Der Treffende Ausdruck

I used this book when I was living for a year in Germany. I had got to a certain level with my German, but struggled on a number of awkward points, which looking up in a standard grammar would not help, mainly because these points tend not to be dealt with (and reading a grammar is simply too painful). But this book seemed to hit on all the things I was struggling with, but without making things tedious. Really excellent in my view. I recommended it to a colleague in a similar situation, and he agreed that it was the key book to getting somewhat beyond the intermediate stage, and certainly the best book either of us came across in our language learning efforts.

Almost as erratically ordered as the German language itself (3/10 people found this helpful)

In producing this work, the author was apparently in two (or more) minds as to what she was creating: a basic grammar, a selection of reading texts, a work book? It has elements of all of these, as the sub-title "Texte, Themen, Übungen" would indicate. Due to the mix of these various elements of study, the author clarifies in the introduction her suggestion for use to the reader: how and when to approach the texts, when to check vocabulary, how to tackle to practice exercises. The order in which the various sections are recommended to be dealt with, however, is somewhat erratic, and one wonders whether a further revision of the book wouldn't clear up this semi-confusion, by placing the components in a more suitable order, rather than clarifying this order in the preface. The result of this is that the book has an 'exam paper' feel to it, with technique and approach always a factor.

Nevertheless, Ausdruck does provide a good introdution to Intermediate-Advanced or Advanced study of German; the texts are of a suitably challenging niveau, and the grammar sections often explore relatively basic syntactic concepts through a more advanced exposition, which lends itself well to the transition from A-level to degree level study, presumably the book's modus operandi. Although it has reference elements to it, the book is far more useful as a tool for improving one's German through systematic use; it's just a shame that it's apparently almost as erratically ordered as the German language itself.

BM Turneaure

Reader Reviews:

The book itself is "treffende" for the intermediate learner (8/8 people found this helpful)

Almost as erratically ordered as the German language itself (3/10 people found this helpful)

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