A Comprehensive Russian Grammar

Discussion in 'Product Reviews' started by Big_Dog, Oct 18, 2014.

  1. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, third edition, Terence Wade
    This is a 600 page book, and I've only read about 100 pages of it. I have no desire to work all the way through it systematically; I just look up things that need clarification. I believe my level is B2. So please take these things into account when you read this review.

    From my personal experience, what I've read in Amazon reviews and language websites, this it the most thorough Russian Grammar there is for English speakers. For example, there are 50 pages covering aspect, 12 pages contrasting в and на, 20 pages on verbs of motion, etc.

    I've seen several reviews criticize the coverage of verbs of motion as being "light". Compared to other items, it does seem a little light, but it's more thorough than all the other english based sources I've used. There are several books that cover verbs of motion specifically, so it might be worth it to a learner to get one of those for better coverage.

    I also saw a review saying the book lacked coverage of declination of Russian names. This appears to be true, or at least I haven't seen coverage.

    But in my opinion, the coverage of just about everything in more detail than I'll ever need is the great strength of this grammar. It's very thorough, and explanations are quite clear. The binding, print, and everything about the book's physical quality in general is very good. And finally, although I haven't used it yet, there is a 270 page workbook, with answers, for this grammar, that is highly regarded. It's expensive ($50), but I plan on getting it in my next Amazon shipment. That's how much I like this book.

    Now for the cons. The first edition was published back 1950's. Naturally, the early editions had lots of Soviet vocabulary. Fortunately, this has all been cleaned out for the new edition. But the author did something which I understand but don't like very much. He used lots of real literature as sources for his sentences. While many of these are fine, there is a lot of low frequency vocabulary, and complicated/poetic writing styles. I know that grammars have a tendency for not going easy on the learner, but I feel this one would be better if it used it's own sentences, or more modern, straight-forward language.

    The other thing about it that's really annoying is the (I assume) scholarly old British english that the author used. The author of the third edition stated that he didn't want to exclude any of the goodness found in the earlier editions, so I guess that means he was afraid to update the bizarre english that comes with the book. Unfortunate, but I admit that I can pretty much always figure out what he's saying.

    In summary, if you are a Russian learner who wants to learn the language to a high level, and you prefer to have a grammar with english explanations, then I highly recommend this book. I'll try to review the workbook at a later date.
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2014
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  2. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Nice review. I prefer older grammar materials, including updated ones, to more modern ones because usually they are more thorough. However a big thing to me now is that I would prefer to read stuff on the computer, and I don't mean an e-reader. So while I do use paper grammar books, I often just open several tabs to various sites covering a grammar point I am currently studying. Many of the them lack the detail of the more comprehensive physical books, but for getting quite a bit past the basics, I like the digital only route. I know publishers have concerns about file sharing, but I wish they would use Lock-Lizard or similar programs to offer pdf versions as well as e-reader ones, and I don't mean tied to some particular platform like Amazon or google, but rather downloadable and viewable through the rights protection program.

    Same thing as I know you are familiar with for PRC published works for Mandarin. I always hated that political junk, even though it was important to the daily lives of the people there, in that they too had to put up with it.

    I think the authors of older grammars often assumed, wrongly or not, that learners of a language were highly interested in literature as opposed to newspapers or ordinary speech. Now it's the other way around, and if anything, modern grammars might not help literary inclined students in languages that are highly inflected like Russian and where a looser word order is often found not only in spoken materials, but especially in literature. So the modern student interested in literature might do better with such older resources.

    What you find annoying others might find charming :). And really old boy you shouldn't complain in public. Stiff upper lip.
  3. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    It's a lot worse than that. I think even you would be surprised, old chap. But thanks for the smiley!
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  4. neofight78

    neofight78 Member VIP member

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    I have this book, and occasionally use it for reference. I hadn't noticed this, and with a quick flick through I didn't find anything that matches this description. Can you provided some examples? I am curious... :)
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I just checked the book again, for about 10 minutes, and only found a few minor instances. I had noticed this issue before I read any reviews; just can't seem to quickly locate anything impressive. I'll keep an eye out. But here is a quote from an amazon review:

  6. neofight78

    neofight78 Member VIP member

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    It must be a review of a different edition , as I can't find those on page 301. I wasn't aware that "shall" is a britishism, in fact I'm not convinced that it is. However, it is probably slowly falling into disuse on both sides of the Atlantic. "gallivanting around" is definitely fairly old school, but certainly my parents used this phrase. Those two sentences are a bit weird in their construction. In fact I'm pretty certain the first one is just wrong. The second one didn't make sense at first as an individual phrase as it needs to be read with a certain intonation "I'll give you..." is a bit like "I'll show you...", and is a retort. But you probably already know that.

    But as I said I couldn't find any strange language, but granted I wouldn't have noticed "shall" as being unusual in anyway. But then again I'm hardly likely to spot Britishisms ;)
  7. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Lol - good point. What edition do you have? I've got the third.
  8. neofight78

    neofight78 Member VIP member

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    I have the third edition as well.
  9. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Cool. I'll keep looking and come up with a list then. This is a good excuse to read through the whole thing ;)
  10. neofight78

    neofight78 Member VIP member

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    It's such light reading, it shouldn't take you long!
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