Filipino (Routledge Essential Grammars)

I do not agree with the (back-cover) review that this work provides an easy to-understand and clear grammar explanation. It is doubtful that beginning or even intermediate students will be able to navigate the challenging linguistic terminology and concepts found in this text, such as focus, aspect, and mood.For a linguistically versed teacher or an advanced student of Tagalog, this text provides a wealth of valuable grammatical details. On the other hand, I find the lack of treatment of the role of topic-prominence to be disappointing.

I’ve been studying Filipino language for the last 20 years due to living there for a number of years and frequent business and holiday trips to the country.This is the grammar book I’ve been looking for. I had a very good grasp of the basic grammar and considerable vocabulary but didn’t know enough grammar to complete more complex sentences or be able to read newspapers, magazines and websites.This book explains the complexity of Filipino verbs in particular which is essential to moving beyond simple sentences. It’s not for beginners or people looking for just the essential vocabulary or phrases but for me is the best Filipino grammar I have encountered.