Score:
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
“Six outta ten!”
Pros:
abundant examples; great organization; covers all basic topics of beginning & intermediate Portuguese grammar
Cons:
European Portuguese dialect only; no exercises; short, terse explanations leave some to fend for themselves; better as a reference work
Portuguese: An Essential Grammar offers a more traditional approach to Portuguese grammar, complete with all the lists of noun and verb forms I’ve come to expect from such a resource. That said, it’s fairly light for such a grammatical approach – explanations are short and straightforward, and examples are ubiquitous and easily recognized by the bold text used to highlight Portuguese words.
This grammar reference handles European Portuguese grammar exclusively, so explanations will provide a smaller amount of help to Brazilian Portuguese learners not destined for Lisbon or Coimbra anytime soon.
The bulk of the chapters deal with the common categories of grammar, starting with a short intro to pronunciation, a chapter on nouns, one on articles, another on adjectives, then pronouns, a short chapter on numbers (“numerals”), a hefty verbs chapter, followed by adverbs, conjunctions and prepositions. The second part of the book details what it calls “language functions”, including many useful social and conversational words, expressions, phrases and how a Portuguese speaker uses them. A bibliography and index cap the book.
The approach works for a reference guide, and takes the language learner through the complexities of intermediate Portuguese grammar. Some learners, myself included, would like a bit more than one-line explanations of trickier grammatical features, but the ambient examples counterbalance that shortcoming.
Intermediate European Portuguese learners looking for an on-hand grammar reference will have something to gain from this text – if that describes you, this book may justify its price. Brazilian learners can still get a lot from this reference, but should remain cautious. No exercises and no learner-directed material will make this a no-sale for most casual students.