Chinese grammar book for beginers

[housecat26]

I know around 1500 Chinese words by my grammar is still bad, where can I find a Chinese grammar book that starts off with simple sentences and gets harder and harder?

 

Or suggest to me a good grammar book for beginners if you want 

[Yorin]

I recently bought this book at 上海书城 after skimming though a few Chinese grammar books, and this made the best first impression on me:

 

http://www.amazon.com/A-Chinese-Grammar-English-Speakers/dp/7301218656

 

It's not a learning book for beginners, in the sense that it doesn't start with the most basic grammar points and gets harder (but then again you are not a beginner if you know 1500 words). Instead it gives you a systematic overview of Chinese grammar, ordered by Chapters for parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns, verbs and so on, parts of the sentence such as subject, object and so on, particles such as 了, sentence structures and so on. As someone who passed HSK3 but still wasn't familiar with some of the grammar of the 300 word level Chinese Breeze books (such as "谁找到她,谁也告诉她..."), I found it very helpful so far (I've now read through the first 100 of about 500 pages). It's got enough example sentences to make the grammar points very clear.

 

Also of course, you should visit the Chinese Grammar Wiki at

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/

It's probably the best free online resource there is for learning Chinese grammar.

[Zeppa]

As for free online resources, I think chinesegrammar.info is even better!

[Yorin]

Well, in this case it would have to be really great. I've taken a look, that site seems to have just about 40 grammar articles according to it's sitemap. These may be good, but it's not exactly a wealth of content. Am I missing anything?

[anonymoose]

"Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook" by Yip and Rimmington.

[Demonic_Duck]

Well, in this case it would have to be really great. I've taken a look, that site seems to have just about 40 grammar articles according to it's sitemap. These may be good, but it's not exactly a wealth of content. Am I missing anything?

This site is more in depth:

 

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Main_Page

[Ruben von Zwack]

Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar - A Practical Guide, by Claudia Ross and Jing-heng Sheng Ma, Routledge 2006
And (if you like - I found it useful) the workbook to go along:
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar - Workbook, Claudia Ross, Jing-heng Sheng Ma, Baozhang He, Roudledge 2006

I'd say those volumes are for beginners to get a foundation and overview. After a year or so you may want a more advanced grammar.

It is sorted by grammar points and topics. If you know 1500 words you can easily read all the example sentences and do the exercises.

Pro:
Every sentence comes in Simplified and Traditional.

Con:
1. The pinyin is larger than the Hànzì, which is distracting when you want to read the Hànzì.
But then this is a common problem I've encountered in most grammars so far. At least the pinyin is only big, and not big AND set in fat bold typeface (edit: it is bold. It's a regular font only in the workbook), like with Yip + Rimmington (otherwise very good, as recommended by anonymoose^).
2. Irritating layout especially in the workbook (hard to find pages/exercises). But I guess I'm complaining on a high level.

[Demonic_Duck]

What do you mean by "the pinyin is larger than the Hanzi"? I have a digital copy of the Ross/Ma* book (I've seldom used it, but it seems like a solid reference book) and the pinyin->character size ratio seems roughly the same as usual for books that contain both (i.e. around the same font size, but with the Hanzi appearing larger due to being square).

 

*Not sure what part of that name is even the surname, to be honest.

[Ruben von Zwack]

Well maybe it's just me, but I find the characters teensy compared to the latin letters

And I, obviously, have to correct myself: the Pinyin is bold. Wouldn't you say too that it's crushing the Hanzi? But, again, maybe that's just me.

[grawrt]

I have that book and also have the problem with looking at the pinyin even if i dont need it. I think because its boldface that its the first thing my eyes look at.

[Demonic_Duck]

 

Well maybe it's just me, but I find the characters teensy compared to the latin letters

And I, obviously, have to correct myself: the Pinyin is bold. Wouldn't you say too that it's crushing the Hanzi? But, again, maybe that's just me.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Well, my eyes are naturally drawn to the pinyin before all else, but I'd say that's because it's in bold and I'm much more used to reading the latin alphabet, not because it's bigger. I agree that the boldness is unnecessary though - I guess they do it to differentiate the pinyin from the translation, although they could just as easily put the translation in italics or something.

 

Anyway, one way around this irritating problem is to simply hide the pinyin with a piece of card, ruler etc. (the worst is where books have blocks of text in which the pinyin is placed above the hanzi, and so you can't help but get a "preview" of the next line even if you do this. Thankfully such books are rare, but I have seen it on occasion). Of course, your ideal after you reach a certain level of proficiency is to cut out the pinyin altogether, except for 生词.

[hackinger]

Hi,

 

there are older related threads out there, e.g.:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10932-best-chinese-grammar-book/

 

I also like "Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar". For me, the Pinyin text is not a problem, because it is below the Hanzi. I dislike it if the Pinyin text  is written above.

( I also learned to just look at the Hanzi and to ignore the Pinyin  when reading a few graded readers.)

 

I am a bit puzzled by one comment about the grammar and the workbook in #7  though:

"I'd say those volumes are for beginners to get a foundation and overview. After a year or so you may want a more advanced grammar."

 

I think if one knows everything in "Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar" one is in pretty good shape for at least a few years unless one is moving really fast.

What do you recommend as a more advanced followup grammar? (I know it is slightly off topic.)

 

Cheers

 

hackinger

[Ruben von Zwack]

I am a bit puzzled by one comment about the grammar and the workbook in #7  though:

"I'd say those volumes are for beginners to get a foundation and overview. After a year or so you may want a more advanced grammar."

 

I probably worded it badly. I didn't mean to say that after a year you knew all the grammar in there! That would be nice ;)

But I'm just a beginner, and over the past months, a few times I couldn't find an entry or keyword in the MMG.

 

edit:

For example, there seems to be no entry for 使 shǐ, which is in the HSK3 outline, and in the Chinese Grammar Wiki  as "B1" (http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Causative_verbs).

To be fair, the Grammar Wiki doesn't say much - basically only that it is one of the most important causative verbs, similar to 让 ràng, but more formal/written style.

For a nearly-400-pages book it just strikes me as odd, when I, as a beginner, repeatedly can't find grammar topics from the HSK2 and 3 pensum. So personally I want to get a more extensive grammar soon. The MMG looks massive, but I suspect if the layout was less fluffy, 200 or 250 pages would suffice.

 

I still want to say that I do like the book!

I just wanted to be thorough about all pros and cons.

Edited November 28, 2013 at 11:56 PM by Ruben von Zwack

[Ruben von Zwack]

I just updated my above post, cause by the time Hackinger asked, I could not provide an example.