Chinese Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Paperback

Your one-stop guide to mastering the basics of Chinese

Can one book have all you need to communicate confidently in a new language? Yes--and that book is Chinese Verbs & Essentials of Grammar. It offers a solid foundation of major verbal and grammatical concepts of the language.

Each unit is devoted to a single topic, so you can find what you need and get concentrated instruction immediately. Concise yet thorough, the explanations are supported by numerous examples to help you master each concept. Topics range from tones to verb suffixes, from dictionaries to proverbs, from measure words to onomatopoeia, and include a list of common verbs organized by semantic area.

This book gives you:

• An excellent introduction to the basics of Chinese (if you are a beginner) or a quick, thorough refresher (if you already have experience with the language)
• Essential information on the Chinese language--its history, varieties, tonal features, character writing system, and lean grammatical structure
• Numerous examples presented in Chinese characters, Pinyin transcription, word-for-word and idiomatic translations

Julian K. Wheatley has a PhD in Linguistics from University of California, Berkeley. He is an experienced author of Chinese language materials and has directed Chinese language programs at Cornell University and MIT. More recently, he has been a visiting associate professor at the National Institute of Education in Singapore and at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Currently he is co-director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in China (CTLC), specializing in the languages and linguistics of mainland Southeast Asia and China.