| Book of the Month | ||
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Practical English Usage | |
Publisher: Oxford university Press
Author: Michael Swan
605 entries
Price: £14.50
ISBN 0-19-431198-8
From time to time while working over on the Askprof forum, I refer to one of my favourite reference books, Michael Swan's Practical English Usage. Since the 1990s when this book was first published, this has been the one book that your English teacher would least like to lose (and your English teacher does have a copy - or should have!) First though, I should mention what this book is not. It is not an exercise book - there are examples by the hundred, but the book is about explaining points in English, not for practising them. Secondly, it is not something you are supposed to sit and read through from beginning to end. There are no pictures.
What you get are 605 entries on how English is used today. The entries are alphabetical beginning with 'abbreviated styles' and finishing with 'yes and no'. In between you will find fairiy complex entries, such as 'weak and strong forms' and more basic material such as 'plurals' (including special and irregular purals). Imagine a short encyclopaedia of English usage, with a description of about 300-1000 words for every part, and you have this book. One useful thing is that subjects are not listed only by their technical names - somethimes all you have to do is look up the wird that is causing you difficulty. (For example 'There', which has at least three completely different meanings: 'I told you so' 'I am giving you that' and 'in that direction'.)
To get an idea of what the contents of the book look like, you can go to the OUP website (www.oup.com) and see the sample pages in .pdf format. Each entry in the book has a number next to it, followed by a title. The English point is in bold black letters, and the examples are in italics. Like the earlier editions of the book, this one contains the 'taboo and swearwords' section, with English swearwords given a star rating (e.g. damn* gets 1 star) according to how offensive the word is.
Who is this book for? Every English teacher should have a copy, and if you are studying on your own, you will find that you can get many answers from here more quickly than you would by waiting for me to respond in the forum! For students it is useful both to look into quickly for an answer you need, or to read entries for fun. After every one or two entries, you will find yourself thinking 'Oh, I didn't know that!'
Verdict: The best book of its kind.
Assessment 10/10