Intermediate Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks) [Paperback]

Virginia Yip (Author), Stephen Matthews (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415193877 | ISBN-13: 978-0415193870 | Publication Date: October 21, 2000 | Edition: 1

Intermediate Cantonese is designed for learners who have achieved basic proficiency and wish to progress to more complex language. Each of the 25 units combines clear, concise grammar explanations with communicatively-oriented exercises to help build confidence and fluency.
* Suitable for independent learners and students on taught courses
* Many authentic examples from contemporary media, including films, advertising, songs and soap operas
* Clear distinction between colloquial and more formal speech registers
* Teaches contemporary Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong
Intermediate Cantonese and its sister volume, Basic Cantonese, form a structured course of the essentials of Cantonese grammar.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is an excellent practical grammar of Cantonese. It offers clear explanations on a variety of topics, and provides relevant exercises that reinforce the material covered. The writing is compact and perspicuous. The examples are natural, and there are enough of them to adequately illustrate the point under discussion. It covers intermediate and even advanced grammatical constructions, areas often under-represented in pedagogical materials. This book has a welcome place on the bookshelf of every student and teacher of Cantonese.' - The Linguist List, November 2001

About the Author

Virginia Yip is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Stephen Matthews lectures at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong. They are the authors of Basic Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (1999) and Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar (1994), both from Routledge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415193877
• ISBN-13: 978-0415193870
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,319,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every serious student should get a copy, December 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Intermediate Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks) (Paperback)

This book is an excellent sequel to: "Basic Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook" by the same authors. It (and its predecessor) are the best sources I've seen as far as really explaining how Cantonese works. There has been some other good material published in recent years for Cantonese learners (I give high marks to "Colloquial Cantonese" by Tong and James and "Teach Yourself Cantonese" by Baker and Ho) but this is the best treatment of Cantonese syntax I've come across- having worked through it I now feel confident that I can speak good, authentic Cantonese. It is written from a linguistic point of view but it is so well-organized and the material is so neatly presented that even someone without much linguistic background would find it a help. There are some comparisons made with Mandarin usage which are interesting and helpful to someone who learned Mandarin first (as I did) but previous knowledge of Mandarin is not assumed or required. A further plus: Lots of contemporary vocabulary. If you think you'd like to be able to say: "The boss has sexually harassed her" "My daughter is giving me an attitude again" or "very soon one will be able to get on the Internet via mobile phones" look no further!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ebook is useless without "first tone" mark, June 26, 2010

By 

Jimzy (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Intermediate Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks) (Kindle Edition)

I wasn't too happy when I noticed that all of the text (though the pictures have it) did not include tone marks for the first (high pitch) tone...rendering the book useless to any learner. To the editor: Please fix and resend or give us back our money! (Same problem as with the Basic Cantonese book.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great textbook to upgrade your knowledge of Cantonese, April 2, 2008

By 

Harald Bruning (Macau, Macau Macau) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intermediate Cantonese: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks) (Paperback)

Intermediate Cantonese is a great textbook to upgrade your knowledge of Cantonese, a language spoken by over 100 million people in southern China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau) and among many overseas Chinese. It's very didactical and quite easy to understand. Cantonese is not easy to learn, but the book makes it pretty easy to learn.