give this one a go and see what happened.As it turns out, I was delighted - no, ecstatic - at the quality of this book.

The first couple of Finnish books I'd used were of the "teach yourself" variety.These were good for learning useful phrases - almost like a Berlitz book, but with more cartoons and some practice exercises - but were absolutely horrible for learning the nuts and bolts of the language.I learn languages in much the same way as I do logical or mathematical structures, and am lost without thorough explanations of grammar and syntax from the get-go, so I needed something better than (or at least something to go along with) these books.

This book is the one.It starts out with amazingly precise guides to pronunciation and word structure, and the first few chapters contain detailed explanations of phenomena that ABSOLUTELY NEED to be understood to make sense of word formation (i.e., consonant gradation and pre-"i" vowel changes).These first chapters immediately cleared up many of the word changes that had previously mystified me.

The rest of the chapters are just as good as the beginning ones.

What really stands out about this book, though, is the enormous wealth of examples - sometimes between ten and twenty for each grammatical point.(These examples are the main reason the book is 200-odd pages long instead of 100-odd pages.)There are so many examples that, after looking at the first few, I can cover up the Finnish text and translate the rest of them as "exercises."

Even more astoundingly, this book wasn't originally written in English.The quality of the translation is so good that this book appears to have been written äidinkieleksi in English.

If you get this book, some sort of "teach yourself" book (mostly for the conversational usage), and a bunch of flash cards for vocabulary (

Best Finnish grammar available
This book is amazing. There is a definite lack of Finnish language books available in English, and this is by far the most comprehensive grammar around. My only complaint is it could go a lot farther with more examples and more exceptions to rules listed, but with a language like Finnish, they could write volumes and still not get everything. The outline of the rules of the language is pretty complete. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

It's a grammar book , not a novel ...
... and it's written as such.

If you need some grammar then gets it. If not, then don'ts. That's all I is sayin'.

Great
This book helped me to see english as a beautiful and easy language to learn.

She teach you in the first two charter the 12 main time tenses that you find in english. It was great.

after I read this book, I really understood what I was doing.

Excellent
I love this book, I am a Spanish native speaker person, but when I got this book, my mind woke up, then I recognized that language are differents but grammar essence is the same. I believe Azar is the best actor to learn English. ... Read more

Product Description
Middle school students who need to improve their grammar skills can use this guide for 15 minutes a day to master parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and more-in only one month! The pretest, posttest, glossary, and practice exercises help students score high on their next standardized test, classroom exam, or writing project. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Matches My State Standards Almost EXACTLY!
I was thrilled when I found this book on the shelf at my local bookstore and begin paging through it. I knew after 5 minutes that I would need this book in my arsenal for the upcoming school year. Chapter by chapter, the book walks through key grammar concepts in simple, understandable, scaffolded ways. The alignment to my state standards for grammar was uncanny, and I will be using several of their provided exercises and key points in my grammar lessons throughout this year in my English class. I believe teachers from 6th through 9th or 10th grade could find this book applicable to their content. ... Read more

Product Description
Grammar Sense is a four-level grammar series for reference and practice. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on work in linguistics, language acquisition, and computer science, Adele E. Goldberg proposes that grammatical constructions play a central role in the relation between the form and meaning of simple sentences.She demonstrates that the syntactic patterns associated with simple sentences are imbued with meaning--that the constructions themselves carry meaning independently of the words in a sentence.

Goldberg provides a comprehensive account of the relation between verbs and constructions, offering ways to relate verb and constructional meaning, and to capture relations among constructions and generalizations over constructions.Prototypes, frame semantics, and metaphor are shown to play crucial roles.In addition, Goldberg presents specific analyses of several constructions, including the ditransitive and the resultative constructions, revealing systematic semantic generalizations.

Through a comparison with other current approaches to argument structure phenomena, this book narrows the gap between generative and cognitive theories of language. ... Read more

Product Description

Master American English and communicate with confidence

As an experienced student of English, you know the language can be a tricky one to learn with its complex grammar and its many "exceptions to the rule" rules.

Written by ESL guru Mark Lester--author of Grammar and Usage in the Classroom--this authoritative reference unravels these mysteries so you can take your English-language skills to the next level. You'll gain the confidence to speak English in any setting: in the workplace, at school, in social situations, and at home.

Master those troublesome subjects that baffle even native speakers of English:
articles * determiners * predicate adjective complements * post-noun modifiers * conjunctions * word order * verb tenses * modals * noun clauses

Customer Reviews (3)

yet another terrific book by Mark Lester, Ph.D.
ESL grammar is quite different from the traditional English grammar that Americans get--it uses different terminology, covers different subjects, and it is much more thorough.This becomes evident quickly when nonnative speakers ask native speakers grammar questions about determiners or phrasal verbs, for example.This book covers all the important subjects in detail, and it would be very good for intermediate/advanced ESL students as well as ESL tutors who need a quick reference guide with concise and clear explanations.The Introductions says "This book is for nonnative speakers of English who have already attained extensive fluency is classroom English. It is designed to help you move to the next level of functioning comfortably in a fully English-speaking environment . . . . The most important feature of this book is the immense amount of information about English grammar in general and about four specific areas of English grammar that are mostly likely to cause difficulties:
*Areas of unusual grammatical complexity.
*Areas of unusual irregularity.
*Areas in which native speakers routinely use special forms in conversational English.
*Areas in which both native and nonnative speakers of English often make mistakes."The book is divided into three sections: Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Sentences.Like his other books, this one reads well, the explanations are in depth and clear, and there are hundreds of sample sentences to clarify the concepts.(The tone isn't as zaney as his previous books--no example sentences about Senator Fogg or the Seven Dwarves here, sorry.)Lester packs a lot in these 340+ pages.I keep looking for the One True Grammar Book handed down from on high that covers all contingencies, but there is no such thing.But this book does a pretty good job, considering its affordable price and small size.The truth is that educators need many different weapons in their arsenals, and this is a good one.

Fantastic grammar guide even for non-ESL students
I am not an ESL student; I am an English speaking US citizen. I was looking for a grammar refresher, and could not find a decent book that went through the grammar structures I was looking for.

I started to look at ESL grammar books that helped ESL students, because I am about to take a Spanish immersion class and needed to know very specific grammar structure definitions to translate into Spanish.

For example, I needed to know the verb type infinitive, future perfect, etc, and I could not recall what those meant from my earlier years.

I couldn't find a single decent American guide out there.But the ESL guides cover them all in great detail.

If you are looking for a great grammar guide and are not even an ESL student, I highly recommend the ESL Grammar guides.This one in particular is fantastic.

I wish I could have purchased this in physical format, but I don't have the room to take it with me to Mexico.But on Kindle, I can do searches, etc, so it works out great for me.

ESL Grammar by Lester is a real gem!
The author is a Professor of Linguistics who has written several successful textbooks and has taught English grammar to both college students and teachers. He thoroughly knows the subject and has a gift for creating sample sentences that are clever, entertaining, and clearly illustrate the points he wants to make. A highly recommended book for serious students of English! ... Read more

Product Description
This book is designed to help teachers understand English grammar and explain it to their students. Each chapter focuses on a problematic area and offers exercises for students as well as teaching ideas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

clear explanation of complex grammar
After taking a few linguistics classes, I was getting somewhat tired of British authors of linguistics or advanced grammar books. Too many examples that do not apply to spoken culture in the states. However, this one is much better than the usual. It offers common sense explanations of complex English grammar, sticking to non-cultural specifics so that all the examples apply fully to either side of the pond. I am not a linguist, so the last half of this book gets hard for me to follow sometimes. In spite of that, I highly recommend this book for anyone who either finds advanced grammar hard to grasp, or those who have studied it longer and want to read some clear explanations of the underlying reasons for the established grammar of today. These concepts cannot be explained very simply, but Yule sure gives it a try while being thorough at the same time. This is a wonderful grammar book for college level grammar classes, and for future teachers.

Connects language functions to grammar
This book is great. It does a lot to bridge the gap between teaching grammar and pragmatics (or language functions).

It goes beyond the decontextualized grammar that most grammar books provide and describes howthe peculiarities and idiosyncracies ofnine difficult areas of Englishgrammar can beexplained to students. The areas include articles, tenseand aspect, modals, conditionals,prepositions and particles, indirectobjects,infinitives and gerunds, relative clauses,and direct andindirect speech. The "Teaching Ideas" section at the end of eachchapter connects grammar up with classroom activities, both the usualgrammar worksheet type of activity and the interactive-communicativetype.

It would have been nice if the book provided more ways to connectspecific types of communicative activities with specific points of grammar,but I've been able to use this book to understand how the communicativeactivities I use regularly contain implicit grammar practice.

JonFernquest ferni@loxinfo.co.th bayinnaung@hotmail.com ... Read more

Product Description
This book teaches how to present grammar lessons to their students with confidence and clarity. It introduces future teachers of English to the major elements of English grammar in a systematic fashion, using step-by-step procedures, charts, diagrams, and exercises. Includes a complete answer key to exercises. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Fast shipping...perfect condition
THe book arrived within a week of ordering it. It was in great condition and a justifiable price. Will use this seller again.

systems of english grammar
I think this boook was not quite in the condition it was described as (very good). There was more handwriting in it already than I expected from the description.

Best grammar book
This book is very detailed and offers practice sheets w/an answer key in the back.I have many grammar books.This is my favorite.

Learning a new language? Start with English.
If your are learning a new language it is a good idea to start with your native language. Understanding how English works helps one to understand the different verb changes in a foriegn language. This book is well written using every day language to explain all the technical stuff about our language. It has lots of great examples and easy to understand. If you are a teacher of English or a foriegn language or if you are a student of English or a foriegn language, this book could be very useful. As a teacher it could help you to understand what you are teaching or how to explain it to your students. As a student of grammar, this book would be a great reference.

A great resource for ESL teachers
This is a fantastic book for any ESL teacher to have on hand. I have personally been using this book since '98. Its outline and index make for easily accessible information to aid any teacher on use and rules of grammar. It also contains some short exercises (not enough to hand out to students but enough to give you teaching aids) In this book Master breaks down the building blocks of English into: Words and Groups of Words. This is a building block style that facilitates learning English from, for example, noun to noun clauses. The order is useful as phrases and clauses can tend to be tricky for the learner to grasp unless the proper foundation is laid. I have recommended this book to all my co-teacher as well as students and gladly recommend it to you as well. ... Read more

Product Description
The second edition of this worktext presents basic structures and vocabulary in a step-by-step building process. It provides various oral exercises to develop speaking and listening skills and vocabulary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Azar is better than anything else I've seen
I am using Azar's Basic English Grammar in my ESL instruction, and find it to be a solid text with plenty of useful examples and student drills andassignments.The subject matter is useful and practical, designed for themature 'teen or adult.Azar also includes many "real-world"usages that give ESL students -- and even native speakers, in many cases --lots of trouble.Rules are often presented in an arbitrary fashion,leaving clarification up to the instructor.I don't mind this, though. Azar provides the "what" and I provide the "how" and"why." ... Read more

Product Description
Word grammar is a theory of language structure and is based on the assumption that language, and indeed the whole of knowledge, is a network, and that virtually all of knowledge is learned. It combines the psychological insights of cognitive linguistics with the rigour of more formal theories. This textbook spans a broad range of topics from prototypes, activation and default inheritance to the details of syntactic, morphological and semantic structure. It introduces elementary ideas from cognitive science and uses them to explain the structure of language including a survey of English grammar. ... Read more

Product Description
Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawaiÿi is an interesting and accessible reference for anyone wanting to know more about this unique language of the Hawaiian Islands. This is the first book devoted entirely to a serious description of Pidgin origins and grammar, and the first work on Pidgin grammar that does not require knowledge of linguistics.

Many people today view Pidgin as "broken" or incorrect English. Authors Kent Sakoda, native speaker of Pidgin and instructor in the Department of Second Language Studies at UH-Mânoa, and Jeff Siegel, Director of the Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies at UH, explain that Pidgin is a distinct language with its own vocabulary and grammatical patterns. They begin with an account of the origins of Pidgin on the sugar cane plantations of Hawaiÿi, showing how it has been influenced by Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese, and other languages.They further explain that Pidgin is technically a creole language, similar to creoles in other parts of the world, such as the Caribbean. Using examples from local Pidgin literature, Sakoda and Siegel illustrate the pronunciation and writing system of Pidgin and its word classes, phrases, and sentences. The book also includes a short list of Pidgin words sure to be familiar to island residents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Hey, if you good language readah you betta buy dis one.
Hey, please listen, you guys, cuz dis review fo real. Two real akamai university guys wen seet down long time an wen broke deah brains fo write dis book, yeah? So plenny good stuffs heah. Dey real smaht in da head dese guys, long time an lotta study awready een school, so dey stay knoween ukupaila big words fo tell bout how da pidgin talkahs stay talk story wid each odda for real kine out undaneat da mango tree. An no stupid stuffs heah, dese no moke guys dat ony open da mout an' pilau stuffs fall out. No, brah (o seestah), ony da smaht kine stuffs ees good enuff fo dese teacha guys.

Me, I one linguistics guy too, an' long time ago almos small kid time I wen marry one really pretty Samoan wahine from O'ahu, La'ie side. But she no like talk pidgin now cuz in school her teachas dey stay telling her no can talk lidat, but she know I love listen an' talk an' read da kine, yeah?, so den las yeah she wen buy me one book Honolulu side, Pidgin To Da Max -- really funny kine book. Dis book, Pidgin Grammar, not fo makin' jokes an' no mo funny cahtoon pichas in heah, but choke really good stuffs heah, fo real if you da smaht kine readah. So I tellin' you fo real, if you buy 'em you no goin' tink you wen do someting stupid an' you no goin' tink you wen' buy no pilau kine book.

Hawai'ian Pidgin
This is a great book that descibes in clear, precise detail how the language is spoken. Good for haole to understand Hawai'ian Pidgin.

Pidgin to da Max
Most non-linguists will find the first two chapters and the conclusion pretty fascinating, but may want to skim the rest of the book because it goes into word classes (which are pretty interesting, actually), phrases, sentence structures and da kine.One of the most interesting sections in the book is called "The current situation." If you look around the newsstands and bookstores in the islands, you will discover that there are books and even magazines in pidgin now! In recent years, the authors explain, advocacy of pidgin has developed in Hawai`i. There is a group at the University of Hawai`i called "Da Pidgin Coup" that has written a position paper on "Pidgin and Education," which is available on the Internet. There are currently many flavors of spoken pidgin, from "heavy" to "light" and variations in between.What helps make this book interesting is that the authors stick pretty much to the "heavy" variety in their exploration of pidgin grammar, so much of the content is somewhat exotic for non-pidgin speakers. There is a good pidgin word list and references at the end of the book. ... Read more

Product Description
A PARENTS’ CHOICE AWARD—WINNING SERIES

Take afun-filled trip through TV Land with your grammar-teaching buddies,Bridget, Babette, Barnaby, Sondra, Taylor, and their feline friendBeauregard. You’ll be amazed as all of those troublesomeelements of grammar–parts of speech, parts of a sentence,agreement, and modifiers–are explained as you hang out with thecast of Friends in Central Perk, travel to Springfield to visit TheSimpsons, and conjure up the ghost of television shows past to seewhat The Brady Bunch is up to.

You’ll be able to learnquickly and have fun at the same time. Your teachers will beimpressed. Your parents will be impressed. Your friends will beimpressed. The whole WORLD will be impressed. You’ll finallyknow your grammar backwards and forwards, and you’ll never haveto worry about it again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Grammar Smart Junior
I found this to be an engaging and fun way to get grammar lessons in for my homeschooled son.He loves to read...but so many textbooks are dry and dull.This book uses contemporary and kid friendly content to make the subject matter interesting for young readers.Note that there is more than one book in the Grammar Smart Junior series, but both that I have seen are of a good quality,

Review for Grammar Smart Junior
Great book! The format is set up so that you can work straight through, or easily hop to specific grammar points. Little quizzes help you to see if you are understanding the concepts. I know this book will get a lot of use.

Wonderful Book!
I purchased this book to use as part of an 8th grade Grammar curriculum.It is wonderful!The stories and activities made learning the concepts fun.My son didn't even realize that he was doing schoolwork.An excellent choice for anyone learning grammar - or someone just brushing up on their skills.Two thumbs up!

So helpful...
Terrific book! Was so helpful. I totally recommend it for anyone having trouble learning the rules of grammar!!!

Helpful and Smart
This book is filled with useful information and helpful exercises. It helped me to understand grammar concepts my own English teacher could not explain to me. Thanks to this terrific and fun-filled book, I was able to get through 8th grade English easily. My teachers and parents have noticed a change in my papers as well as a better understanding of grammatical concepts. Anyone who is lost in the world of English grammar, should pick up this book. ... Read more