Murphy R. - English Grammar in Use (4th Edition)

English Grammar in Use with Answers

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

English Grammar in Use Fourth edition is an updated version of the world's best-selling grammar title. It has a fresh, appealing new design and clear layout, with revised and updated examples, but retains all the key features of clarity and accessibility that have made the book popular with millions of learners and teachers around the world. The CD-ROM contains lots of additional practice exercises to consolidate learning, ideal for self-study but also suitable for reinforcement work in the classroom. An online version and book without answers are available separately.

Product Details

ISBN-10: 052118939X
ISBN-13: 978-0521189392

Reviews

As an English teacher, I use this book as my grammar bible. This book comes in two volumes: one for beginners and one for intermediate students. Each book covers over 100 grammar points. Each point gets two pages. On one page there is an excellent explanation of the grammar point along with examples. On the facing page, lots of grammar exercises are provided.

I don't use this as my classroom text since the activities don't lend themselves to communication. However, the communicative texts I do use either have poor or non-existant grammar explanations. When students have difficult grammar questions, I often check with this book since the explanations are clear and easy to understand. If students request some practice homework, then I let them do the grammar exercises as homework. It really helps students improve their accuracy.

I definitely recommend this to English teachers and students who are studying English. It would be a great reference book, and a great self-study supplement for students. If you can only afford to buy one volume, I recommend the intermediate one because it answers some really difficult grammar questions well.

This is a well-planned book with a clear and manageable format, but if you are using it as an aid to teaching American English, be prepared to explain such differences as the numerous Britishisms in vocabulary, and why there are terms similar to "in Broad Street" as opposed to "on Broad Street," as well as other British English grammar variations. Students in the U.S. who are learning from the book without an instructor may not realize this at all and find the usage confusing.

The explanations are concise and clear. In a few cases the format can force some complex issues to be squeezed into the same allotment of two pages that is given to more readily learned topics, and I have to rely on additional books for more exercises. But the book's advantages far outweigh this.

Overall I find this an excellent book, but I long for a purely American English edition, so I can use it with fewer caveats to my students.

I have this book for intermediate students and also have the one with red cover for beginners. Initially bought this and other books to review grammar for Toefl and this was the only one I ended up using it. My friend is using the red book and that is very good for somebody who starts learning English.

I highly recommend this book for learning or reviewing English grammar. It's well organized easy to follow and understand. It covers all I was interested in to review and learn.

This is the best book for people who want to learn English as second language. For those ones who like study grammar this book is also the best one.

I always keep a copy of this and PRACTICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR within reach when I teach.
Its very good when I have to put together an impromptu grammar lesson, especially on a point that I've totally forgotten. The only catch is that (as another reviewer pointed out), the book uses British English... and sometimes as an American teacher I have to think a bit. (Usually I explain this to the student.)
Of course, if you teach E(F)L, its a good idea for the student to be aware of both British and American English, so maybe its not so bad.
The only other thing to be aware of is that each lesson consists of a page with explanations and examples, then follow up exercises... If you are teaching be sure to study the explanation page before class... you can really get yourself into trouble if you try to BS through it on the go.
(Of course, many teaching situations don't give teachers any prep time and adequate information on the class before going in the room. I've returned to EFL teaching on a part time basis to supplement my income and must admit, ideal situations that allow for adequate prep are almost as rare as my memory of a lot of the grammar points I learned in my training years ago!)
To get around this, here's what I do...
Sometimes if a student asks a question and I am not ready to answer it, I simply photo copy the chapter and say (with a pretentious all knowing look on my face) - - "I'll tell you what... take this home, read it... and your homework is to do A and B," then I make up "conversation substitution drills and dialogues" using the grammar points to reinforce the written element of the book, sometimes using SBS flash cards to prompt the forms.