Product Description

The world's most trusted guide to problems in English - now in a new edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1457 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Customer Reviews

Totally indispensable for TEFL teachers
In my time as a TEFL teacher this book came in useful on numerous occassions. TEFL textbooks have notoriously shoddy guides to grammar, which are often detrimental rather than helpful for student and teacher. Swan doesn't have any practice exercises, but everything is laid out plain and simple, from the most straighforward grammar points to the complexities of cleft sentences.
As a teacher, especially in my first year, I would have sunk without a trace if it hadn't been for this book. You simply cannot do without it as a TEFL teacher, or as a serious English language student. There's not much more to say about it than that!

Big, fat and useless
This is regarded as a classic text, but in the eight years that I have owned it I can't say that I have ever found the answer to a single grammar or usage problem in this book. During a stint in Japan as an ELT teacher I did use the section on taboo words as the basis for an Upper Intermediate/Advanced lesson, but this can hardly be said to justify the cover price - or the weight and space it took up in my suitcase!

Handy guide to refer to
I've found this book very useful and easy to use for grammatical queries. You know how it is when you're not just quite sure about something, e.g. hypen usage - well this book is great to have at hand.