Living German: A Grammar-Based Course

I've barely had the book but I already love it. It dives right into German text even in the pronunciation portion and that seems to be the norm for the entirety of the book. I do know enough German to read it passably and to speak it badly which is why I got this book. I can't say how it would be for a beginner to launch right into German passages if they haven't quite got the hang of things yet but I guess that's what the cd is for.I will say I ordered from the Book Depository in the UK and got the UK version of the book which has a different cover but the content and edition seem to be the same.I'll post an update to my review after I really get my teeth in it. Hopefully I'll be speaking with good grammar instead of the pidgeon German I use now.

I was looking for a book of German grammar, with a detailed description of the language, tenses, etc. This book is not that. It has a small appendix at the end with an abbreviated description of the grammar but it's mostly filled with example text. The examples will be good to use as supplementary material after I start to get a feel for German, but in terms of learning Grammar this isn't really a good book for that. Also there are really annoying issues, for example the list of pronouns just lists them in rows and columns without indicating which column is first, second, third person, etc. It's not very well put together.

The picture changed,CD is not included, you must get the audio from theTeach Yourself app,which seems to randomly quit while driving on my pixel phone...

Outstanding teaching book. Especially German grammer

As promised

an excellent language book for revising past study of German language.

It lived up to my expectations

I've enjoyed this book - the grammar lessons are thorough but not overwhelming, the vocabulary is useful, the readings are interesting. It comes with a CD which is helpful - although not every chapter has an accompanying track, which can be confusing.I would say it's the most practical book I've seen for someone wanting to either learn German, brush up on German or improve their German.Note: I may have a slightly older edition than the book here - the covers don't look the same, but the content seems to be identical.

This is a well designed text book taking the user from absolute beginner through to a high level of knowledge of German grammar in a structured, methodical and engaging manner. The stories illustrating the grammar points of each chapter are entertaining and "everyday" with most of the vocabulary needed for the chapter being found just after the story itself. There is then an explanation of the grammar points raised by the story and finally various exercises for the user to try out (with answers at the back of the book!) It isn't perfect of course. Occasionally some vocabulary not relevant to the story is presented and required vocabulary is missing, necessitating a dive to the back of the book to the vocabulary section (German to English only) where the word might still be missing. A pocket German-English/English-German dictionary will be a useful adjunct. There are also some errors in the text where it appears that newly revised wording has not been seemlessly integrated into the previous edition's text. These are, however, very minor quibbles and the book is well worth its price tag.

As a former student of German looking to restart my German study after 12 years, there was no way I wanted to go for a “hallo wie heißt du?” sort of approach. This book is thankfully not that, and jumps straight in there with sentences, grammar and understanding.However. Most of the texts are about a girl called Liesel and her dull family. It feels very “Janet and John” and quickly annoyed me.Another thing that lets it down are the errors in the text. It says things like “answers on page 320” but page 320 is completely unrelated. Also very occasional mistakes in the vocabulary - e.g. “est ist” instead of “es ist”.

Beware! The audio which is supposedly available online is impossible to access - at least it was impossible for me. Essentially if you want the audio (and without the audio recording the book in itself has very limited value, especially for beginners) you need to go to the Teach Yourself website, then you need to log in - but first you need to sign up. If you are logging in from your desktop PC you will be told you can only access the audio from your mobile phone device (!) then you try from your mobile phone and you are told you need to install an app in order to do this, then you search for the relevant app and you get a reply it's not available! In the end, exasperated like I was, you most likely give up and request a return and lament for good old days when you could buy things like this with a physical CD so you can actually use it, that means play it, listen to it and copy it if you want, etc., and not get stressed and waste your time searching and accessing the audio somewhere there in the big www.

I have been teaching with various editions of this book since the 1960's! Unlike modern books that try to impress you with glossy pictures and "relevant" topics, this book makes no apologies for being straight-forward and down-to-earth. You will follow the adventures of a "typical" German family (with the obligatory cat and dog) and, with the help of the CD, you will be able to teach yourself without getting confused. What might appear difficult grammar is introduced by means of simple vocabulary. I regret that the book announces itself on the front cover as a "grammar-based course" as this makes it sound quite dry - which it certainly isn't. If you are teaching a beginner or teaching yourself you could not choose a better text.

The description on Amazon said "CD included" but it wasn't. There is supposed to be online audio, but it doesn't work. In any case the book is horrible - old fashioned and relies on rote learning rather than the modern communicative approach. However I have to have it for a course I am teaching so I need to reorder and try to get the version with the CD.