5 Books to Learn English

English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. There are over 1 billion English speakers. So, English language proficiency offers you opportunities for international education and employment.

Nevertheless, English can be difficult for both beginners and native or experienced speakers to grasp. There are constantly new grammatical rules to learn, which are perplexing. Furthermore, English spellings are inconsistent.

You will discover several resources on your language learning journey. These resources will come in handy whether you are an English as a Second Language student having trouble with the foundations of English grammar or a natural English speaker looking to increase your vocabulary.

Notably, some of such resources include language learning apps and sites, books, movies, etc. Nowadays, it appears that learning a language via books is a thing of the past since you can practice your English by watching movies or television. But compared to other resources, books are more detailed. Also, they often use and explain complex words. This way, you get more exposed to and learn new words.

Reading books is one of the most enjoyable and successful methods to enhance your English language abilities. Books include textbooks, manuals, short story collections, novels, etc. Such books help you increase your vocabulary and get familiar with various sentence constructions.

5 Recommended Books to Learn English

There are millions of English books to choose from. Hence, it might be difficult to know where to begin when choosing the right English books. Below, we go over the best books to learn the famous English language. Dig in!

English Vocabulary Builder (DK English for Everyone)

Using visual aids and pictures is the quickest method to learn languages, including English. With this picture-learning approach, you may utilize a variety of books. English for Everyone by DK is among the greatest series for learning English. This book is a part of DK’s best-selling English for Everyone series. Therefore, it is appropriate for English language learners of all proficiency levels and is an ideal travel or study companion.

DK English has several illustrations of numerous topics to help readers develop a solid vocabulary in English. So, it will be helpful if you are a visual learner. In addition to being a great resource for more experienced students, it is a great book for beginners.

More than 3,000 words and phrases in the book refer to everyday items, actions, and scenarios. Additionally, the book has listening and review tasks in each section of, setting it apart from other picture books. You can also use the website or mobile app to perfect your pronunciation. 

English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy

Raymond Murphy’s “English Grammar in Use” is a very popular grammar book you can use as a self-study and practice resource. It is designed for intermediate English learners (B1-B2 level) who want a useful reference for grammar. Therefore, you should consider acquiring Beginner or Advanced books depending on whether your English level is low or high.

It is simple to read this grammar book. Murphy provides several real-world examples of intermediate grammar principles together with clear explanations. In addition, to promote seamless learning, the book utilizes explanations of the topics on the left side of the page and comprehension activities on the right.

Furthermore, English Grammar by Raymond includes many practice questions and detailed answers for each, making it suitable for classroom context and as a self-study tool. You can take a test to determine which grammatical concepts are the most challenging for you at the end of the book.

However, the most effective method to learn with this book is to start with the sections that fascinate or confuse you the most.

Practice Makes Perfect: English Conversation

Practice Makes Perfect: English Conversation is a fantastic book to study if you already feel comfortable interacting with English-speaking friends, coworkers, or family members.

The book teaches learners word use, syntax, grammar, and pronunciation. It has thirteen chapters, each of which focus on a different conversational function. Each chapter starts with a sample conversation before going into vocabulary and grammatical elements crucial for the discourse being discussed. In addition, each chapter has several tasks to encourage practice and confidence since it was created with non-native English speakers in mind.

Practice Makes Perfect teaches you how to use popular expressions and idioms in scenarios, including introducing yourself and others, expressing ideas, desires and needs, and presenting a tale or repeating a discussion via example dialogues, in-depth explanations, and practice activities.

There are several English dialogues throughout this book that serve as examples of various real-world discussions. To help you grasp common use, each sentence and phrase is highlighted with exercises. Moreover, you can listen to the conversations as audio recordings on the website or free Android and iPhone applications.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

This dictionary explains the definitions of English words in a straightforward manner. It has excellent coverage and illustrations. Additionally, it includes American and British English.

The publishers also created the Oxford 3000. This format contains the most helpful and commonly used terms in English-speaking nations. The Oxford 3000 publishers claim that after learning these 3,000 words, you can comprehend 80–90% of English-language discussions, websites, newspapers, etc.

Additionally, with these 3,000 words, you can comprehend every term in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. The most recent version has 109,000 instances and 60,000 words.

You can find several unique elements only in The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, such as synonyms, antonyms, and collocations. Furthermore, you can also download the book’s app on your smartphone. The app has an oral command and pronunciation feature that lets you say the word you wish to search for. This is useful if you are unsure how to spell a word, which often happens with English words.

Ship or Sheep

Finally, “Ship and Sleep?” is a great book for people studying English at home. Reading this book, you can learn how to pronounce English words and phrases smoothly and naturally. The book’s style is similar to “English Grammar in Use.” Hence it does not use a progressive pattern. 

Instead, this manual’s emphasis on certain sounds in each section enables you to master the rules of English speech efficiently. Furthermore, the book systematically emphasizes practicing English pronunciation with various engaging tasks.

It also contains four prerecorded audio CDs to help you practice speaking and vocabulary. As a student, you can educate yourself on the 24 consonants and several vowel sounds in the English language. Sheep or Sleep also includes conversations, games, and practice tasks that you may play with an instructor, classmate, or study partner for enjoyable learning.

Conclusion

We hope that this article was useful to you in identifying the best English learning books to use on your journey to mastering the language. Learning English can be challenging. However, the books we examined can help you learn and improve your proficiency.

Nonetheless, if you want to master the English language, you must invest effort and commitment. Remember that even if you have chosen the greatest books for learning English grammar, you still need to practice other skills in order to speak English fluently. Finally, you need to find English speakers that you can converse with and practice all you have learned.