Portuguese: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars) [Paperback]

Amelia P. Hutchinson (Author), Janet Lloyd (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 041513708X | ISBN-13: 978-0415137089 | Publication Date: December 8, 1996 | Edition: 1

A practical reference guide to the most important aspects of modern European and Brazilian Portuguese, it presents a fresh and accessible description of the language combining and function-based grammar.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: Portugese, English --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Amelia P. Hutchinson and Janet Lloyd are both Lecturers in Portuguese at the University of Salford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041513708X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415137089
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise and yet complete, December 10, 2000

By A Customer

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

This book is an excellent tool for intermediate learners. It covers both European and Brazilian Portuguese. But there are two drawbacks: 1) The book should have listed the alphabets and their pronunciations (e.g. how to pronounce the foreign-borrowed letter 'k' in Portuguese.) 2) Chapter seven: 'verbs': this chapter should be the core of this book. The authors, however, do not give the English meanings of the irregular verbs they list in this chapter. They provide the English tranlations of everything but the irregular verbs presented in chapter seven. This is weird. Overall, this book is highly recommended for intermediate learners to review and grasp a solid understanding to the verbs and grammars of the language.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good but..., November 13, 2004

By 

pat9janpet - See all my reviews

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

This grammar book is better than most. I like the well organised way materials are presented, systematically numbered, so you can find the item you want. The index is helpful too.

The book is well balanced with a fair amount of detail on everything except perhaps verbs. There could have been more detail there. For detail on verbs you have better buy another book, and Portuguese Verbs Explained by Manuela Cook is the one I have bought and am quite pleased with.

More detail could have been given to grammar points in this grammar if space had been used more appropriately. There is a whole section on historical and cultural notes including literature, music, cinema, etc. As interesting as all this may be, it has nothing to do with grammar. If I wanted a book on music or cinema, I had bought one. In a grammar what I expect is grammar!

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A grammar that won't let you down, October 11, 2004

By 

patlearner (London, UK) - See all my reviews

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

I am a student of Portuguese and have tried other grammars. Hoping to economise on money, first I went for some cheaper books but I regret it now. Since the late nineties the mass market has been littered with a number of sub standard Portuguese grammars. This grammar is a fortunate exception and I am glad I have bought it. You pay more but you get a grammar you can feel comfortable with, you can trust it will not let you down, unlike some amateurish grammars that do not know what they are talking about and confuse more than help.

This grammar helps by giving you info you feel you can rely on and by the way this info is presented. It is all very well organised, each section is numbered, so you can find what you are looking for. The index is quite long, and you can find everything there. It gives you the section number for what you are looking for. Sometimes a page number would be easier but you can't go wrong with section numbers. This is a grammar I can recommend to any learner of Portuguese.