English Grammar to Ace New Testament Greek

This is a very useful tool for one preparing to learn Koine Greek, which provides a refresher for one unfamiliar or weak in basic English grammar. There is a fair amount of humor, as well as exercises which make the book engaging.

I read this the summer after my first year Greek grammar course, and I wasn't reading it because I really needed/wanted the help. I was evaluating it to see if it'd be a resource I'd recommend to some of my classmates that were struggling, and I was impressed. Lamerson is clear, concise, and his examples are very illuminating. If I were an instructor, I'd consider making this required reading (even though Mounce's BBG has sections on English grammar too), or at least recommend it for students struggling with grammatical concepts.

I bought the book for Hebrew first and was so impressed that I got this one too. These are both helpful in the study of the Hebrew and Greek languages.

The short and sweat: if you do not really know basic English grammatical terms--adjective, adverb, infinitive, direct/indirect object, etc.--and what they mean in English, than this book can help you out. If you do know them, then unless you have to buy this book for class, it won't really help you.The premise of Lamerson's book is that in order to effectively learn the grammar of Greek you need to have some idea of the grammar of your own language, in this case, English. Since learning to read Koine is learning to read a dead language you can't really go about learning it by immersion into a culture of native speakers. At some point you need to interact with grammatical concepts, which is the main function of Greek grammars (along with expanding your likely non-existent Greek vocabulary and introducing the basics of Greek morphology). The issue occurs, as I can testify through watching others, when you read through a Greek grammar but have know idea what the grammatical concepts, such as a direct object, actually correspond to in English.Lamerson's goal is to give a quick refresher on English grammar so that the student of Greek can have some mental 'hooks' on which to hang Greek grammatical concepts, to aid the learner in the beginning stages. This will really prove helpful at the beginning of learning the language as the reader is first beginning to slog through the cases and verbal system. It is much more difficult for the beginning learner to understand the basic function of the Greek accusative case if they do not know what a direct object is in English (a fact compounded by the way that Greek is syntactically 'loose' compared to English--in English, the direct object almost always comes after the verb, while in Greek it can come on either side, and frequently comes before the verb).With that being said, I feel that this book has a rather narrow target audience that will actually profit from it--those who don't know grammatical terms. If you know basic grammar concepts, it really isn't going to do anything for you. There are some grammatical concepts, like the participle, where knowing the English counterpart will not really help you much at all with learning the Greek, and it may even be profitable to now know the English version.To reiterate, if you don't remember much grammar from your middle school years, then this book could be just the basic refresher for you. If you are at all competent in very basic English grammar, then it will be a waste of time and money.

In order to understand better another language you would be better off with a good handle on English first. :)

Good workbook

Would rate more stars if the deadlinks were replaced and the references updated.

great seller and great book

I cannot recommend ANY book that does not provide an answer key to the exercises, (even one sold separately or via an internet link.)

A terrific little refresher volume for the NT Greek student! You need to know your English Grammar, so you can make the connections with the Greek grammar you are learning. I also really enjoyed the devotional aspects, the excellent use of humour and the pop culture references. All added to the contextualizing of the material. A great and worthwhile investment to help you as you go along.

Simple, easy to read and a great refresher of grammar as you tackle learning Greek.

Just started New Testament Greek and I swithered if I should buy this after less than positive reviews on Amazon.co.uk; interestingly, much more positive reviews on Amazon.com.I'm with the yanks on this - its great! last studied English Grammar over 40 years ago its a tad rusty. Seems really important sort English Grammar in order to take on Greek.Find this wee book (110 pp) clear, informative, amusing, with many helpful diagrams and exercises which compliment the standard Grammars ( I'm using Mounce)e.g. 'Trouble understanding, Yoda, you have, Yes? The Nature of inflected languages' - for a non linguist - a brilliant explanation.

I want to like this book more than I do. It is well written, fun, and I think succeeds in what it sets itself out to do - introduce (or reintroduce) someone whose English grammar is sub-par, to the grammar they ought to know prior to learning biblical Greek. The reason I want to like the book more than I do, is because the book would benefit greatly by either dropping the quizzes at the end of each chapter, or alternately, supplying an answer key to the same quizzes. Without the answers to these quizzes - and they get pretty tricky - it is impossible for the student who is new to these concepts, to be sure that he or she understands them, so why include them? I'd have given this five stars if it wasn't for this -painful- oversight.