Is The Bare Essentials the Best Starter Book for Learning English Grammar?

[tgt]

What is such a book? I'm looking for easy to read book.

 

[symbolipoint]

G.E.D. materials for language Arts and Writing, and some of the supplemental materials are very good. I believe it was Contemporary publishers.

 

[snipez90]

elements of style by white and strunk

 

[D H]

What snipez90 said. Elements of Style is short and sweet.

 

[phyzmatix]

What is such a book? I'm looking for easy to read book.

When I was still teaching English, I mostly used the Cutting Edge series. These books are designed for use by English students (predominantly adults) learning English as a second language and is often used by http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/teaching-awards/celta.html teachers at English language schools.

Another series of books on par with the Cutting Edge series is Headway.

It will be up to you to determine what level of book you require.

If you struggle to decide, you can always try the British Council (Learn English in your country) or even try http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish.htm which is also a British Council initiative and totally free.

Hope that helps

 

[neu]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

 

[Moonbear]

Elements of Style is NOT a good introduction to grammar. You have to have a working understanding of grammar to use it (and personally, I thought it was a pretty useless book once I got it...it's about style, not grammar, and if you don't want to write in a boring style just like the author, it's not a useful book).

 

[Howers]

Elements of Style is NOT a good introduction to grammar. You have to have a working understanding of grammar to use it (and personally, I thought it was a pretty useless book once I got it...it's about style, not grammar, and if you don't want to write in a boring style just like the author, it's not a useful book).

Yes, you might want to avoid that book if your goal is to learn the parts of speech and their functions.

I have two titles for english grammar:

1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486216497/?tag=pfamazon01-20

good book with questions and answers.

2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805075607/?tag=pfamazon01-20

nice refrence

Both these books will get you to the high school / freshman college level, if you want to go deeper I think you'll need linguistics. I also heard good things about the Dummy one, but I'm not a fan of "dummy" books. Lastly, you might want these videos to suplement Gucker's book:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4E6B378A9B167B6F

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Elements of Style is NOT a good introduction to grammar. You have to have a working understanding of grammar to use it (and personally, I thought it was a pretty useless book once I got it...it's about style, not grammar, and if you don't want to write in a boring style just like the author, it's not a useful book).

Yes, Elements is about what supposedly makes for good writing in general and not so much about grammar.

 

[GeorginaS]

I had a great practical, in-depth book in first year university English called The Bare Essentials by Sarah Norton and Brian Green.

http://www.bareessentials.nelson.com/index.htm

It is absolutely excellent. It may be rather elementary if you're grammar skills are already pretty good, but it's a step-by-step explanation of grammar rules and application of those rules with lots and lots of practise material.

And yes, "Elements of Style" is more about style than grammar, although it does address a whole bunch of common grammatical errors that occur in writing. However, if your grammar skills aren't fairly well honed, "Elements" won't make a lick of sense to you.

I also have to argue that "Elements" doesn't teach you to be a boring writer, it teaches you to element all of the garbage and nonsense from your writing. You strip it down to bare elements and then rebuild your personal style from there. To me, the book wasn't and isn't an end-point but a beginning point. It points out all of the awful stuff that creates bad writing and has you toss it out so you can begin with a clear palate to invent lively, readable stuff.