Practical English Usage is a standard reference book aimed at foreign learners of English and their teachers, written by Michael Swan.
It features basic descriptions of English grammar and usage as well as highlighting various words which are often problematic for non-native speakers.
The third edition also takes into account some of the most recent changes within British English, particularly the commonisation of various American English forms (such as the use of like as a conjunction – e.g. like I do).
In his Acknowledgements for the first edition, Swan refers to the aid given him by "various standard reference books – in particular, the splendid A Grammar of Contemporary English, by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik" (Longman 1972), and in the second edition, to "the monumental A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language" (Longman 1985), by the same authors.
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