"Concise" isn't the half of it.

It's valid to ask how long a grammar should be. A. T. Robertson, for instance, produced a book that is 1400 pages long -- and, for all I know, has never been read from cover to cover since the time it was printed. It's simply too long and complicated for someone to learn from.

But a grammar that is too short isn't much use either, because it's just a bunch of rules, not an explanation. English and Greek have many differences -- particularly in the way verbs work; English has no aorists, no optatives. There is no English dual number (although it was effectively dying in Greek as well). For that matter, Greek does far more with actual grammar than does English; English uses primarily word order.

So any grammar must strike a balance. And this book really is, I think, too concise. As a reference, it is good. Everything is highly organized, with outlines and bullet points all over the place. If it has what you need, you can go right to it, look it up, and you're done. But you have to know what you're looking for. If you don't, it's no help. So buy this as a supplement to a longer grammar, but don't expect to learn Greek just from this book. ( )

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