Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar

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.

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.

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.

I like this book a lot. It has great breakdowns of grammar, and every single example has both simplified and HK/GD characters. I just wish that there were more examples (one for each term taught) and the author spent more time on casual terms. It's a must have for anyone from beginner to intermediate though.

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 book is a very handy guide. It's very simple to use. I being a complete beginner could follow it with ease. What I like most about the book is the use of basic vocabulary for illustrations. If you have a word power of say 300 basic words then this book becomes a very convenient too for further references. With lots of example and well structured exercises it is a must have for all serious beginners. The only negative point about the book would be absence of an Index.

This book is easy to use and convenient because it provides clear examples, each with traditional characters, simplified characters, pinyin, and English. The text is logically divided into chapters containing related material. Examples of wrong usage are also provided to that traps for the unwary may be avoided. Exercises (with answers) are presented at the end of each chapter. A good index makes it easy to find relevant material. The organization and presentation in this book is in sharp contrast to the other Schaum's book, Chinese Vocabulary. That book has only simplified characters, and even though complete sample sentences are provided, usually only one word (the vocabulary word) has an English translation.

Just cracked open this book to discover that it has no table of contents! This is an immediate no-go as I bought it with the intention of using it as a reference. Flipping pages (more like turning pages since the paper is that soft brownish kind that doesn't flip well) is no way to look up things in a grammar book. I had read so many great reviews but am now so disappointed as it will be almost unusable without the ability to easily jump around to the sections I need. Other gripes. - This book feels like a workbook that is meant to be worked on from beginning to end, not referenced as needed. - Immediately I found a problem on page 2, which reads "When the number '2' is part of the number 12, 22, 32, 42...it is always 'er'" So, what about the actual number 2?? Why was it left out? Should the reader assume that it belongs in the list?? The book goes on to say "In all other cases, when the number '2' occurs before a classifier, it is 'liang'". So...what about basic things like "2 oclock". What's the rule for this? Should it be "er dian" or "liang dian"? Why was such an elementary explanation left out?? - Finally, this last one is just nitpicking, but I'm already bummed out, so here goes...the book's dimensions are wide. Typical American style large workbook format, meant to be studied at a desk...not handy for carrying around and utilizing on buses, trains, in stations, etc. :(

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。

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.

Wie bei Schaum üblich mit sehr vielen Beispielen ausgestattet. Leider kann ich nicht beurteilen, ob die Grammatik in der hier dargestellten Form noch komplett aktuell ist.