A GERMAN GRAMMAR

By M. C. Cowden and A. Van Eerden. Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is an elementary German book which for clearness and conciseness should prove attractive to teacher and student alike.

Each lesson is divided conveniently into five parts, a fact which makes possible assignments of any desired length. Part A presents forms; Part B, vocabulary, idioms and German exercises; Part C, drill exercise; Part D, syntax with numerous examples of the grammatical points presented in the lesson: and Part E, English exercise. The idioms are not placed in the vocabulary but at the end of it and thus opportunity is given for comment on them and for examples of their use. The treatment of the subjects of word-order, modal auxiliaries, and participles is particularly interesting. The sentences to be translated into German in each lesson deal with a single theme, a fact which adds to the interest of composition without detracting from its value as an exercise in translation. The selections for reading are in part excerpts from German authors, as in the case of a paragraph from Frau Sorge; in part they are adaptations from German authors, as in the case of a scene from Immensee; and in part they are original. There is sufficient variety in them to hold the student's interest.

In these days of over-emphasis on direct method, it is good to find a book, the chief aim of which is to give a knowledge of the fundamentals of the German language rather than a "feeling" for the language which can be developed only gradually and after years of contact with the language itself.