excellent product. great definitions including genders and conjugations
933810
excellent product. great definitions including genders and conjugations; very easy to use menu, intuitive. would be a 10 star if buttons and screen were a tad larger. i would pay a few extra bucks for that.
1126021
I am teaching myself Portuguese, and this book has helped immensely! I started using it when I was at a lower intermediate level. Some basic knowledge of Portuguese grammar and construction is needed to use this book (I completed&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Complete-Portuguese-The-Basics-Book-and-CD-Set/dp/140002420X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Complete Portuguese: The Basics (Book and CD Set)</a>&nbsp;before I bought this grammar).

I really love this book for a couple reasons:

-Part A (traditional grammar layout) is concise and thorough.
-Part B (topics more centered around communication) is GREAT for learning some new expressions and vocabulary!
-There are notes next to any constructions/expressions/words that are colloquial and bookish/academic.
-The chapters on verb tenses and aspect are very thorough and helpful. They even give insight to the differences between the spoken and written language (For example, in chapter 18.3.5: "The imperfect tense is very frequently used, especially in the spoken language, to replace the conditional tense.").
-Chapter 19 has lists of verbs organized by which prepositions they take when followed by an infinitive.
-The layout of the book is very straightforward, clean, and user-friendly! There is enough space between each section to make notes if needed, too.

All in all, I am THRILLED with this grammar. It's by far the best resource for Portuguese on my shelf! I have just purchased&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Modern-French-Grammar-A-Practical-Guide/dp/0415331625/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Modern French Grammar: A Practical Guide</a>&nbsp;(it looks just as promising!), and intend to buy other Routledge Modern Grammars for any languages I learn in the future. Really great series!
179386
This book is excellent.  I purchased it to get a refresher on grammar before starting to study Biblical Greek.  I wanted to make sure I had all my terms straight and knew what all the different grammatical constructions were.  This book was perfect!  It's short, and doesn't go into a ton of elaborate detail, but it is very thorough and covers just about every part of speech.  The exercises are great for seeing if you  have refreshed adequately or if you need to go over it again.

My wife tutors some children in several subjects including grammar, and just tonight, while correcting homework, she asked me what the difference between a verb phrase and a compound verb is.  Out came Gucker! and I had my answer in no time.  In fact, I think I've lost all rights to the book now, or at least until she's done tutoring that particular class.

It will get you up to speed on your grammar, and it is a very handy reference book with a complete index in the back for searching out particular terms.  Highly recommended.
1139781
This is an excellent dictionary for someone setting out to study Spanish on his/her own. Small enough to carry in one hand, but with very readable type, it is both comprehensive and user-friendly.

Each entry is highlighted in blue, with relevant grammatical information, such as gender, or how to conjugate, or the meaning of the reflexive form. The definitions are succinct and to the point. What I have found most helpful is the inclusion, under many of the main headings, of idiomatic phrases in which the word is commonly used, and which would not have been obvious to a novice like myself.

The dictionary is not perfect. I haven't found every word I wanted to look up, but hey--for most situations, it's more than adequate. I would have liked to see some of the word origins, but then, it would no longer have been a little dictionary. All in all, I can recommend this highly to any student of Spanish. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
4756092
I bought this product right after taking an intensive Greek course over the summer, and I am finding it a fantastic way to keep up the language.  With the words that appear less than 30 times in the NT footnoted on the bottom, I'm able to spend my time parcing the Greek rather than flipping through a dictionary.  Occasionally I have to check the lexicon in the back, but not as often as I would have expected for a beginning Greek student, and I'm sure I will do that less and less as I learn the language.  This is fabulous: a much more constructive way to study Greek than a parallel version or an interlinear translation, and nevertheless undaunting for a beginning student.
2968329
If you are looking for more that just synonyms and compound words, if you want to expose your students to a wide range of words from every subject area, this is an excellent book. Only negative thing is the table of contents: "Unit 1, Week 3" does not help me find what I am looking for.
4698795
This book is a great resource for students and native speakers alike. I have studied Quechua both in the United States and Peru for several years. Ive worked with many dictionaries, but this one is by far the most comprehensive and easy to use. Different regions have different ways of spelling words, so thats important to keep in mind when looking up definitions. This book is from a primarily Cusco perspective for example. I also enjoy that the entries include variations of words (such as puuy, to sleep, may also have puushay which means to be sleeping, and other variations). This is a really useful feature to start recognizing the different suffixes. I would highly recommend utilizing this dictionary.
1345321
I use this text to compliment the main textbook for an undergraduate course in gender and communication.  Students love this book because the articles are quick and interesting reads.  I love the book because it introduces feminist arguments in an accessible format.  The layout of the chapters is great and easy to connect to a standard gender text.  This text produces excellent class discussions and keeps students discussing material once the class is over.  Also, the price makes this an affordable supplemental text.

BITCHfest is fun and provides a broad range of articles on topics that are relevant to wide range of readers of all ages and life experiences.
1457010
I really enjoyed working through this Greek grammar.  Perhaps what sets it apart from other approaches I've seen is that it drives the student almost immediately into the text.  The unit-by-unit vocabulary revolves around the passage in question, and not so much the usual approach of most grammars, namely to focus on vocabulary that occurs most frequently in the entirety of the New Testament.  The drawback with this approach is that sometimes students are interacting with concepts that they haven't learned yet within the text (e.g., an infinitive in exercise 10 on page 182).  But this can also be a boon because students are already somewhat aware of these concepts when they learn about them in more detail later in their studies.  The only real negative that I have found with the work is that it is in definite need of an editorial revision.  Here are a list of errors I've found:

147- "present active participle" should be "aorist active participle"
168 - "ton thelema" in exercise 5 should be "to thelema"
174 - "ou estin" in exercise 4 should be "ouk estin"
187 - misleading definition of "prin"
205 - exercise numbers 4&22, 9&15, 13&25 are all the same.
230 - "agape" is missing the smooth breathing mark
243 - "patros" in exercise 12 should be "pater"
245 - "tithesi" as the PAI-3S is missing the movable nu

I'm certain that there are probably a few more that could be found by better Greek students than myself.  But overall, these errors are minimal.  I would still recommend this work for anyone who wants a basic familiarity with the Greek text of the New Testament.
1436565
This is an excellent resource for anybody interested in stylistics, linguistics or anybody actively involved in studying or practicing creative writing.  Laid out in alphabetical order, it gives etemology,  the various definitions of each term and examples of usage.  Great to dip in and out of and good for sourcing quotes and researching key words for essays,  the only real drawback is the sometimes confusing use of terminology in the definitions.  For example, I pick up "A Dictionary of Stylistics" to look up a keyword or term and find another three keywords I'm not familiar with in the definition, and so I look up *those* key words and find for each of those terms *another* three that I don't know etc. etc.  Once I get started I generally find myself looking up so many different keywords that I end up getting totally side-tracked.  The more of it you read however, the more it makes sense, so I suppose it's a learning curve. I like it, a lot, and I've ordered a copy.
1809068
I am very happy with the Franklin SCD-1870 Speaking 11th Collegiate Dictionary.  The audio is very clear and so far every word I've looked up has been available.  The definitions are extensive.  I recommend this as a excellent tool.  I haven't had time to explore the games, but my 26 year old daughter (an english major) has and she has enjoyed it.
4780573
My fiancee is Filipina and I have been learning Tagalog.  She always gets a good laugh whenever I try to formulate a sentence by looking up words (I'll always end up putting something in the wrong order or using some word that isn't exactly appropriate for the context).  This dictionary has been very helpful in learning new words.  Occasionally, however, there will be a definition that needs a little more than what is given.  The best example I can think of is the word "syota".  The dictionary defines it as "boyfriend / girlfriend".  When I lovingly referred to my fiancee one day as "aking magandang syota" ("my beautiful girlfriend"), she asked me what I meant by the word "syota".  When I explained, she told me that "syota" is a colloquial term that derives from the word for "short" and typically means a short-term boyfriend / girlfriend.

Overall, this is a very good dictionary with a lot of great information.  It won't teach you everything, but you will typically learn the most of a language by practice and studying.  This is a very handy reference supplement.
1549239
This book is more suited for Biblical Hebrew, as the copyright date is 1970.  It has recently been superceded by 501 Hebrew verbs.  However, it's still fully functional, listing the 3 persons verb tables in their 6 available tenses, as well as the 7 patterns of Hebrew verb root changes. Neither the 3 persons singular or plural are labled with subject headings, and it assumes previous user experience, unlike the 501.  This will be confusing for the beginner (including me!), but they seem to be listed orderly.  In the beginning is a detailed introduction to the Hebrew verb system given by the author.  The verb indexes in the back are helpful as well as exhaustive.

The previous reviewer suggests buying the 501, but I caution this.  It is crammed full of info, and is a very hefty book at over 900 pages, this being held together by a mere softcover.  That's why I bought the 201.  It has a softcover too, but only 425 pages.  So each side has their advantages and disadvantages!
2891501
The Sharp PW-E550 electronic dictionary exceeded all of my expectations.  It is very convenient with a clean and simple interface.  This is a very well designed device.  I am not likely to use a dictionary in book form again as long as the PW-E550 is nearby.  I use it often as I read non-fiction books (philosophy, science, religion).  I was skeptical that many of the words of interest would be found in this small dictionary, but I have not been disappointed while searching for a word using the PW-E550.  Even my kids (ages 10 and 13) are using it easily to their homework.  This is a wonderful product.  I highly recommend it.
4387658
I bought this book in paperback years ago and it is the best synonym finder I've ever found. Any word I'm trying to think of and just can't bring up, I can find it in this. The only drawback is its bulk: At 9 inches high and 2 and 1/2 inches thick (that may not sound big, but hold it in your hand and it is), it is bulkier than a lot of desktop dictionaries and too big to drag around in a work bag or crowded daypack. It needs to be available in eBook form. More and more I've been shifting to that for bulky reference works of any kind: It lets me carry a library in my shirt pocket on the smartphone. And now that I've done that for a while, I just don't want to carry paper cinder blocks around anymore.
3480995
Mr. Offord has done an amazing thing by developing this book.  I'm not exaggerating when I say it has clarified the language and helped me speak it more than did living for months in Russia -- or maybe the combination of the two was the trick.  I can't wait to see what he's added for the 2nd edition.

The book -- and the others in the series (German, French, etc) --  will appeal especially to those who enjoy learning language using a formal approach, organizing topics into e.g. registers, augmentative suffixes, homographs, modal particles, etc.  Don't be afraid!  It all adds wonderful clarity.  His English equivalents of words and phrases with  subtle meanings are very well done.

After having studied it, I still enjoy picking it up and looking through a random section.  Don't hesitate to get it if you enjoy Russian and are past the basics.
3489071
designed for the beginner and useful to the advanced speaker on either side of the language. It is concise, gives the varying meanings when applicable and their direct and sub-textual understanding, word for word, as well as giving a phonetic aide for pronunciation. Excellent!