Modern Tagalog: Grammatical Explanations and Exercises for Non-native Speakers

I moved to the US about 14 years ago and I am making plans to return home for a little while. I purchased this book to brush up on my Tagalog grammar and within the first chapter, I began to remember so many concepts that I forgot. Speaking Tagalog is one thing, writing is another and this book is PERFECT for helping you remember grammatical rules for writing and conversational as well. It's easy to follow and concepts such as pronunciation and conjugation are explained thoroughly. As a native speaker, I highly recommend this book although I should mention some drawback for non-native speakers.Drawbacks for NON-NATIVE speakers: (1) Although the exercises are very helpful, it might be tougher for a non-native speaker since there are no correct answers listed in the book. (2)If you do not have a Tagalog-English dictionary or are still trying to build your Tagalog vocabulary, this book will not be as effective. I strongly suggest having a Tagalog-English dictionary handy when working through this book. (3) There is no audio companion to this book. The proper pronunciations are explained VERY WELL however in my experience the best way to learn a language is by hearing it as well as reading it. If you have exposure to a Tagalog speaker this book is PERFECT for you.

This is an excellent book for those of us who learn languages through a rules-based approach rather than the more common intuitive "use some common expressions and try to figure out why along the way" found in many books.On the other hand, if you always hated and never understood grammar and prefer to just dive in to everyday language, you'll probably prefer one of the other books.In either case, you'll probably want to remember that Teresita Ramos teaches proper Tagalog and some of the expressions/word choices in her books may not be the vernacular used on the streets of Makati.Ultimately however, if you have an analytical vice artistic mind and need to understand things from a mechanical framework, this is the best book available.

I bought this for my wife. She lived and worked there for a year and was fairly skilled at reading and speaking. Still, she learned some new stuff here. I am not sure this is ideal for beginners, but maybe useful in conjunction with other texts.

I definitely agree that this is NOT for the introductory beginner. I bought this as a gift for someone. Just browsing through the book without reading it in depth, I found it very difficult to follow. Many times, there are no translations in English, even though they are giving sample sentences and explaining grammatical usage.Seems to be very lacking compared with other books I've used to study a different language.Maybe the receiver of this book, who already knows basic Tagalog, would have understood everything. But I'm not taking a chance. I'm returning this one and finding a book with better explanations.

I've been learning Tagalog for about two years now and this book really helped me understand the complex grammatical structures of the language. I now have all of Dr. Ramos's books. I recommend her other books if you, too, are trying to learn teh language.

Be aware, this book is NOT FOR NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS! 80% or more of this book is in Tagalog. If your not a native speaker or don't know a lot of the language, best to steer clear of this title for now.

Very useful

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