Urdu: An Essential Grammar (Essential Grammars)
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Product Description
Urdu: An Essential Grammar is a reference guide to the most important aspects of the language as it is used by native speakers today.
The complexities of Urdu are set out in short, readable sections. Explanations contain minimal jargon and emphasis has been placed on the aspects of Urdu that pose a particular challenge for English-speaking students.
Features include:
* language examples throughout in both Urdu script and romanization
* user-friendly layout
* detailed contents list
* comprehensive index.
Urdu: An Essential Grammar presents a fresh and accessible description of the language and will prove invaluable to students at all levels.
The complexities of Urdu are set out in short, readable sections. Explanations contain minimal jargon and emphasis has been placed on the aspects of Urdu that pose a particular challenge for English-speaking students.
Features include:
* language examples throughout in both Urdu script and romanization
* user-friendly layout
* detailed contents list
* comprehensive index.
Urdu: An Essential Grammar presents a fresh and accessible description of the language and will prove invaluable to students at all levels.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is an excellent reference guide for learning Urdu. The grammar coverage is in incredible detail - although it can get quite technical for a non grammarian.
However, this said - the book does give plentiful scope for different types of students - i.e. those seeking to learn via the more grammar based approach and those seeking a book with plentiful examples that they can use as a complementary resource to audio based resources. I have used the book in the latter sense as Urdu is my mother tongue but I make plenty of mistakes.
The amount of content and research that has gone into this work makes the price worth every penny.
However, this said - the book does give plentiful scope for different types of students - i.e. those seeking to learn via the more grammar based approach and those seeking a book with plentiful examples that they can use as a complementary resource to audio based resources. I have used the book in the latter sense as Urdu is my mother tongue but I make plenty of mistakes.
The amount of content and research that has gone into this work makes the price worth every penny.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
My favourite Urdu grammar coursebook. I agree with the first review wholeheartedly, this book is extremely in-depth and takes your Urdu knowledge to the next level. An absolute must-have for anyone who wishes to explore the Urdu grammar and understand all its intricacies. This coursebook provides Urdu learners with tools that enable them to understand how this language works in all contexts and it's a very good basis from which to start studying the wonderful Urdu literature. Some of the countless example sentences that are included here are excerpts from poems and novels, which is great because this way the Urdu learner can get a hang of how Urdu is used in a literary context. Yes the layout and writing style are definitely user-friendly and simple, the learner gets an incredible amount of invaluable information without feeling overwhelmed in any way.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Valuable Contribution to the Literature
10 Dec 2003
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book fills and important hole in the literature: a solid, up-to-date, in-print grammar of the Urdu language. I have used it to supplement my study of other Urdu texts.
I have a few minor quibbles with the book:
1) The Urdu transcription system is not given explicitly. Reference is made to R. S. McGregor's Urdu Study Materials, an out-of-print book published in India. While it may be readily available in major centers of learning or through interlibrary loan, I think that reference to an out-of print book for something as significant as the transcription system should be avoided. Perhaps in future editions the system should be included in the text.
2) Sections appear where reference is made to 'ko' marking objects and 'ko' marking subjects. I'm not sure that this is the best way to address the use of 'ko', since it is more a comment on peculiarities of English grammar than any feature of Urdu. In Russian there are similar impersonal structures that use dative objects for what we would consider subjects in the English translations. A simpler approach to the issue of 'ko' might be to say that it marks dative objects, which may, however, be translated into English by words having different grammatical roles in the corresponding English sentence.
Incidentally, I also have the "Teach Yourself Urdu" book and have found it of value, though not for its grammatical descriptions, which don't seem to me to be a distinguishing strength. I have collected the Urdu texts of the dialogues into a notebook that I find useful for rapid reading practice.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Useful but limited
20 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
This is a reference grammar of a traditional informal type. It provides much information about how different things are said, including such specialized constructions as dates and times, with numerous examples. It has a detailed index and a fair amount of cross-referencing. Examples are provided both in Arabic script and in romanization.
A small complaint is that the romanization is not explained. Instead, a reference is given to another book, one that can hardly be expected to be on every student's shelf.
The main problem with this book is that it is weak on analysis and generalization. It is appropriate that a book intended for non-linguists learning Urdu should avoid excessive use of technical terminology and formalization, but the author's descriptions of grammatical constructions are so vague that one often cannot tell what is possible and what is not, or when exactly the contruction or form is used. For example, in native Urdu noun phrases, most modifiers of the noun precede the noun. In particular, genitive phrases precede the noun, so that "Rahim's daughter" is "Rahim kii beTii" that is: Rahim GEN daughter. Urdu also has another construction, the izaafat construction, which is borrowed from Persian. In this construction, the order is reversed. The izaafat equivalent of the above would be: "beTii e Rahim": daughter of Rahim. So, is the izaafat construction simply a variant of the Noun Phrase in which the order of possessor and possessed is switched, otherwise like other, native, Urdu Noun Phrases? This book never answers that question. In fact, the answer is no. izaafats cannot have any other internal modifiers, such as adjectives or relative clauses. This is but one example of many. You get a general idea of what a construction looks like, but all too often you don't get enough information to be able to use the construction with any confidence or to have a good idea of what to expect.
Similarly, I found the explanation of when the different tenses and aspects of the verb are used to be excessively vague. Some technical terms, such as "habitual" and "punctual" are used, but rather sloppily, not in their established technical senses.
The book does not justify the analysis given, even where the reader may wonder about it. For example, "experiencer" subjects typically take the postposition ko. Schmidt refers to these as "dative subjects". Some readers will wonder if these are really subjects. There is evidence that they are, for example the fact that they can be antecedants of apnaa "self", but this is not discussed.
All in all, there is a good deal of useful information in this book, but it is not the sort of detailed, comprehensive, reference grammar that answers all, or at least most, of the questions one has about a language.
A small complaint is that the romanization is not explained. Instead, a reference is given to another book, one that can hardly be expected to be on every student's shelf.
The main problem with this book is that it is weak on analysis and generalization. It is appropriate that a book intended for non-linguists learning Urdu should avoid excessive use of technical terminology and formalization, but the author's descriptions of grammatical constructions are so vague that one often cannot tell what is possible and what is not, or when exactly the contruction or form is used. For example, in native Urdu noun phrases, most modifiers of the noun precede the noun. In particular, genitive phrases precede the noun, so that "Rahim's daughter" is "Rahim kii beTii" that is: Rahim GEN daughter. Urdu also has another construction, the izaafat construction, which is borrowed from Persian. In this construction, the order is reversed. The izaafat equivalent of the above would be: "beTii e Rahim": daughter of Rahim. So, is the izaafat construction simply a variant of the Noun Phrase in which the order of possessor and possessed is switched, otherwise like other, native, Urdu Noun Phrases? This book never answers that question. In fact, the answer is no. izaafats cannot have any other internal modifiers, such as adjectives or relative clauses. This is but one example of many. You get a general idea of what a construction looks like, but all too often you don't get enough information to be able to use the construction with any confidence or to have a good idea of what to expect.
Similarly, I found the explanation of when the different tenses and aspects of the verb are used to be excessively vague. Some technical terms, such as "habitual" and "punctual" are used, but rather sloppily, not in their established technical senses.
The book does not justify the analysis given, even where the reader may wonder about it. For example, "experiencer" subjects typically take the postposition ko. Schmidt refers to these as "dative subjects". Some readers will wonder if these are really subjects. There is evidence that they are, for example the fact that they can be antecedants of apnaa "self", but this is not discussed.
All in all, there is a good deal of useful information in this book, but it is not the sort of detailed, comprehensive, reference grammar that answers all, or at least most, of the questions one has about a language.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
good!
12 Nov 2003
Format:Paperback
A great book. It does what it says. Clear, easy to understand. It says that this book is not for complete beginners, but it could be, given only that said beginners are not complete idiots. I bought another book, a 'teach yourself' book, which I needn't have, given that this book suffices.
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