Master the Basics Russian

If you're looking for an introduction to Russian, with dialogues and lessons, this book is not for you. It is, however, the clearest book I've found to explain the grammatical concepts. If you're self-teaching with tapes or software programs, you will most likey come to a point where you've learned an expression or a change in word endings without fully understanding the grammar behind it, this is where to look to quickly get the explanation. It does not contain much vocabulary, or full sentences, it is made up of chapters explaining particular grammatical structures and rules, so you're not going to learn to speak using this book alone.

I agree completely with the reviewer from Oregon. I am starting to learn Russian from a cassette series (Learn in Your Car, which I also highly recommend) and this book is a very well-organized, valuable reference. In fact, it is one of the best organized special-purpose reference books I have seen anywhere. It has plenty of tables, and very clear descriptions of things like 'Why do Russian nouns have so many cases?' After teaching myself Spanish, Russian is my next goal, and it is quite a challenge. I think I would have given up by now without this book.

I bought this book as an additional reference to my class textbook. I use it constantly to review key concepts. Most language textbooks are not organized to make good reference material, but this one (inexpensive) book makes up for such a shortcoming completely. You can use Master the Basics to quickly zero in on a particular concept whether it be the parts of speech, pronouns, verbs, case declension and the concepts are presented in a very concise and straightforward manner. I especially like the well-organized charts scattered throughout as they make a clear summary with graphical-style impact that makes things easier to remember.If you intend to pursue Russian seriously at any level, then this is a must-have book, handy and gets right to the point. Do svidannya!