Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar

by Iwona Sadowska

This Comprehensive grammar is a complete reference guide to the grammar system for intermediate to advanced learners of Polish. It presents an accessible and systematic description of the language, focusing on real patterns of use in contemporary language.

Genres: Polish Literature

672 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, as the title suggests, a very ample reference grammar of Polish written in English. In terms of depth of coverage, it blows Routledge’s shorter Polish: An Essential Grammar away, making one question why anyone should buy that book when they can get the Comprehensive one. All the more so considering that only this Comprehensive grammar contains everything the student needs to pass the Polish state language exam at B1 level, while the Essential grammar stops somewhere short of that.

Some of the organizational choices here make the Comprehensive grammar not entirely ideal for quickly looking up some detail of morphology, especially in the Noun part, hence my docking a star from the rating. But as a book that I could slowly read through to absorb all the basics of Polish, I was quite satisfied.

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've put this down as read, but its not really a book one reads - it is one that is used, like a dictionary or other reference source. It is very thorough, and you can find a lot about Polish Grammar. The reason for only 3 stars is that it is actually pretty hard to use, as the way it is structured and the way the index is written can make it hard to find what you are looking for. It is an invaluable guide if you need a fairly detailed grammar reference - just prepare yourself for occasional frustrations looking things up. But I don't know any alternatives if you want this information in book format.