Chinese: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) [Hardcover]

Po-Ching Yip (Author), Don Rimmington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0415135346 | ISBN-13: 978-0415135344

Chinese: An Essential Grammar is a clear and concise reference guide to modern Chinese (Mandarin) grammar. It presents a fresh and accessible description of the language, focusing on the real patterns of use in today's Chinese. The grammar is the ideal reference source for the learner and user of Chinese. It is suitable for either independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types. The book sets out the complexities of Chinese in short, readable sections. Explanations are clear and free from jargon. Throughout, the emphasis is on Chinese as used by native speakers today. Features include: copious examples to illustrate language points detailed contents list and index for easy access to information two glossaries: one of grammatical terms and one of Chinese characters

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A much needed addition to the collection of books on Chinese grammar." - China Review International --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Yip Po Ching is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies and Don Rimmington is Professor of East Asian Studies, both at the University of Leeds.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (January 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415135346
• ISBN-13: 978-0415135344
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,568,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book: lots of info, clearly explained, March 25, 1999

By 

Jeremy Boulton ([e-mail]) (Pasadena, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chinese: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

I've bought a number of books to try to learn Chinese on my own (well... with some help from friends, too). This is the first one I've made it all the way through. I plan to read it a couple more times so that I can try to learn everything in it. Part of what I like is that it is written clearly but concisely. The book has just about the right number of examples per point - not so many that you get bored, not so few that you are left confused (except for a very small number of places where I would have liked an additional example to clarify some particular detail.) The book is well organized. It flowed smoothly so that I did not often feel the need to jump around between sections. Finally, although the vocabulary list at the end of the book is reasonably lengthy, it never seemed like the vocabulary was introduced at such a rate as to bog down the learning of grammar. I'm not sure if a revised edition has come out since the edition I have was published, but my copy has a few typos and incorrect tone markings which can occasionally provide a moment of puzzlement. However, I did not find these to be a significant problem.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little more.., August 21, 2001

By 

BENJAMIN GEORGE (Richmond, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chinese: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

So far this is the only decent Mandarin grammar book I have encountered. To add to the above review, this book also has the advantage of having both word-for-word-literal and natural translations, so that you can see the exact structure of the sentence, as well as the more natural meaning. The small "dictionary" at the end of the book is not really intended as a dictionary, but rather as a helpful list of all the words used in the examples, along with their corresponding characters. One of the drawbacks of this book is that there are no chinese characters except in the reference at the end. Maybe in a future addition they could add characters? The main difference between this book and the authors other two books (Basic Chinese and Intermediate Chinese) is that the other two are meant more as workbooks, with grammar lessons followed by exercises. Also, the other two books use chinese characters throughout with parallel pinyin. This book would make a good companion to the other two.. they're all somewhat expensive though! But there are really no other options for easy to understand, though thourough, grammars.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strongly recommended, March 10, 2003

By 

B. Caesar "caesartg" (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chinese: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) (Paperback)

I strongly recommend this book as a main grammar book in the learning of Chinese. This is a watered-down beginner-lower intermediate version of the superlative "Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar" and covers the basics. It's just a pity that it is rather an expensive purchase.

The authors were lecturers at the University of Leeds in the UK but have since retired.