McGraw-Hill's Essential ESL Grammar: A Handbook for Intermediate and Advanced ESL Students (McGraw-Hill ESL References)

ESL grammar is quite different from the traditional English grammar that Americans get--it uses different terminology, covers different subjects, and it is much more thorough. This becomes evident quickly when nonnative speakers ask native speakers grammar questions about determiners or phrasal verbs, for example, and they get blank stares in return. This book covers all the important subjects in detail, and it would be very good for intermediate/advanced ESL students as well as ESL tutors who need a quick reference guide with concise and clear explanations. The Introductions says "This book is for nonnative speakers of English who have already attained extensive fluency is classroom English. It is designed to help you move to the next level of functioning comfortably in a fully English-speaking environment . . . . The most important feature of this book is the immense amount of information about English grammar in general and about four specific areas of English grammar that are mostly likely to cause difficulties:*Areas of unusual grammatical complexity.*Areas of unusual irregularity.*Areas in which native speakers routinely use special forms in conversational English.*Areas in which both native and nonnative speakers of English often make mistakes." The book is divided into three sections: Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and Sentences. Like his other books, this one reads well, the explanations are in depth and clear, and there are hundreds of sample sentences to clarify the concepts. (The tone isn't as zany as his previous books--no example sentences about Senator Fogg or the Seven Dwarves here, sorry.) Lester packs a lot in these 340+ pages. I keep looking for the One True Grammar Book handed down from on high that covers all contingencies, but there is no such thing. But this book does a pretty good job, considering its affordable price and small size. The truth is that educators need many different weapons in their arsenals, and this is a good one.

I am not an ESL student; I am an English speaking US citizen. I was looking for a grammar refresher, and could not find a decent book that went through the grammar structures I was looking for.I started to look at ESL grammar books that helped ESL students, because I am about to take a Spanish immersion class and needed to know very specific grammar structure definitions to translate into Spanish.For example, I needed to know the verb type infinitive, future perfect, etc, and I could not recall what those meant from my earlier years.I couldn't find a single decent American guide out there. But the ESL guides cover them all in great detail.If you are looking for a great grammar guide and are not even an ESL student, I highly recommend the ESL Grammar guides. This one in particular is fantastic.I wish I could have purchased this in physical format, but I don't have the room to take it with me to Mexico. But on Kindle, I can do searches, etc, so it works out great for me.

This book helped me in understanding the possessive case in depth. I am an ESL learner and I find this book of great value. I don't need to buy anymore grammar books. The only consideration is that this book has not got exercise to check comprehension,however the detailed explanation of every topic makes me confident in learning grammar points,so I think I am alright though.

Great product

Gave it to a Mexican teenager who was trying to get a GED presented and tested in English. He thanked me and said it helped him because he was a polite young man.

Get it so fust. It was used but in good convinean.

Useful book for learning and understanding English more profoundly.

I bought this book to help me prepare to teach English abroad. I have been studying it and find that it will be an excellent resource for teaching ESL. The book is well organized and covers all aspects of English grammar.

Thanks