(Part 2) Best grammar books according to redditors
We found 598 Reddit comments discussing the best grammar books. We ranked the 210 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Strunk & White isn't a grammar book. There's only a little grammar in it, and much of that is wrong.
I recommend Harbrace. It's a solid grammar book with lots of examples. It's well-organized so you can find the information you seek easily.
Garner's Modern English Usage is also excellent.
Looking at your post, a senior quote should be the least of your problems.
You're welcome.
How to Teach Grammar
Teaching English Grammar: What to Teach and How to Teach it
Explaining English Grammar: A guide to explaining grammar for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. (Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers)
Teaching Tenses: Ideas for Presenting and Practising Tenses in English
Grammar for English Language Teachers
Concept Questions and Time Lines
Grammar Practice Activities Paperback with CD-ROM: A Practical Guide for Teachers (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)
Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective And Drama Activities For Efl Students
Teaching and Learning Grammar
Oxford Basics: Teaching Grammar
Oxford Practice Grammar
Oxford Learner's Grammar:: Grammar Builder
Natural Grammar
Just Grammar (2 levels)
Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced Book with Answers and Audio: Self-Study Grammar Reference and Practice
Grammar and Vocabulary for First and First for Schools Book with Answers and Audio
Cambridge Grammar for IELTS
Cambridge Grammar for PET
Longman English Grammar Practice
Collins COBUILD English Grammar
A Practical English Grammar
Practical English Usage
Grammar Practice for Elementary/Pre-intermediate/Intermediate Students
If you're interested in a book there's
Artful sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte
which goes over lots of lovely usage examples.
sample pdf
amazon
The problem with "learning English grammar" to then be able to learn German grammar is twofold:
The only resources I've ever seen that deal with this problem effectively and in a (mostly) linguistically-rigorous way are the English Grammar for Students of (insert langauge) books. Highly recommended!
I found Eats Shoots & Leaves a great starting point. It's funny and easy to read. I'm on a mobile so sorry for shoddy link formatting: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1861976127?pc_redir=T1
Edit: Book title
This might help you quite a bit.
سلام! I've just started learning Farsi (literally the last week).
I'm using this workbook daily and doing the exercises (it has a CD), using this grammar book as a reference (flicking through it, it seems to be one of the better resources I've found), and doing the Pimsleur Farsi lessons (though only on lesson 3). Pimsleur is good for getting the accent and hearing pronunciations, but it's not a comprehensive catch-all resource.
I also grabbed a Lonely Planet phrasebook that shows how sentences fit together and includes a small dictionary at the back.
This online dictionary is very helpful too!
Read: Eats Shoots and leaves.
And just to add to that, Merriam-Webster has no qualms with anytime (adv.), and the American Heritage Dictionary likewise sanctions anytime (adv.) without caveats. As does Bryan Garner’s Modern English Usage (under his entry for “anytime”).
So all that is to say: I wouldn’t hesitate to use “anytime” as an adverb in any context.
I think all the answers you need are here.
Well, it's hard to really say that there are any rules in English, as we technically lack an authority to say what is right.
However, Oxford has a usage guide for both American English and British English. [In my opinion, Oxford/the OED are the closest English has to an authority].
Garner's American and British guides are also well-regarded.
I recommend the Alkitaab Arabic language program, found here: https://www.alkitaabtextbook.com/books/
You would start with Alif Baa which is the alphabet.
Learning the alphabet would definitely be the first step.
www.aratools.com is a great dictionary type website.
Okay as far as grammar goes:
English Grammar for Students of Arabic: The Study Guide for Those Learning Arabic (O&H Study Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0934034354/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KO3WAb726193P
Ah, good question. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing has been recommended to me before, and might be worth checking out! And if you're ever unsure, the answer is always a Google search away.
a book that highlights and examines great sentences: Artful Sentences
For me, I'm not even gonna break into the library because I'd be there all day. This comes to mind though: "Roaring noon."
Online resources--
Grammar Rocks and Grammar Rock videos
Using English
Grammar Quizzes
Grammar Bytes
Daily Grammar Archive
Grammar 4 U
I like the the Painless series. Check out their book on grammar. There's also The Blue Book.
'Destinos' is a tv show which is made to teach people Spanish. I think they had 52 episodes.
For grammar, this book is supposed to be good.
Garner's Modern American Usage may be of interest to you.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-English-Grammar-Rules-Exceptions-ebook/dp/B01IIU5LF2/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543517111&sr=8-2-fkmr0&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=how+to+write+with+proper+grammar
Como entendi que vocabulário não é o seu problema, algumas dicas que talvez possam ajudar:
Espero que ajude.
EDIT: última dica
Let's say you buy something from Amazon, like this book. Instead of having it delivered to your house or your office, you can choose to have it sent to one of this lockers. Then, whenever is convenient to you, you just go there and pick it up using the code provided by Amazon.
Buy a book on English grammar in your target language. This is extremely useful in figuring out how to properly translate your English into the other language. I bought Harrap's: grammaire anglaise to learn French and it really clarified how the English future tenses correspond to the French future tenses.
But this is probably what you want: English Grammar for Students of Arabic: The Study Guide for Those Learning Arabic
I have a book on English grammar for students of German. It's designed to bring you up to speed on the rules of your own language so you have a hope in hell of understanding the rules of the one you're learning.
>[...] [S]tyle books make different recommendations, some suggesting you should leave off the extra s, and others recommending that you add the apostrophe s to almost all singular words that end with s. The exceptions are words such as Moses and Bridges that end with an s that makes an "iz" sound, and classical names such as Zeus and Venus, and Jesus. Some style guides suggest that all these words should end with just an apostrophe (e.g., Moses' tablets). So our first tough issue--how to make words that end with s possessive--doesn't actually have an answer; it's a style issue and you can do it either way. Many people have written in telling me the rule they use is that if they pronounce the second s, they write it out; and if not, they leave it off. Nevertheless, I prefer to pick one style and stick with it--I leave off the final s because doing so looks cleaner and saves space.
-- From Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, which is a great podcast with a great accompanying book.
There's a book I've had teachers recommend, and now we even use it for our first years, called English Grammar for Students of German that helps you get to understand basic grammar and tenses. It's not too thick, you could get through it in a weekend or even a day if you wanted. That should help to cover (what I thought was) the hardest part of learning German in my first year. After that, it's basically learning vocab. This language is very front-loaded in terms of difficulty, getting easier as you go (where non-native English speakers have told me English is the opposite, getting harder as you learn more), so it's crucial to get the basics down before moving on.
Later on, I recommend EM Übungsgrammatik: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. This is a book mostly in German (instruction, too), but with many easy-to-study examples on Grammar. It's a little hard to say when this is appropriate, but I felt comfortable with most of it in my second year.
One issue you will likely face is that a lot of programs are moving toward being more conversational-based approach, encouraging students to speak before they've even got all the necessary tools to do so, which aids the learning and retention process over just studying books and grammar. (Coming from German programs in both backgrounds, I would agree). You might find some of your favorite US movies and shows with German language tracks (not easy to do in the US, but perhaps with foreign region DVDs you can), and study the subtitles. You could do this with German films, too, but the speaking can be a bit fast. By all means avoid anything from Austria or Switzerland, or your brain will melt.
You had me worried for a second there.
Fortunately I have a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves at my desk, and I'd rather trust Lynne Truss over such matters.
(Although in fairness plurals of numbers are not mentioned; you might have a point there)
The books Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Guide to Better Writing and Woe Is I helped me learn the parts of speech. They both break things down pretty simply and are easy to follow. Both use lots of examples, which I found helpful!
Get yourself some books, if you haven't already. The two easiest scores to improve are writing and math, because those are the ones that have concrete techniques for you to study, unlike critical reading which is more conceptual. (But you could probably boost it by studying vocab.)
I recommend PWN the SAT (I know what the name sounds like but it's really helpful) particularly for the math guide.
For writing, Erica Meltzer's ultimate guide to SAT grammar is a good choice, although it's a bit more involved than the math guide.
You should note that something as small as 10 points honestly comes down to luck. You could try again without any prep and have a decent chance at getting those points- and sadly, there is no preparation technique on earth that will allow you to score exactly 10 points higher. But hey- instead of taking the chance, you might as well prep a lot while you have the time and get your score higher by even more than 10 points. It can't hurt.
With this book. Seriously It's awesome. I have read a stack of writing craft books as tall as myself, and this is the one I always recommend for sentence level mechanics. The author spent her entire life gathering examples of good sentences. She has thousands of them, and carefully analyzes their parts, and why/how they work. (Some grammar knowledge is assumed, but it's nothing you can't Google).
prefiro o "A Practical English Grammar".
Basic English Grammar For Dummies - US (For Dummies (Language & Literature)) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119063477/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ONDRzbPDX4018
Here, invest in this first
An em dash is a fermata, a grand pause. Think about the power there—how much that can do for the cadence of your prose. I would call it the most dramatic of the marks.
Semicolons are used to set apart two very related sentences, sure, but if that’s the case, why not use a period? Any two sentences next to each other, we expect as readers, will be closely related. Two sentences separated by a semicolon are of equal weight, and the semicolon is a sort of intellectual play. The two sentences feed off one another; their meanings play off one another like two kids seesawing. My rules for determining whether to use a semicolon: It feels right (I want to, I like it, my intuition urges me to); The two sentences are really very similar in meaning and play off one another; I could, theoretically, switch the order of the sentences, even if I wouldn’t. If you can’t switch the order, you might be looking for a colon, instead.
Above I use semicolons in their other capacity, which is to set apart items of a list in which at least one of the items in the list is complex (contains a period, comma, parenthetical expression, etc).
I cannot overstate how wonderful Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte is. If you’re trying to learn to write artfully, get yourself a copy today.
I don't know of any websites, but yes, there are books on ASL grammar! This is a good place to start; it's by a non-native signer, but it's also affordable...there are some ASL grammar books out there that aren't! Here is an example of the expensive type. :)
To answer your question about active/passive hands...yes and no. It doesn't matter which you use, but it should be consistent. If you are right handed, then your right should be your "dominant hand" (DH) and your left should be your "non dominant hand" (NDH). If you're left handed, then your left is DH and right is NDH. As long as you don't switch back and forth all the time, you're fine. There are some people who switch for a few signs here and there (I have been guilty of it myself), but you're supposed to stick with one DH and one NDH. :)
Now, as for every half-turn of your wrists...actually that does kind of matter. I hope you don't mind if I explain the four components of a sign:
If any one of these are changed, you're not signing cat anymore - in fact, if you change only the movement, you sign fruit! That's called a "twisting" movement. In the case of "every half-turn of the wrists" that would be palm orientation (PO). If PO is back (behind you), left, or right, you're not signing cat. So it does matter. Obviously if someone is sick, injured, etc they might make signs differently - but the way to be understood is to perform the sign accurately. There are slight variations from person to person, just like there are various accents in spoken language - but for the most part, everybody forms a sign with those four criteria intact.
Of course, all that said...you can sign really really badly and people can figure it out. This video made the rounds among my friends a while back. The guy's signing is absolutely horrible but we all understood him. We wouldn't want to chat with him on a regular basis until he improved his skills...but we figured it out. :)
You're looking for this book, "English Grammar for Students of German."
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to start learning Persian. It'll teach you the alphabet, a fair amount of vocab and all of the grammar that you'll need. Excellent section on prepositions too.
In terms of actual books for reading Persian, however, I'm not sure. Harry potter is great if you can find it (search for هری پاتر ) but that's for when you're more at an intermediate stage. Until then I guess just try to find children's books. Good luck.
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-English-Grammar-Dummies-Literature/dp/1119063477/ref=dp_rm_img_1
"This is I" is technically correct; just because it sounds wrong doesn't mean the grammatical structure is wrong. Colloquially, we say "this is me", but you can tell it's wrong by flipping the structure around: "I am". Without going into the grammatical details, this is why you answer the phone with, "this is she/he", not "this is her/him". Also, it's why this book is called Woe is I instead of Woe is me
Ok, so
Grammars:
(The first three are all from Routledge)
Basic Persian: A Grammar and Workbook
Intermediate Persian: A Grammar and Workbook
Persian: A Comprehensive Grammar
Books:
Persian of Iran Today: Volume 1
Persian of Iran Today: Volume 2
Complete Persian (Modern Persian/Farsi)
Websites:
Easy Persian
Persian Language Online
Grammar and Resources, The University of Texas at Austin
Ali Jahanshiri’s Personal Website
YouTube channel(s):
Reza Nazari
There was another one, but I can’t seem to find it right now
Not sure where to categorize this, but Chai and Conversation has audio lessons.
In addition, Forvo has pronunciations of words.
——
Sorry for any formatting errors, I’m new to this place.
I've been using [Practice Makes Perfect Complete Spanish Grammar, 2nd Edition] (http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Perfect-Complete-Spanish-Grammar/dp/0071763430/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422290914&sr=1-4&keywords=practice+makes+perfect+spanish) It is more of a workbook than a textbook but I have found the explanations to be good for the little bit that I have used it.
["Don't Just Sign...Communicate!] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984529446/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=17NON4X8QY4C4&coliid=I2OM0S7SWCURT7) An ASL grammar book!
I have taken free PR administered PSAT/SAT tests and ~10 hrs of tutoring because of a canceled class (Due to low enrollment, Midwest though) that I had previously signed up for. For PR, there different levels of tutors, depending on experience. The rates range anywhere from 100-200ish/hr to 400 or so for the higher ranked. From my expierence, however, I found the experience to be of minimal help. Though they do force you to study the material and keep you on track. If your daughter is the type that needs to be "watched over" a tutor/class would certainly help. However, if she is the mature and determined, I would recommend you guys to forgo spending $1000+ and instead buy a couple of books, practice tests and spend 1-2 hours/day. Below are a few useful links to get started. Also, I'd HIGHLY recommend Eric Meltzer's ultimate grammar guide (did absolute wonders for me, 56 PSAT Writing-> 70 PSAT ->720 -> 800).
Erica meltzer's SAT grammar guide:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Guide-SAT-Grammar/dp/1463599889
College Confidential SAT/ACT Prep Forum:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation
PR's SAT test prep services:
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/sat-test-preparation.aspx
PS: If you decide to go down the tutoring route, look around there are often many local companies and tutors available as well. Compare prices.
These are the 2 books I recommend on the subject.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01IIU5LF2/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LXX8TAM/ref=sspa_mw_detail_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1
If you're not interested in buying them, there is a very good chance you can find them at the library.
You were blatantly wrong though. You said, "You used it as a quote completely out of context..." No. You're wrong. In fact, YOU made a strawman argument claiming the guy you disagree with was quoting the Constitution, when really he was mentioning a legal precedent as determined by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment over the years.
You really ought to try to do the teensiest bit of research (say, visiting a [Wikipedia page] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States)) before you start blathering about First Amendment law.
Furthermore, I'm not entirely sure, "but I was wrong DAYS ago" in any way innoculates you from wrongness.
Lastly, yes, I said, "I." That's the first-person nominative pronoun. Read a [book] (http://www.amazon.com/Hodges-Harbrace-Handbook-18th/dp/1111346704/ref=sr_sp-atf_image_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393949607&sr=1-1&keywords=hodges+harbrace+handbook), dude.
Are you asking whether you could learn new language with this method? Its best you follow a language learning system for that.
It worked for me with english because I grew up learning it from childhood and obsessively read nearly hundred or more novels in my teen and young adult phase.
>What did you do/what was your method?
To put it in simple words, its basically taking great writers work, and imitate their content. For example here's
from the book The scarlet pimpernel first paragraph, chapter 3:
>Feeling in every part of England certainly ran very high at this time against the French and their doings. Smugglers and legitimate traders between the French and the English coasts brought snatches of news from over the water, which made every honest Englishman's blood boil, and made him long to have “a good go” at those murderers, who had imprisoned their king and all his family, subjected the queen and the royal children to every species of indignity, and were even now loudly demanding the blood of the whole Bourbon family and of every one of its adherents.
Now rewrite this paragraph to your own liking randomly like this:
>In nearly every part of new york, the feeling of tiredness ran very high against the southerners and their army. Runaway slaves and legitimate human traffickers between the two high parts of texas bought news from over by carts and by doves, which increased the animosity of the northerners towards the slave owners and made the northerners blood boil, and some of them even wished to have "good go" at those war mongers, who had imprisoned even the little black children in dark slave rooms, subjected their parents and the northern soldiers who tried to save them with every known piece of indecency, and were even now demanding the blood of the whole confederate army and every one of its supporters.
Yeah, this doesn't make much sense if you read it too much, but as you can see, I imitated that paragraph with few things added and few things removed. This is how you learn to write effectively. The more you imitate the great writers, the more your own writing will improve.
>How did you use this for English?
The only way you could have mastery over writing is to seriously finish reading books like these and apply its concepts everyday until you get better:
This is a classic book on sentence writing and gives you tons of examples and explanations, although it can get quiet challenging to read it in first try.
This book is quite challenging read and at times very hard to comprehend, but read it one chapter at a time slowly.
Next, this book gives you a basic introduction to the field of rhetoric, which is something that writers in this sub don't usually talk very much, but its one of the biggest things you should focus on if you want to improve your writing to the advanced level from basic and intermediate level.
Finally, this book is the one you should definitely read, and this book is the one that basically inspired my initial comment.
i , too, was surprised to learn that ASL was not a signed version of english, but rather its own language all together. i bought this book from amazon and it's very good as a primer for explaining ASL: as its own language with its own grammar, idioms, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Just-Sign-Communicate-Mastering/dp/0984529446
The game can wait.
I've got something better in mind.
Side note: Eats Shoots And Leaves is a great book about punctuation.
Well thanks for the conversation.
Since we're in the business of recommending books, here's one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119063477/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ByJRCbWZATZGB
Garner's Modern English Usage.
I'd go with this
I kid, I kid... God is Not Great is fantastic.
I learned the most grammar in my life from an SAT grammar book. It goes over minuscule rules that are often ignored or not taught in school. While studying for the SAT myself, the book turned me into a (rather annoying) grammar snob.
Yes. The 4th edition (2016) changed the name to Garner's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. To reflect the broader nature of the work compared with previous editions.
Garner's Modern English Usage https://www.amazon.com/dp/0190491485/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VegWzbFS5R2VB
Do you have any tips for CR and Writing? I'm thinking of getting Erica Meltzer's grammar book for help on writing but I'm not sure which edition to get. Would this one be sufficient for the old SAT (January 23, 2016)?
I'm buying http://www.amazon.com/2nd-Ultimate-Guide-SAT-Grammar/dp/1492353299/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450764216&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=erica+meltzre
and http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Grammar-Workbook-Volume/dp/1499203411/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1MEXA95M786Z8B8RY66K for the January Exam.
I think this is the book I used: http://www.amazon.com/2nd-Edition-Ultimate-Guide-Grammar/dp/1492353299
I would recommand the BLED series, if you're looking for a French French grammar book. They're quite comprehensive, the explanations are easy to understand and there are exercises to practice. In France, they are used by a lot of students that need to know better their own language...
For instance [here]
(http://www.amazon.fr/Bled-Orthographe-Grammaire-Conjugaison-E/dp/2011689821)
or here
Woe is I
and Elements of Style
Helpful book for any language (it comes in a few), "English Grammar for Arabic Students" [http://smile.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Arabic-Learning/dp/0934034354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413822550&sr=8-1&keywords=arabic+grammar+for+english+students]
https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Perfect-Complete-Spanish-Grammar/dp/0071763430
I'm not sure if this is what you're asking. I'm using this and currently find it very helpful. If you type in the name of the book into Google, a link from the-eye.eu pops up with the complete PDF.
Oh! And two more resources specific to spanish:
Here is a list of great books on grammar and punctuation.
More books are here: ‘Grammar Books for Technical Writers’.
I get a lot of use out of the Grammar Girl:
Book
Blog
Le Bled!
Man, I remember this book from high school and my French teacher often saying in her somewhat nasal voice: "Sortez votre bled!". Madame Cousineau was it? Anyway, here's a link to Amazon France so you can read the reviews (all 5 star except for 1 that is 4 star). Funnily enough, it's available at amazon.com but not .ca.
I would imagine it it's available at many French bookstores as well.
I can recommend The Hodges Harbrace Handbook for further, future reference on just about anything relating to writing style and format. It's a handy little thing for people who are involved in authorship.
Basic English For Dummies
The game can wait.
I've got something better in mind.
FTFY
Here you go.
On the assumption that you are not trolling and actually are this poorly educated, you need to go back and review basic rules of English Grammar. If you don't have a copy of The Elements of Style, you need to pick one up and read it. I can also recommend to you the very entertaining Woe is I or Eats, Shoots & Leaves if you want to be entertained as well as better-informed.
The noun that follows "than" when it is used as for comparison is always in agreement with the noun it would have replaced if it were the only element of the sentence; moreover, "be" verbs have no object. Ergo:
> Pete may be fat, but that lady is fatter than he.
"That lady" is the subject of the sentence, ergo we use "he" for our pronoun instead of "him." But if we presume that this lady's misfortunes continue:
> After the mugger began beating on her with a shovel, Pete said, "Better that he beat up her than me."
In this case the lady is the object of the mugger's bludgeoning with a garden implement, ergo we use "her" and "me" instead of "she" or "I."
The one confusing aspect to this is that in informal English, we generally permit people to sloppily treat the end of our "be" verbs as objects, thus the joke in the title of O'Conner's wonderful book, because "Woe is I" sounds wrong, even though it is strictly correct.
One assumes a hottie educated enough to get into Stanford would know the difference and use the correct phrase.
Edit: Also, as a postscript, given that I'm currently fighting with my SO as to whether our son should be educated in our country or hers, the huge number of up-votes you are receiving is not helping my cause. All of you, stop being whiny bitches about not knowing how to speak and write properly and go learn something:
Toi c'est a ce bouquin que t'as jamais du toucher
Pour en revenir au sujet, si la réforme passe, c'est une retraite de misère que tout le monde sera sur de toucher.