Which book should I choose for German grammar?

Asked by Beastlicker (145

) January 30th, 2011

Hey. I am in the process of learning German, and was looking to pickup a book on the grammar portion of German. I have two in mind, but am open to suggestions.

The two I am considering are Collins Easy Learning German Grammar, and Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage. If you have used either of these and would like to give some input, it would be much appreciated.

If you used a different book and would like to report what you thought of it, that would be fine too.

Thanks for the input.

Observing members: 0

Composing members: 0

4 Answers

Are you just looking to be able to read German—or do you want to be able to speak it, too? If you just want to learn to read, I would suggest Jannach and Korb’s “German for Reading Knowledge.”

answerjill (6198

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…

I would like to be able to speak and read it, which is why I am leaning more towards Hammer’s. It seems like it has much more information in it, while Collins feels more of an outline.

And I do realize that it will require far more than just one resource to learn a language.

Beastlicker (145

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…

Ditto on the Jannach and Korb. We used that in graduate school. Excellent tool for something who’s used to advanced thinking and needs to learn German fast.

jazzticity (510

)“Great Answer” (2

) Flag as…

Hi, try to learn German without learning grammar rules! The best way for learning languages is listening and reading. Grammar will confuse you. By listening and reading you’ll pick up the grammar, and will be able to use it without thinking, automatically! Very important: always learn phrases, never single words!

Asker (73

)“Great Answer” (0

) Flag as…