I completely finished the book Turkish Grammar in Practice by Yusuf Buz and here is my deep dive review for it. The book is meant to be for self-study learners in the upper beginner to intermediate levels and was published in 2016.
What do you get in the book?
The book has 256 pages of lessons and 320 total pages. It’s advertised for the Europeans framework levels of A1-B1, which is quite a big range. You get full color pages that have two sections: A quick explanation of a grammar point with examples and a section of exercises for you to complete.
I really like this workbook style for self-studying, it helps to be able to practice what you learned side by side with the material. The back of the book contains an answer key as well as massive vocab list with translations.
The topics get progressively harder starting with going over the alphabet and ending with the “reported” past tense. (A unique tense in Turkish)
Instead of just strictly going over grammar topics, the book also goes over words that have multiple uses.
Who is this book for?
I think if this is your first ever exposure to Turkish this book will be too difficult. Using it as a supplement with other material is the best way to go. For example, if you’ve never heard of vowel harmony the explanations are quite short so you might get confused.
On the topic of vowel harmony specifically, it took me piecing together several different resources to understand the full picture. There are cases where “2 way” harmony rules apply and where “4 way” harmony rules apply.
This completely depends on the grammar point we’re talking about. For example, to make a word plural you use 2 way harmony.
These just need to be memorized. Certain materials make it seem as though there is some way to tell what is supposed to be what. There isn’t as far as I’ve seen.
I recommend memorizing which topics take either 2 or 4 way rules. If you have no idea what I’m talking about don’t sweat it. If this explanation confuses you though that’s a good indicator this book may be a struggle.
For an upper beginner I think this book is a perfect mix of review and intro to tougher concepts. The short nature of the explanations make the book a great reference guide for the future, even once you’ve done all the exercises.
Study Seal Score:
9/10 – Recommended.
The only reason it didn’t get a full 10 is because some of the topics were a bit rushed. Overall, a great addition to your collection if you’re beginner to intermediate and a self-study learner of Turkish.
The book is in full color, on the larger side and seems to be printed on high quality paper.
Where to get it + Cost:
I got mine from Amazon. At time of writing it is listed at $41.99 new.