Displaying posts tagged with

“Portuguese reference books”

Aug
4
2009

Portuguese: An Essential Grammar (Paperback) by Janet Lloyd

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, [...]

Aug
4
2009

Essential Portuguese Grammar (Dover Books on Language) (Paperback) by Alexander da R. Prista

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 [...]

Aug
4
2009

Langenscheidt’s Pocket Portuguese Dictionary, by Langenscheidt’s Pocket Dictionaries

Score:
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
“Four outta ten!”
Pros:
IPA pronunciation given (in Brazilian only) for every word; rather complete list of basic entries; Portuguese-English & English-Portuguese
Cons:
hardly any usage examples; no way to differentiate multiple entries translating to one term in English; chart of English irregular verbs but no Portuguese verb tables; focus [...]

Aug
4
2009

NTC’s Compact Portuguese and English Dictionary (Hardcover) by NTC Publishing Group

Score:
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
“Four outta ten!”
Pros:
IPA pronunciation given (in Brazilian only) for every word; rather complete list of basic entries; Portuguese-English & English-Portuguese
Cons:
very few usage examples; no ways to differentiate multiple entries translating to one term in English; chart of English irregular verbs but no Portuguese verb tables; focus [...]

Aug
3
2009

Barron’s 501 Portuguese Verbs (Paperback) by John J. Nitti & Michael J. Ferreira

Score:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10
“Eight outta ten!”
Pros:
does exactly what it sets out to; great reference book; easy to flip through & search; examples of each verb in use; affordable price; good introduction
Cons:
limited in scope; most verbs highly regular & arguably not “necessary”; some of this information is available in other [...]