But they definitively go well together. You see a few examples of case usage, then you read the theory, then after you use it again, it magically "clicks" (for me at least), and things make a lot more sense.
The 'explicit' reinforcement /'implicit' learning couple is a great way to learn I think -- you grasp it intuitively and yet if you are faced with a new or tricky example where your experience will fail you'll be able to make a principled choice by explicit reasoning ("Oh the case here is * such and such * because of * this * therefore the pronoun here must be * that one *").
http://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-German-Learni...
http://www.amazon.com/Hammers-German-Grammar-Usage-Edition/d...
But they definitively go well together. You see a few examples of case usage, then you read the theory, then after you use it again, it magically "clicks" (for me at least), and things make a lot more sense.
The 'explicit' reinforcement /'implicit' learning couple is a great way to learn I think -- you grasp it intuitively and yet if you are faced with a new or tricky example where your experience will fail you'll be able to make a principled choice by explicit reasoning ("Oh the case here is * such and such * because of * this * therefore the pronoun here must be * that one *").