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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive, enlightening, essential reference., July 29, 2003
Arm yourself with verbs. The nouns will come in time, and adjectives and adverbs are a more advanced tool that you will naturally acquire through extensive reading and speaking.No, to gain fluency and functionality, you need verbs. This book is a collection of 501 Portuguese verbs, with full conjugations listed and some very informative usage examples below each listing. Each verb takes up a page, has the English definition at the top, and lists the usage examples at the bottom. The index at the end of the book lists verbs in English, then in Portuguese, providing an excellent method for finding your verb choice even if you are a Portueguse student learning English. Yes, I meant exactly that: in learning Portuguese, I have found it helpful and enlightening to see what English words a Portuguese-speaker might choose, as it gives me insight into what a native might feel is the best translation of an idea. The best feature of this book, however, is the front matter. It explains each conjugation in depth, because if you are anything like me, you've forgotten exactly what a future subjunctive is. Heck, I don't even know if I've used a grammatical term there or not; good thing I bought this book though, because it'll tell me in plain terms what I need to know. This is truly a five-star reference. A comprehensive dictionary would surpass it in coverage, but from the perspective of learning Portuguese, this book has no peer.
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