Portuguese Verbs And Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Portuguese [Paperback]

Sue Tyson-Ward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0844246980 | ISBN-13: 978-0844246987

For All Students Two books in one—a complete guide to Portuguese verbs and a compact guide to the basics of Portuguese grammar.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Portugese

About the Author

Sue Tyson - Ward

is a language consultant and teacher and writer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Passport Books (January 11, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844246980
• ISBN-13: 978-0844246987
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing, December 7, 2002

By 

Robert Morris - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portuguese Verbs And Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Portuguese (Paperback)

On the front cover, this book claims to be `a practical guide to the mastery of Portuguese'. On the back cover, it claims to be `the one book that does it all' and also `Everything You Need to Know About Portuguese Verbs and Grammar'. As you open the book, you see yet another impressive claim in the Preface, about `the logical order in which concepts are presented'. These statements surely influenced me in picking this grammar in preference to others. Disappointment was to follow. In this grammar, I found neither a logical order in the presentation of concepts, nor adequate information about the Portuguese verbs and grammar that would lead me to the mastery of Portuguese, let alone the book that does it all! The author jumps from Pronunciation to Verbs, from Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives to Negatives, Interrogatives, and Exclamations. Explanations are simplistic and misleading. On page 48, `ter de' and `ter que' are given as expressions where `ter' is used to denote necessity or obligation. The reader is not told whether there is any difference between the two, but the different examples may suggest the former for the future and the latter for the past, which is wrong, as I found out when I sought help elsewhere. On page 56, the reader is told that the command form for tu `is exactly the same verb form as the third person singular of the present indicative'. This is a confusing half-truth, as again I found out when once more I sought help elsewhere. On the cover and opening pages, this grammar makes grand claims about what it offers. In fact, it offers much less than most other Portuguese grammars. This is very disappointing.

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Self-promoting and flawed, October 23, 2003

By 

donna doyle (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portuguese Verbs And Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Portuguese (Paperback)

When i bought this book i looked up the word 'pessoa'. This means person and plural 'pessoas' means people. Grammatically this word is always feminine but applies to both male and female. This does not fit in with what this grammar teaches. I sought help. Then i was shown several faults in this book. The worst apears to be the verbs.

I bought this book because i believed what it says, that it is a practical guide to the mastery of Portuguese. I fell for it and am quite annoyed with myself for being so gullible. Perhaps some good will come out of this bad experience. If this review stops other learners from making the same mistake, then it wasn't a cmplete waste of time and money.

69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbled, not concise, March 10, 2003

By 

Douglas Hall (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portuguese Verbs And Essentials of Grammar: A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Portuguese (Paperback)

This book claims that its explanations are concise. A concise text is one that grasps the essence of its subject matter and expresses it in a compact, brief manner. In this book brevity of expression is achieved not by grasping the essence of its topics but by cutting corners. Most points are garbled, some entirely wrong. For example, 'erguer' is not a radical-changing verb as the book says. Its spelling change has nothing to do with root change. Unfortunately unless you have some background knowledge of the language you may be caught unaware. I teach Portuguese but will not recommend this book to my students.