Using Russian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage | 
 enlarge | Author: Derek Offord
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $41.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 206380
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 052154761X
Dewey Decimal Number: 491.7782421
EAN: 9780521547611
ASIN: 052154761X
Publication Date: September 5, 2005
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Product Description
Using Russian is a guide to Russian usage for those who have already acquired the basics of the language and wish to extend their knowledge. Unlike conventional grammars, it gives special attention to those areas of vocabulary and grammar which cause most difficulty to English speakers, and focuses on questions of style and register which are all too often ignored. Clear, readable and easy to consult, it will prove invaluable to students seeking to improve their fluency and confidence in Russian. This second edition has been substantially revised and expanded to incorporate fresh material and up-to-date information. Many of the original chapters have been rewritten and one brand new chapter has been added, providing a clear picture of Russian usage in the 21st century.
Book Description
Using Russian is a guide to Russian usage for those who have already acquired the basics of the language and wish to extend their knowledge. Clear, readable and easy to consult, this expanded, up-to-date new edition will prove invaluable to students seeking to improve their fluency and confidence in Russian.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Wow! Very helpful! June 6, 2008
It is an amazing and helpful book. It really is a guide to using contemporary Russian. The best book I purchased in 2007. I use it often. It is one of the five important books for learning Russian. What do I list as the five book? Wade's A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, Wade's Using Russian Synonyms, Beyer's Pronounce it Perfectly in Russian, a dictionary and this book.
If you want to master Russian as a secound language, this book is a major help.
Ya sovsyem soglasen December 16, 2007
There's not a whole lot I can say about this book that hasn't already been said. I noticed, however, that most of the reviews were written before the second edition of this book was published. Rest assured that Mr. Offord has made a great book on Russian even greater.
Perhaps the most useful part of the new edition is the section on computer and Internet terminology in Russian, a lexicon that is conspicuously absent from most of my other Russian books. Thanks to the revision, this volume is now every bit the contemporary usage guide its subtitle indicates. And if you want an idea of just how authoritative the book is, the Schaum's Outline of Russian Grammar (which has earned five stars practically across the board) lists "Using Russian" as its source for the entire chapter on Russian prepositions. And the prepositions section of "Using Russian" is only a tiny fraction of its rich repository.
The only drawback to this book is that it is a bit expensive, especially for a paperback, but it will reward you with a constant return on your investment. No serious Russian student's reference library should be without it.
Excellent book. October 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've always had my command of the Russian language complimented by native speakers. Not only do they praise the refineness of my speech, but also the varying degree of registers and different applications of style of my spoken Russian. My written Russian has gotten no less compliments; it has always been compared to that of an educated Russian - well-refined, very correct and very upscale, with a nice touch of colloquialism to spice up the writing. When chatting with Russians of my age (21), I will often resort to colloquial speech. As a result, what people compliment the most about my Russian is not only my command of the language (which does get its fair share of compliments), but also its 'flexibility.'
However, this is not a review on my fluency in Russian, but what has become of my Russian after reading and studying this book.
Not only does it take your command from advanced to proficient, it also covers different aspects, styles and registers of the Russian language; something which is often ignored in other conventional Russian textbooks. I have books of the same series focusing on different languages (i.e. Using German), and none of them was as in-depth as the Using Russian textbook. It even covers aspects of the Russkiy Mat - or Russian swear words, that other, more "politically correct" textbooks are often inclined to ignore. Russian swear words are an essential part of Russian colloquial speech, whether we like to admit it or not. This book, unlike other Russian textbooks, acknowledges this issue and dedicates a small, but detailed, section about the Russian swear words. That's only a small part of it.
While it does explain the grammar at some points, this book is primarily focused, as the book title suggests, on the APPLICATION of the language, and different circumstances that require different registers. It also gives the varying dialects and different words used across different styles (from colloquial to elevated) in order for the learner to add more flexibility to his command of the language.
In sum, I cannot say anything but agree with what every other review has said about this book. It is simply awesome and truly helpful to those learning Russian.
However, I would disagree with those who say that Using Russian substitues Wade's "A Comprehensive Russian Grammar" because both books are important and both books are invaluable to the Russian language learner. The only difference is that both books have two DIFFERENT FOCUSES, where one is more concerned with the grammar and fundamentals of the language, and the other is more concerned with the actual application of the language. Both books, in essence, compliment each other.
Next best thing to learning Russian on your mother's knee March 8, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mr. Offord has done an amazing thing by developing this book. I'm not exaggerating when I say it has clarified the language and helped me speak it more than did living for months in Russia -- or maybe the combination of the two was the trick. I can't wait to see what he's added for the 2nd edition.
The book -- and the others in the series (German, French, etc) -- will appeal especially to those who enjoy learning language using a formal approach, organizing topics into e.g. registers, augmentative suffixes, homographs, modal particles, etc. Don't be afraid! It all adds wonderful clarity. His English equivalents of words and phrases with subtle meanings are very well done.
After having studied it, I still enjoy picking it up and looking through a random section. Don't hesitate to get it if you enjoy Russian and are past the basics.
The ultimate reference book of the Russian language July 14, 2005
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
As a speaker of several languages I tend to collect these sort of grammar text books. I have textbooks of Russian written in German for example - and very good they are given that for a substantial part of the German population it had been a compulsory language and a whole host of quality text were published to that end. However, in the couple of decades I have been studying languages this is still about as good a reference guide to the secret intricacies of any one language I have yet to come across, although books similar to this do exist for other languages.
All sorts of secrets are unveiled here but to give just one example I would mention the highly useful list of different forms of a person's first name - not just the usual informal but also a whole host of forms such as the hypocoristic informal - even the vocative forms appears in a table. It became clear to me why someone was calling out to catch her friend's attention saying 'Tan!' (the vocative form of the formal 'Tatiana') rather than the usual informal 'Tania'. Tania it turned out had majored at university in Slavonic languages and when I pointed out my new found discovery of a vocative case (the lost seventh case that exists in remnant form only in select instances) in Russian, even she was surprised. This is so typical of this insightful book which is crammed full of linguistic insider tips of a sort that have a grammatical basis but extend into the very heart and core of Russian culture and socio-linguistic etiquette. In short - these are all the sort of things that make learning a language so much fun and such a wonderful lifetime's adventure.
While I agree that even though a good basic grammar text with tables of cases endings, conjugations and so on will still be necessary along with a good dictionary, I nonetheless think anyone who has read this book would wholeheartedly agree that this is a textbook that you unconditionally MUST have if you are seriously considering learning Russian. I strongly recommend it even to absolute beginners in Russian as well as to the most advanced of learners. This book is a lifetime's investment for learners of Russian as a second language, so you might as well get it right at the beginning because it will serve you for a lifetime.
A classic and indispenable textbook. Don't hesitate - just buy it!
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