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Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar (Modern Grammars) | 
| Author: Claudia Ross
Publisher: Routledge
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $35.95
You Save: $4.00 (10%)
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 113818
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 396
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0415700108
Dewey Decimal Number: 495.182421
EAN: 9780415700108
Publication Date: August 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
A brand new title for the Modern Grammars series to add to the existing European Languages and to the forthcoming Japanese title. The grammar will present Chinese as spoken in the People's Republic of China (specifically, that spoken around Beijing) and give all examples in simplified characters, traditional characters, romanization (pinyin) and in translation. It will follow the series structure (two parts - one for grammar structures, one for functions), with an accompanying workbook. Linguistic jargon will be kept to a minimum throughout. We will also be creating an accompanying homepage for the workbook with additional exercises (and a reporting system enabling students to send their results to their tutors); this we hope will go further to enhance the performance of the workbook.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Excellent Two Part Intermediate Book That Beginners Can Benefit From May 23, 2007
39 out of 39 found this review helpful
There is a recent influx of excellent materials on learning Mandarin Chinese, both conversational and written. This includes audio books and written materials, as well as excellent multimedia works. Computerized instruction is becoming more prominent. One just beginning this subject a number of years ago may have had difficulty finding sufficient instruction on the subject, now that situation may be reversing to where one must instead select from a far larger pool, the most appropriate materials for individual focus.
In most if not all cases, this book is a welcome, perhaps even essential, addition to those instructional materials. The authors are clearly passionate on this subject, and have created a work that is organized, and which spans a wide array of topics expertly. Arguably most beneficial for and targeted to intermediates in the language, this book will also be beneficial for one having only recently started Mandarin Chinese as well.
The first part of this book is 17 chapters in length, and overviews the ubiquitous Pinyin romanization, followed by lessons in the important similarities and differences in word order for typical sentences in Mandarin, in comparison to English. There are a surprising number of similarities, along with significant and noteworthy differences. After this, various parts of speech are detailed, specifically adjectives and adverbs, prepositions, and numerous forms of nouns and verbs. The reason for omitting other parts of speech becomes evident. There is also included in this first part a large chapter on numbers, one that goes into far more detail and explanation of different usages than most books do.
The second part of the book, the 43 remaining chapters of the 60 total in this book, provides a plethora of scenarios and common situations. This includes greetings and introductions, name usage, modern communication including internet and telecommunication, speaking in different tenses, questions and negation, discussing time, transportation and travel phrases, cause and effect and conditionals, guest and host scenarios and etiquette, expressing concerns desires and needs, requesting permission, and invitations regrets apologies and wishing others well, among other topics.
Every one of the nearly 400 pages is filled with practical sentences used in daily discourse, along with new vocabulary, pinyin as well as Mandarin characters, and well thought out explanations of and elaborations upon the examples provided. Common error avoidance and helpful hints for a typical English speaker are provided throughout.
There is a separate workbook available, associated with this one, that quizzes understanding of each of the chapters. Additionally, there are two books published earlier by Schaum's, one by one of the authors (Claudia Ross). Perusing the table of contents of both, it appears that this work is a confluence of the best of both of those earlier texts, and can be considered a new edition of that earlier grammar book.
The look and feel of this book is excellent. The typefaces used and occasional diagrams provided are elegantly done and are a pleasure to read. The paperback edition has a solid and sturdy feel to it, and the thick paper used gives the impression this is meant to be used as a long term reference work. Each chapter is clearly separated by page as well as visually, and is further subdivided and organized into smaller subsections, also made visually prominent within the chapter.
A very highly recommended work, focusing primarily upon intermediate level subject matter, yet presented in such a way that beginners can get an admirable jumpstart from it as well. The grammar rules of the language, along with sentence level word positioning in Mandarin, are presented in meticulous detail. This can easily supplement any of the typical beginning audio/visual or written instructional materials available on speaking conversational Mandarin Chinese.
I love this book November 3, 2006
35 out of 35 found this review helpful
I have used most of the Chinese grammars out there. This is far and away the best. The entire series is outstanding. Why? Because it's totally practical without getting stuck in grammatical obscurities. It reflects the actual, contemporary use of the language as it is used by ordinary, educated speakers.
The first half of the book reviews all aspects of the grammar in a user-friendly way. The second half of the volume deals with how to express anything you could wish to say in contemporary Chinese using the patterns of the language as would a native speaker.
I am currently designing a course to teach English language speakers how to speak Mandarin. This book has been one of my most valuable resources.
A MUST HAVE FOR LEARNERS OF CHINESE......... November 2, 2007
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
As a American student of Chinese living in Beijing, China I would have to say that this book is absolutely and wonderfully amazing in content, depth and most of all in it's ability to be CLEAR AND UNDERSTANDABLE. Most of the books produced here that I have seen that are for foreigners learning Chinese are unfortunately in my opinion produced by people who are educators and NOT learners of the Chinese language. I say this because most books apparently assume that the learner knows things that they do, BUT THEY USUALLY DO NOT. I say this because as a teacher of English as well, it is apparent that I am guilty of this as well and often over look very very basic grammatical points in my teachings because I "assume" the student will know certain things.
As a student of Chinese I have been constantly frustrated by textbooks supposedly produced for Chinese learning which always do not include basic information and grammatical points making it difficult if not impossible to learn the language. More importantly many of these books do not include English in it's explanations of the grammar increasing the difficulty of learning the language. This book allows novice students such as myself the ability to find the necessary information they need quickly, simply, and clearly without getting lost. It is also a book I can see using for a very long time during more advanced studies of the language.
In studying Chinese I have yet to find a book solely devoted to understanding the basic grammar structure of Chinese. The few ones that I have found are often written ironically in Chinese which makes it doubly difficult to understand the structure of the Chinese language by someone who has no knowledge of the language.
I wish this book was used as a required reference for all learners of Chinese. There is nothing that I have seen (and I have reviewed and used alot of Chinese textbooks) that comes evenly remotely close to the quality, depth, scope, and most importantly usefulness of this book. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN CHINESE.........BUY THIS BOOK !
Replaced my old Chinese Grammar books February 24, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
After having used previous Chinese grammar books, such as those from Yip Po-ching, I found this one to offer a better organization of grammar patterns. The book is split into two sections. The first focuses on grammar patterns and the other which focuses on situational aspects of the language. These two approaches works great when learning how best to put together sentences.
The book presents the material in Simplified/Traditional/PinYin. I also went ahead and got the workbook for this text and was also greatly pleased with the exercises presented.
I would follow up your Chinese studies with a character dictionary (focusing on the 2000 most frequently used characters), and a vocabulary book such as those offered by HSK. With these resources you'll likely succeed in your Chinese studies. Oh, and don't forget ChinesePod; it's a great resource for Chinese listening comprehension.
Excellent - even for a beginner January 12, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I just started to learn Chinese a couple of months ago, when I felt the need for a grammar book.
This book uses very simple vocabulary, which I can already understand. The grammar is explained with sample sentences all the time. The sample sentences are 'written' with both simplified and traditional characters.
PartB is the really rich part, where not only additional grammar is presented (past, future, location, etc.), but also common and everyday expressions and situations (phone, agreement, etc.) are also explained.
In my opinion it is very comprehensive, not only on beginner level. The grammar terms are simple - not like an 'official', heavy grammar book, which makes it easy for a beginner, but it is far from shallow for an advanced student either.
I can only recommend it!! Currently I don't think I'll need any other Chinese grammar book in the near future...
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