Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This book boasts it gives you verbs and grammar (as if verbs were not grammar!).Sweeping statements, muddled notes, this sums up what you find when you open the book. I gave it up and bought Prista's grammar. Prista's is an excellent little book that gives you GRAMMAR in general including VERBS, all in a nutshell but clearly explained.No doubt a much better buy!

If this book is for a beginner, then it should give better basic information on the language. Everything is oversimplified, and much is misleading. Some statements are positively wrong, like saying that the gender of words for people and animals is determined by the sex. Not always, eg, 'pessoa', 'crocodilo', and many other examples. A beginner also does not need to learn things like the archaic form for the second person, used in church services. Equally not for the beginner are the complicated tenses that usually you can find in more advanced grammars, like 'we would not have visited the castle' (nao teriamos visitado o castelo) or I would have been speaking (eu teria estado a falar / falando).

If this is for someone who already knows the basics and wants to brush up his or her Portuguese (my case), then the reader spots the flaws. Flaws are not just oversimplifications and misleading statements; there are also true mistakes. In particular need of revision are the sections on the personal infinitive, the passice voice, and radical changing verbs etc.

This book resembles my apontamentos de estudante (student notes) when I was a beginner learner of Portuguese. It is far from being an authoritative grammar book that will lead you to the mastery of Portuguese, as it appears to think it is. It lacks the background knowledge of the language that will enable to streamline what is important and what comes second. It is very much, as I said, a tentative work of a beginner learner, not the competent guide a master can devise. Not good enough.

As someone who can speak the language quite well, I was asked my opinion on this book. That is how I came across it. Here it is my opinion, not just for the learner who asked me but for all the learners looking for good books who may read this review. Look elsewhere is my advice.

An exceptionally useful book. If you're a motivated and experienced language learner, like me, it's probably the best book to get you a basic vocabulary and understanding of Portuguese that won't cost you a fortune. If you're a teacher -- again, like me -- then I'd recommend this book as a text. You're students will be happy that they don't have to dish out a fortune, and though there are no excercises in the book, each chapter is concise and focused, so I wouldn't think that making the excercises yourself would be a big deal. But it would also be great as a quick and easy to use reference.

However, if you're NOT experienced in learning languages (viz., this is your first attempt at a foreign language),then perhaps another book -- like Beginner's Portuguese, by the same author -- would be a better choice. And don't forget that NO book, however great, will ever get you fluency, or even a very high level of proficiency, so unless you have native-speaker friends, then a book with an accompanying tape might be more useful.

A change of cover but not much improvement on the previous edition. This is neither a grammar nor a book on verbs. It's no more than what you get in any good course book where you also get a lot more. Sorry but not worth the money!

After a disappointing experience with a small phrase book, I hapened to pick this up based on it's small size and focused goal content. A few weeks later, I can honestly say this appears to be the best Portugese Language Book on the market. It covers the basics of verbs, more then 12 tenses, irregular verbs, pronouns, idioms, and has both the Portugese and Brazilian form of many words and phrases.

My only small compalaints are the lack of a more comprehensive dictionary and no accompanying cassette or CD to actually hear the words spoken. However those could easily be purchased on the side. I highly reccomend starting to learn Portugese right here.

A very good introduction to Portuguese verbs and grammar. Covers all parts of speech and includes sections in the back which cover time, numbers (even geometry), letters (business and personal), Idioms and a wonderful vocabulary list. An excellent addition for anyone wanting to learn Portuguese.