Basic Cantonese : a grammar and workbook / Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yip, Virginia, 1962-

Contributor:

Matthews, Stephen, 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cantonese dialects--Grammar.

Cantonese dialects.

Physical Description:

xii, 171 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2000.

Summary:

Basic Cantonese introduces the essentials of Cantonese grammar in a straight-forward and systematic way. Each of the 28 units deals with a grammatical point and provides associated exercises, devised to perfect communication skills. Special attention is paid to topics which differ from English and European language structures. Features include: clear, accessible format; lively examples to illustrate each grammar point; full key to excised; and glossary of grammatical terms. Together with its sister volume, Intermediate Cantonese, it forms a compendium of the essentials of Cantonese grammar.

Contents:

1 Consonants 1

2 Vowels and diphthongs 7

3 Tone 11

4 Pronouns 17

5 Possession: ge 23

6 Possession and existence: yauh 27

7 Being: haih 32

8 Noun classifiers 36

9 Adjectives 42

10 Adverbs of manner 47

11 Adverbs of time, frequency and duration 52

12 Comparison: gwo and di 58

13 Prepositions: space and time 65

14 Negation 72

15 Verbs of motion: heui and laih 78

16 Verbs of giving: bei 83

17 Verbs and particles 88

18 Actions and events: jo and gwo 93

19 Activities: gan and jyuh 99

20 Auxiliary verbs 104

21 Passives 110

22 Word order and topicalization 115

23 Yes/no questions 120

24 Wh-questions 125

25 Sentence particles 130

26 Imperatives 135

27 Requests and thanks 140

28 Numbers, dates and times 145.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0415193842

0415193850

OCLC:

40996126