Schaum's Outline of German Grammar

This book does exactly what its intended for: it provides an excellent outline of German Grammer. Included are concise explanations of German grammar followed by a slew of exercises with answers in the back of the book! This is a great companion book to any German course. Highly recommended!

I found this an outstanding book for learning German. The book is broken into "chunks"; e.g., one chapter on noun gender, another on the various cases, yet another on prepositions, etc. That helps me to stay focused on the material, and also to retain it. I highly recommend this book for the beginner...but advanced students might find it useful as a review tool.

This book is great for using outside the classroom on your own to repeat and (hopefully!) remember all those pesky little German grammar rules that are so hard to simply memorize. It is self-explanatory and starts at a fairly simple level, ramping up gradually as it progresses. I would recommend writing out the excercises in a notebook so you can redo/review excercises that give you trouble again and again.

Nothing impresses native German-speakers more than hearing a foreigner speaking their language in a technically correct manner, and this Schaum guide is the quickest way to get your grammar up to scratch. Grammar is undoubtedly the most difficult aspect of the German language, but get it down pat and suddenly everything else about the language will seem much easier. I bought Schaum whilst on exchange in Switzerland four years ago, found it to be indispensable, and still use it now almost every day. Of course mastering grammar takes a lot of rote-learning - there's no getting around 'Hans does this, Hans does that'-style repetition. But Schaum deserves praise for its sensible A4 format, and a manner which is matter-of-fact without being boring. I highly recommended it for exchange students and others working in German-speaking countries: for me it meant the difference between being a somewhat hesitant tourist and being a well-integrated, confident traveller.