Modern Portuguese: A Reference Grammar

The author should stick to the portuguese spoken on good brazilian TV programmes and that you read in interviews etc in reputable brazilian magazines. The worst is that this book is presented as suitable for foreigners. You want to learn standard, not sub-standard language!


If you want to learn Ghetto Portuguese this book is for you!   September 23, 2004
Luis Vaz De Camoes (Lisbon, Portugal)
101 out of 115 found this review helpful

Imagine a book called "English Grammar" which was based on the English spoken by the uneducated people of South Africa. This book is no better! The author had the audacity to call this a Portuguese Grammar, but it doesn't even deserve the name of a Brazillian Portuguese Grammar as it takes as its' standard the language from the ghettos of Brazil. If you want to learn correct Portuguese or read literary works in Portuguese then get the Portuguese Grammar written by Joseph Dunn - which is still the most comprehensive Portuguese Grammar in English. If you want to travel to the ghettos of Brazil and talk to uneducated people than this is your Book!


It is a matter of standards!   July 18, 2003
Tom Robinson (Chicago, IL USA)
88 out of 97 found this review helpful

This book is an attempt to explain the Portuguese language on both sides of the Atlantic and understand some of its colloquialisms specifically in Brazil. It contains useful information. What is wrong is trying to elevate some sub-standard practices to the status of standard language. It will be better to promote the colloquial, but correct, Portuguese used in Brazilian newspapers and good quality Brazilian magazines like for example Veja. Acknowledgment of colloquialisms is OK, promoting sub-standard language is not!


A reflection of Brazilian socio-economic inequality   June 15, 2005
A Richardson (NYC, US)
83 out of 98 found this review helpful


This book accepts as spoken language sentences like the following: Entao os rapazinho sobe la no alto da torre; As estrada por aqui sao muito ruim; esses aluno ficaram muito motivado; Eu e Chico chegamo / chegam' de manha. This is not spoken Portuguese, this is illiterate Portuguese.

Some people can afford indulging in inverted snobbery. They join in with the uneducated and use illiterate forms of speech when they talk to tem. Then they revert to the educated language in their own jobs, their social circle. The uneducated are left in the illusion tha their poor speech is acceptable. They are also left at the bottom of education and society.

Instead of addressing positively the problem of illiteracy in Brazil, a book like this one further reinforces the deplorable situation of socio-economic inequality.


Interesting but "you gotta" speak better!   June 21, 2003
Ann Reed (London, England UK)
68 out of 72 found this review helpful

I speak Portuguese and have spent some time in Brazil. I hope that my comments as an ex-learner (still learning though) will be of some good to new learners. This book contains a lot of useful information but the wrong emphasis. It considers three strands in the Portuguese language: formal writing; general use; and colloquial use. What is entered here as formal writing is what I learned at the university for general use. General use in this book includes colloquialisms like the use of "te" with "voce". What is colloquial use according to this book includes creole variations like "nos chegamo" or "nos chegam'" for first person plural "nos chegamos". This is not the standard you are looking for when you buy a grammar (this one is expensive) for guidance on the language you are learning. Comparing with English, it is like telling our EFL students "that's what you gotta have" anything else is too formal!