Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar

I gave this book 5 stars because it suits perfectly the purpose of an intermediate level college Chinese course. I used this for students who completed the first two books of "Integrated Chinese" and it worked very well. This book helped students systematically review the grammar rules that they have learned and expand their grammar knowledge. The author is a credible and respected Chinese linguist. I browsed through many Chinese grammar books in public and college libraries and online websites (including online grammar videos) and I was shocked to find that the majority of them used the wrong categorical labels for Chinese words and gave all kinds of wrong examples and explanations!!!! It's obvious to me that many of these authors are native Chinese speakers -- they can speak Chinese but they don't know "about" Chinese. Also many of these authors don't have trainings or background related to Chinese grammar. This book provides the most accurate terminologies and the word categorizations are clear and correct. This book, like most grammar books, has errors, but these errors won't hurt the big picture of Chinese grammar. I do hope that the table of contests will be added in the future edition and typos (quite a lot!) will be corrected.

Speak Mandarin Chinese For BeginnersThe Michel Thomas Method (8-CD Beginner's Program)Michel Thomas Method Speak Mandarin Chinese Advanced I am the author of the Michel Thomas courses to learn spoken Mandarin. One of my passions is innovative ways to teach and learn languages. Mr. Thomas, who was known as the language master, was my teacher for 10 years.As I wrote in another review on Modern Chinese Grammar, I spent a few years developing a course for English speakers to learn Mandarin. What I didn't write is that if I could only have one Chinese grammar this would be it. This is an outline. It is not as complete or functional as the Modern Chinese Grammar. However, it contains all that you would need to master Chinese patterns ( there is a scholarly argument as to whether the language actually has a grammar).I have found information in here that I found no where else. This is a concise, distillation of how the language functions. Recently my Chinese teacher showed me a pattern but couldn't explain the logic and rules of use behind it. She said, " I can't tell you why but this is the way we say it." Of course, I found the information in Schaum's.

Good content and explanations. The example sentences are very good. I also appreciate the use pinyin. However the typography is not so good from readability standpoint. The chinese characters are not clear enough if you are not very familiar with them already.

Before purchasing this book, I had previously used the Schaum's Outline volumes on French and Spanish grammar, and found them very helpful and informative. In some ways Chinese grammar is easier than the European languages, because you don't have to worry about conjugating verbs or agreement between subjects, verbs, and adjectives. On the other hand, Chinese grammar does have one very difficult aspect: word order. When compared to English, the Chinese structure their sentences in a way that resembles some of the more convoluted utterances of Yoda from the Star Wars movies. One needs an effective reference on grammar in order to accurately decipher this mysterious syntax.The Schaum's Outline series basically serves two functions. The first is to organize all the grammatical rules of a language into a user-friendly outline. The second is to provide a series of exercises one can work through in order to familiarize and master the rules in question. This volume on Chinese grammar admirably accomplishes the first goal but is not entirely successful at achieving the second. The main problem with the book is that the exercises are just too easy. They mostly take the form of fill in the blanks, insert this phrase into an existing sentence, or rearrange this group of words and phrases in the correct order. For the most part, they're so easy you can do them without thinking, and if you're not thinking, you're not learning. To adequately understand and remember these grammatical formulae, one needs more challenging mental exercise than is offered here. One also finds quite a few cases where, after reading the sample sentences provided and doing the exercises in accordance with them, you look in the back of the book and find that the answer is different, with no explanation provided for the irregularity of that particular case.For those studying written Chinese, you should have at least an intermediate knowledge of Chinese characters before undertaking this book. I had previously worked through the five volumes of the John DeFrancis Chinese Reader series, which gave me a familiarity with 1200 characters. While working through this book I managed to add another 125 characters to my vocabulary, and probably twice as many compounds--things like food items, body parts, articles of clothing, and some commonly used adjectives and verbs.The Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar will make a good reference when reading Chinese texts. The well organized and clearly stated grammatical rules will be helpful in deciphering difficult passages. However, I don't feel I've gained enough understanding of Chinese grammar to reliably and accurately compose my own complex sentences and paragraphs. For that I will have to seek out another grammar workbook with more challenging exercises. This volume is a step in the right direction, but not quite the authoritative source one expects from the Schaum's Outline series.

I'm currently living and studying in China. Although I'm a full-time Chinese student, all of my text books are written by Chinese educators. This is a great thing especially when I get more advanced in my study. However, right now I'm more toward the beginning and the English explanations in my textbooks are often mistranslated and confusing. For those of you who are toward the end of their first term of Chinese study (or if you have a general understanding of the language) this book will help you greatly.I've found it written in a way that is easier to grasp than many of my own Chinese textbooks. The readability of Schaum's book is what really sold me into singing its praises.I too am working my way through the Pimsleur series and this book does a great job of accompanying and clarifying some of the grammar points made in those lessons.Some people have said that this book isn't for the beginner. Well maybe so and maybe not. I will say that after a term of study I have a lot of questions that this book has helped me answer. My only regret is not purchasing it sooner as it could have helped me after the first month.

This was essential to me and my husband. We're doing Rosetta Stone Mandarin (which we also enjoy) but felt we needed a little more.

J'envoie cette évaluation pour exprimer ma satisfaction.Présentation claire,logique.Très bon index.Beaucoup d'exemples et d'exercices.Les commentaires sont courts et précis.Rien de superflu.Mais ,la grammaire est réservée à des étudiants qui cherchent une grille ,un cadre mental les aidant à l'apprentissage du chinois.Une connaissance moyenne de l'anglais suffit sauf pour quelques termes techniques de grammaire.Un exemple à suivre pour d'autres grammaires !

Comprehensive, logically laid out, simply explained, relevant and interesting examples. Chinese characters, pinyin and English all together.I've bought / sampled numerous books before finding this one, and I don't need any others. As an adult (whose language learning process is different from that of a child) the structure, examples and explanations are spot-on. Combine this with book with either a native Chinese speaker or a good aural programme to get the pronunciation right, and that's all you need.So glad I came across this. Full marks!

大学の先生にみてもらった。初級、中級の文法です。長文などがあればもっとよい。ニュアンスが書いてあり英語の力が必要ですが英語ができればこの本はやりやすい。

The best grammar book available for a good price! I really also appreciate the exercises that immediately put everything into context.