Score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10
“Eight outta ten!”
Pros:
price; straightforward explanations; abundant examples; great coverage of basic grammar; handy index and table of contents
Cons:
doesn’t venture beyond intermediate level; cuts out some trickier points; supplementary to a conversation course
Prista’s Essential Portuguese Grammar (not to be confused with the more in-depth Portuguese: An Essential Grammar) is a small, thin book in the Essential Grammar series. This series has two signatures: (#1) quick but thorough coverage of the basics and (#2) the low price.
In about 100 pages, the book runs through all the basics of grammar – articles, nouns, prepositions, verbs, etc. It does learners a good service by keeping sentence formation in view throughout, which is an essential skill for any decent Portuguese conversation. A thorough table of contents and index help you find what you’re looking for at a glance.
The overview is great for beginners, and covers grammar as completely as could be asked of a cheap, slender introduction. Explanations just give a beginning or intermediate overview of each topic (although sometimes covering things coursebooks often miss), which means that you’ll need to make further investments to move beyond the basics. Portuguese verb use and sentence structure are particularly difficult grammar points for learners, and will require more understanding and practice than what’s offered in the Essential Portuguese Grammar.
Listening comprehension and conversation skills will, of course, fall in the domain of an actual lesson series. If you’re a beginning learner, and as long as you treat this as a grammar reference and not a primary conversational course, you’ll likely be very satisfied with this supplement.