The book is also user-friendly. There are many examples which are very up-today. Moreover, the grammar in focus is on bold in the examples that help reader understanding the grammatical point easily.

I should say the book will be better if Chinese characters are provided

shame about characters, June 6, 2000

This is a good way of learning Chinese, using patterns, and it uses the Yale romanization. It does not contain any characters though.

More than you will ever want to know . . ., May 10, 2000

This grammar is well written and comprehensive. It is heavy on linguistic terminology, but the language is altogether descriptive. While primarily beneficial to advanced learners, intermediate Cantonese students could find this helpful as well. Matthews also succeeds in lightening up a deep subject with interesting and fun examples. He also helps readers connect with the meanings of the words and phrases by giving both direct translations and the equivalent meaning side-by-side in these examples. The book is the modern definitive work on the Cantonese language. It teaches a complex subject and is complex itself. I recommend the book for anyone interested in understanding the mechanics of Cantonese, or for anyone wanting to find comparisons with Mandarin.

Excellent book for advanced students, February 24, 2000

Cantonese is traditionally a spoken language, but these days a language must have a standard written grammatical structure in order to survive. This book provides the first intensive study of written Cantonese, often providing a reference to a related Colloquial structure. Great for advanced students or those studying grammatical structure of languages.