Hammer's German Grammar and Usage, 4ed

This book is an excellent reference material for intermediate to advanced students of German. To be more precise, I would recommend it for those who have studied German in high school or college for a year or more. In 542 pages, it covers all the major areas of German grammar in considerable depth. Extensive examples and exceptions are provided. The organization of the book is logical and understandable, and the table of contents helps one to find what one is seeking. My main qualm is with the index. It is split into three parts: a German word index, an English word index, and a topic index. The German word index is for finding notes and examples on the use of specific German words. The English word index is for finding ways to express English concepts in German. The topic index is supposed to be much like a conventional index as you would find in any reference book. The problem is that the indices are poorly organized and not particularly useful. I almost never find myself using the word indices, as they usually don't point to particularly useful or applicable information. (A much better resource for looking up the usage of specific German words is Langenscheidts DaF Großwörterbuch, and any good English-German dictionary, such as Harper Collins College Dictionary, is quite suitable for looking up ways to express English concepts in German.) The topic index is OK, but needs more entries and more depth to be of much use. In a reference book such as this one, indices are quite important, and more attention should be paid to them here. Nonetheless, the book is well worth the list price of 29.95 USD or 41.95 CAD.

This book takes a slightly abstract approach to classifying the material -- the zero article, the valence of verbs. I found this helpful. But mostly it has a lot of clear explanations and examples of each point.Not suitable as a first book or even a first grammar book.

This isn't for beginners. It's like a Turabian or Strunk and White for German--in English. Easy to find specific parts of grammar you need help with, and also good to start from beginning and go to end. Can't recommend highly enough--wish I had this 30 years ago when I first studied German!