A Review of German Grammar by Bruce Duncan
Duncan taught at Dartmouth for 46 years until his
retirement, in 2015. A Review of German
Grammar reflects this experience in ways that made me wish it had been
around when I began learning German. This was back in the early 1980s, a
pre-internet age when technological aids for the DIY student of a foreign
language were limited to recordings, oft-erratic shortwave radio and language
labs (assuming, that is, that one was nearby).
Anyway, many people –
including Mark Twain, who wrote “The
Awful German Language,” an 1880 essay appended to A Tramp Abroad – have asserted that German
is prohibitively difficult to the point of being nearly impossible to master. To
be sure, only a certain kind of DIY student will grasp German’s grammatical
concepts well enough to begin applying them accurately in speaking and writing.
That student, in addition to being genuinely engaged and diligent, will have
discovered that there are several sound reasons to make Duncan’s review an
indispensable part of the DIY German-learning process. I can think of three
such reasons in this blog entry:
1. It is well-organized and easy to navigate.
Each topic (e.g., Nominative, Subjunctive II and Compound
Words) gets its own box, and each box is located in one of six categories.
The categories are “Nouns and Pronouns”; “Verb Tenses”;
“Moods, Voices, etc.”; “Word Order”; and “Modifiers.” A category called “Other
Features” acts as a kind of catch all for such miscellany as Modal Auxiliaries,
Negations and Foreign Words.
The bottom line: Duncan breaks down what can seem like an
overwhelmingly complex subject into manageable bite-sized pieces of information.
2. It is masterful in its approach.
Duncan’s command of the review's material is exhaustive. He also knows how to teach it – which is to say that he has found a method for conveying his material and, wisely, sticks with it each time he introduces a different concept.
At the beginning of each section in the review, Duncan first defines a grammatical concept and how it works in English -- then illuminates its place in German. This compare-and-contrast approach makes German grammar easy to understand. All we really need to know, for example, is that English indicates present time in several different ways (e.g., I sing, I do sing, I am singing) while German has but one way (e.g., ich singe).
After the afore-mentioned compare-and-contrast section,
Duncan explains how a concept works most of the time, using easy-to-follow
tables and examples to illustrate his points. He then reveals variants on and
exceptions to every “rule,” again with a thoroughness that is remarkable.
Duncan’s review recognizes that once you’re in a box, you
may feel that you haven’t landed in the right place or that you’d like to
investigate a particular building-block element of a concept more fully first. There
are always links for these purposes, either in a box’s text or in several
“Related Topics,” each of which is listed in a far-left column beside each box.
3. It is fun.
Let’s face it. Grammar isn’t the sexiest topic you can study.
But in his review, Duncan has found a way to enliven it with visuals, mainly photos
of advertising copy and other descriptors that illustrate a grammatical
concept. The photos amount to an added bonus in that they give us a sense of everyday life in the German-speaking world.
One of my favorite photos is of a man in front of a chessboard; the photo’s descriptor, Erfolg ist die Summe richtiger Entscheidungen (“Success is the sum of correct decisions”), illustrates the genitive case in memorable fashion. Another, which illustrates the imperative mood, shows a sign protruding from plants. Kauf mich ("Buy me"), the sign reads.
A Review of German Grammar: Key Takeaways
Ideal User: Any student who needs more or better information than what they’re getting from other sources
Why Use It: The material is clear, thorough and masterfully conveyed. The interactive, links-filled format is user-friendly.
User Tips: Reference it from time to time. Or, make it required supplemental reading each time you come across a different grammatical concept while using an app or textbook.
Cost: Free
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