Essential Chinese Grammar

As a professor of Chinese language with 25 years of teaching experience in leading universities in the U.S. as well as China, I’m delighted to see this comprehensive and unique new addition to the repertoire of Chinese grammar books currently available. This book is a perfect study guide for students whose Chinese ability is at the intermediate level and above. All essential Chinese grammar points are systematically explained, together with potential pitfalls and preventive strategies. Ample example sentences make grammar points clear, and well-designed exercises help learners retain grammatical knowledge and enhance usage. Even for students at the beginning level, the grammatical explanations in English are helpful, but they may need to wait until they advance to a higher level before they can benefit from the example sentences. Finally, for Chinese language instructors, this book serves as a practical and valuable reference for how to teach Chinese grammar to English-speaking students. The two authors are obviously seasoned professionals in the field of Chinese language education, demonstrating not only linguistic expertise, but also cultural and political awareness. As someone who has lived and worked in the U.S. and China, I find the content up-to-date, culturally sophisticated, and not biased in any sense. Highly recommend this great grammar book to students and instructors of Chinese language!

This book contains much needed information about Mandarin that should be useful to any serious student of the language. The minute I saw the title, read the description and saw that it was published by Tuttle and the author's names, I knew I had to have it. It is now a cherished possession in my Chinese language collection. Thank you, Amazon for helping to make it availaabe.

As a Chinese language instructor at a college in the U.S., I've purchased more than enough grammar books in the past decade, and I often consult them when design my lesson plans and this is one of the grammar books that I use almost on a daily basis. This is an extremely practical book that covers grammar and usage from basic to advanced and I am very grateful for the care the authors took in providing examples that would be accessible for less-than-advanced students. Small, concise and practical. This book is a great supplement to a normal textbook, and for anyone who wants to study Chinese, this is one of the books you will be glad to buy because you will reference it time and again.

A decent book on grammar, unfortunately the authors are too often harping on how Chinese is a better language than English, and expressing hostility towards the U.S. I guess they gave up on being the "language of love", and, making a virtue of necessity, are going for "most logical and efficient". I would expect the Vulcan language already won the "most logical" category, but who knows... Sprinkled throughout the text are statements expressing hostility and ignorance-based criticism towards the U.S., sometimes only written in Mandarin without translation. The editors should have done a better job keeping the book focused on teaching. In summary, the content is useful but be aware that you will be subjected to the authors' smug, culturally-superior attitude from time to time.

I would have loved to have this book as a beginning learner years ago! I bought this book as a refresher, so I've studied Chinese in the classroom setting before. Usually in Chinese classrooms you memorize sentence patterns as a way to internalize the grammar. This book explains how the grammar works _AND_ pairs it with many examples. It also includes MP3 recordings. Very helpful for learners at all levels!

This is the perfect, user-friendly guide to Mandarin grammar. Particularly if you have stalled with your Chinese, and things (around early-intermediate level) just don't seem to be going in, this is exactly what you have been waiting for. Basically, the book totally answers the brief stated in its introduction (click "look inside" to read it), helping you to get past the roadblocks that occur because modern language teaching eschews formal instruction and grammar lessons. The basic structure is not a comprehensive reference, but a guide in chapters to the things that you probably haven't picked up from any other source, such as the frightfully deficient (but mostly ok) HSK series. Each chapter has a basic topic, such as "Common pitfalls in basic vocabulary usage" or "Conceptualising time using 'le' ", then it walks you through this like a skilful teacher, and gives you some questions and answers. These are around early intermediate level, with a roughly HSK 4 vocabulary. They are quite challenging, but also instructive, so you will want to go back to this book frequently. If you are below HSK 3 level (only an elementary student) you will find this less useful. Then, you will want to have it, but only to dip into. For others, it will become a vital work.

I love this book - it targets the exact questions I had about the Chinese language grammar, that I did not see addressed in basic textbooks. For example differences between some similar words, varied use of "ne" and "ba", and much much more. Very useful, with good succinct explanations, several examples and exercises. A must for any Chinese language student above the beginner level.

The word “essential” in the title of this book describes this book to a T! I have been wishing for a practical Chinese grammar handbook ever since I became a college Chinese language instructor, and finally here it is! While the book covers Chinese grammar comprehensively, it focuses on grammatical points that are problematical to English-speakers. The clear and well-targeted explanations are further reinforced with lively culturally-appropriate examples. Front-line Chinese language teachers as well as students with basic Chinese under their belt – once they dip into this reference – will find it indispensable.

This is a must-have book for all students learning Mandarin Chinese. It's clear, concise and well-illustrated with logical examples throughout.

In my opinion this book is not good for beginners because it skips the basic things and it doesn’t explain the vocabulary used for the example. It is way too hard and the exercise are just not possible if you don’t know the basics

A solid book, jam-packed with pointers on the things most lower-intermediate students repeatedly get wrong. Too much exposure to the communicative learning approach leaves your grammar deficient. This is aimed at exactly those people. Grammar arranged logically in chapters, so you can study one general feature, but it is not a comprehensive grammar primer. Example: a lengthy chapter on how to express time in Chinese, and the difference between time how long, and time when. Has lots of exercises with full answers (all questions are of the sort, translate this into Chinese) No vocabulary lists, not a textbook, just a solid grammar book that in some ways resembles a textbook. If I had had this earlier, like a couple of years earlier, I might have progressed faster.

I like the interesting, detailed and clear way this book covers important grammatical points. Beats the hundred-odd Chinese grammar books I’ve used before.

He gustado de la estruturación y presentation de los contenidos.