by Robert Mondi, Peter L. Corrigan, Hackett Publishing Company Indianapolis & Cambridge 2013, 150 pages, ISBN 978-1-62466-037-5 (cloth, $ 44.00), ISBN 978-1-62466-036-8 (paper, $ 15.00), e-book ($ 13.50).

In the past decennia English grammar has not been studied in a traditional way by the English-speaking students. The textbooks used nowadays do not pay much attention to grammatical terminology and structure. This appears to cause problems when foreign languages like German must be learnt and is certainly an important handicap for learning Latin and Greek. This book helps students studying Greek by explaining to them the various parts of English grammar and by pointing out the similarities and differences between English and Greek grammar. The book has four parts: I. Preliminaries; II. The Syntax of Nouns and Related Words; III. The Syntax of Verbs and Related Elements and IV. Some Other Grammatical Elements. In section I the ten classical parts of speech are treated and definitions of Sentences, Clauses and Phrases are given. Section II presents an overview of noun cases and explains what number and gender are. Uses and cases of nouns, adjectives, articles and pronouns also find their place in this section. In Section III students learn about Persons and Numbers, Active, Medial and Passive forms and the different Moods. They get familiar with the variety of dependent clauses and learn that sentences can be built up with them, but also by using various absolute constructions. In Section IV the authors speak about Adverbs, Particles and Conjunctions, both in English and in Greek.The book presents a complete overview of Greek and English grammar. It is a “scientific” book, the presentation of which could terrify younger students. The book certainly is useful and perhaps even for beginners, but only if they are of a certain age, e.g. for university students.  I would very much hesitate to use it in the lower classes of a grammar school, but it would certainly be of great value if used as a reference book in higher classes.