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Practice Makes Perfect German Problem Solver 1st (first) Edition by Swick, Ed published by McGraw-Hill
Excellent Book
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 8, 2020
Sometimes it feels like German is so hard that the rules aren't impossible to master, but that the rules actually change as soon as you feel you've mastered them. Maybe the American brain was just not designed to speak or write perfect German. Or maybe I'm just stupid.
Speculation aside, "German Problem Solver" is by far the best book in the "Practice Makes Perfect" series that I've encountered. And since all of the workbooks I've used thus far have ranged from the good to great, that speaks volumes about how much of a punch this comparatively slim volume packs in its pages.
The book centers its focus where it promises to: on the problem areas, or those constructions, rules, and exceptions that are especially hard on those accustomed to English. It's like whoever put this volume together read Mark Twain's famed essay, "The Awful German Language" and designed a workbook specifically to address those concepts that English speakers just can't wrap their heads around when it comes to mastering German. Things like double infinitives and the even stranger passive voice sentences (what I call the "gehabt haben worden sei nightmare") are treated in depth (but not at some ridiculous length), as are the tricky irregularities that make it feel like trying to find footing in German by looking for rules is a game of grammatical Whack-a-Mole.
That "Practice Makes Perfect" is one of the shorter volumes in the series in no way negates that it's probably the most useful. It's corrected some of my bad habits (or at least made them less glaring), and it's improved my German writing. I won't know about my speaking until I take another trip to Deutschland.
In any event, highest recommendation.
Speculation aside, "German Problem Solver" is by far the best book in the "Practice Makes Perfect" series that I've encountered. And since all of the workbooks I've used thus far have ranged from the good to great, that speaks volumes about how much of a punch this comparatively slim volume packs in its pages.
The book centers its focus where it promises to: on the problem areas, or those constructions, rules, and exceptions that are especially hard on those accustomed to English. It's like whoever put this volume together read Mark Twain's famed essay, "The Awful German Language" and designed a workbook specifically to address those concepts that English speakers just can't wrap their heads around when it comes to mastering German. Things like double infinitives and the even stranger passive voice sentences (what I call the "gehabt haben worden sei nightmare") are treated in depth (but not at some ridiculous length), as are the tricky irregularities that make it feel like trying to find footing in German by looking for rules is a game of grammatical Whack-a-Mole.
That "Practice Makes Perfect" is one of the shorter volumes in the series in no way negates that it's probably the most useful. It's corrected some of my bad habits (or at least made them less glaring), and it's improved my German writing. I won't know about my speaking until I take another trip to Deutschland.
In any event, highest recommendation.
January 12, 2021
Started in March lol. More of a slog than Infinite Jest.
The grammar is explained really really well and the exercises are unforgiving. You know you've understood the concept when you're getting it right for the genitive plural with a preposition. I wish I'd just committed to doing this rather than a formal course over zoom.
The grammar is explained really really well and the exercises are unforgiving. You know you've understood the concept when you're getting it right for the genitive plural with a preposition. I wish I'd just committed to doing this rather than a formal course over zoom.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews