Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself Portuguese Grammar

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I am Brazilian. In my opinion several things are not quite right in this grammar but as a native speaker I may be too critical. However there is one point I want to make. In the introductory section this grammar makes some strong statements about the differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese, but throughout the units there are several mistakes about these differences. Just a few examples. On page 168 you read that the conditional may be and often is substituted by the imperfect tense, especially in the spoken language (though not in Brazil). This is wrong. We use the imperfect for the conditional a lot in Brazil. On page 204 you read that the command form used exclusively in most of Brazil is in the third person and the verb goes into what is known as the present subjunctive. This is wrong. Colloquially we often say "fala", "vai", etc. (speak, go, etc) which is the imperative for "tu" although we do not really say "tu"(it also looks like the third person singular of the present indicative). On page 242 you read that the subjunctive is used after words like "talvez" and "oxala"(there should be an accent on the last "a") but this is supposed to be in Portugal not in Brazil. Well, we say it too. I find that anyone using this grammar will end up rather confused and I regret to say that shall not be able to recommend it.

This book does not explain Portuguese grammar to you, throws it at you. The verbs are diabolic. You are told that the present indicative mood has a number of different meanings in English. You are told that "eu falo" can mean I speak, I am speaking, I do speak, I shall speak. If this is the case, surely the reader should be given some guidance on these meanings. No, there is no guidance, which is really missed in a teach yourself grammar. It is also surprising in a book that keeps telling the reader that you are getting lots of helpful advice. Are you? Not really. You may find out that the supposedly helpful advice is wrong. For example the book tells you rather patronizingly not to see the preterit as a frightening array of new forms to learn but to make the patterns shown in the book work for you. Do they? No. Why? Because they are wrong. They tell you that the verb maintains the original letter it had in the infinitive (a/e/i).On the previous page there is evidence to the contrary. For example "falei" and "falou" do not maintain the "a" or "comi" the "e". You don't say "falaei, falaou, comei" (wrong!) for I spoke, you spoke, I ate. In this grammar each page you turn you don't know whether you are going to get the right or the wrong information. I regret buying this book. It was a waste of money.

This grammar is acceptable if your aim is to learn Continental Portuguese but I cannot reccomend it to anyone who wants to learn Brazilian Portuguese. Buy an excellent MODERN PORTUGUESE grammar written by one of the Brazil's most famous and trusted linguists: Mário Perini instead.