Chinese grammar reference book

A new chinese grammar book came out by Claudia Ross that immediately replaced all my other grammar books. I highly recommend it. Best explanations I've seen so far. First half of the book is organized by function and the second half by situational usage.

Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mandarin-Chinese-Grammar-Grammars/dp/0415700108/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221750258&sr=8-1

and workbook:

http://www.amazon.com/Mandarin-Chinese-Grammar-Workbook-Grammars/dp/0415700116/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221750258&sr=8-2

Yv,

Lessons-->Extra

News and features, where's that? Nothing in the blog under ChinesePod Website Tweaks... But looking forward to getting the Grammar guide, hurray

Ah, Danjo, you caught word of that pretty quickly...

Yes, it is reason for much rejoicing.

Thanks for the all the suggestions. I'm also quite happy to hear in News and Features that the long-awaited Grammar Guide is launching tomorrow.

I think "Chinese (A Comprehensive Grammar)" by Yip Po-Ching and Don Remmington is similar to Li and Thompson's functional reference grammar, but with Chinese characters included. The main complaint is it is a bit expensive.

I think the Li book is very interesting, because I took a few linguistics classes in college. It is very pertinate to an accedemic view or Chinese grammer. I related to it on that level.

The UC Davis reference brings up the question of pattern drills. Except for some examples of patterns in the long version of the lessons, there seem no pattern drills at ChinesePod or did I miss them when I had access to the premium materials..

Here is an excellent online reference (in Traditional only though): http://trc.ucdavis.edu/msjacob/sentence.htm

I would recommend: Ross/Sheng Ma: Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-70010-8. By far the best Chinese grammar book. Link http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mandarin-Chinese-Grammar-Grammars/dp/0415700108

danjo,

We have a small library of Chinese reference materials at ChinesePod, but the ones I use most often for Grammar are:

1. Schaum's Outlines: Chinese Grammar

2. 现代汉语虚词手册: A Guide to Function Words in Modern Chinese

3. 现代汉语八百词

It's very complete, but I don't like Li and Thompson's "Functional Reference Grammar" because there are no Chinese characters in it.

I am using "A Practical Chinese Grammar", by Hung-nin Samuel Cheung. I bought it in Hong Kong, so not sure if it is available on the mainland. It has examples in English, Hanzi, and pinyin. It's 500 pages so it is definitely not a pocket guide.

Two weeks ago I bought this one:

Claudia Ross:Schaum's Outline of Chinese Grammar

McGraw-Hill; 2004

Very compact and easy to read. I am now at page 80 (of 250 net) and many of them are real eye-openers if you are at Intermediate. Probably just the basic stuff, but that is exactly what I need right now.

There's

Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar

by Charles N. Li, Sandra A. Thompson

which dates back to 1981 and is more of an academic reference book than a practical guide, yet still reasonably accessible to a layperson. It's a fairly thick book. It may or may not be what you're looking for.

Come to think of it I do remember seeing a grammar book reviewed on John's Sinosplice site: http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/studybooks/speaking-chinese-300-grammatical-points

But I don't know what I'm going to find when I travel this summer in China (definitely can't find anything where I live) so I'm open to all suggestions.