Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar (Comprehensive Grammars)

Turkish uses different sentence and work construction than English. Even with a reasonable vocabulary I have found it difficult to read a newspaper or almost any other article and understand the context. The classic book by Geoffrey Lewis on grammar was useful, but I found it irritating to have such ponderous examples, some of which I had trouble even reading the English. Everything necessary to know seemed to be there, but it was poorly organized and somehow archaic. His literal translations were particularly artificial. Do not be mislead, this book by Asli Göksel and Celia Kerslake is truly ponderous. The academic approach to grammar can be overwhelming. I jumped into the book halfway through to where I felt I needed the most help and had to stop and go back to the beginning to become familiar with the authors' approach and terminology. It is not enjoyable reading by any means. But I think the book is a necessary addition for a complete understanding of Turkish. The hundreds of examples are well chosen with a typical spoken English translation. It is seldom necessary to look up a word while reading an example. The examples are often engaging, requiring a bit of thought to see how the English and Turkish relate. Many examples also indicate the suffixes, which helps overcome a huge stumbling block because of the multiple uses many have. I would definitely recommend the book, but expect to spend many days working through it for the first time, and then again. It is not your drag along phrase book, or one you should buy a couple weeks before your vacation to Turkey.