Modern Italian Grammar: A Practical Guide (Routledge Modern Grammars)

I thoroughly agree with "A reader" right below -- and this seems to pertain to the overall series (first I got me the French Practical Guide for a French refresher and didn't like it for the same reasons as the "A reviewer" says he didn't like the Italian one). The whole series is aiming at the beginner: be very clear on that.

However, unlike in the case of French, I'm only learning Italian, and, after having used this book for a couple of months can say that it's been exceptionally useful. The book isn't pedantic; every given rule is immediatly supported by a pile of examples; and, what I especially appreciate, the ambiguitiy of the language (inherent in _any_ human language, by the way) is made clear -- a correct rule is given and then a note: but they also say it different on TV and in papers; here's how it goes -- this sort of thing.

I can hardly believe it myself, but after a couple of months of having this book (and I can study only in my spare time) I can read Italian text. I mean, my vocabulary is inadequate of course, but I have zero difficulty with the structure. My French helps I suppose, but still it's exhilarating to gain a capacity to understand foreign text in such a short time.

That said, again: do not buy it if you already know Italian but need a refresher -- this book is NOT structured as reference; _finding_ things in it is hard. These books, the whole series, are written to be read from cover to cover, maybe several times -- and then that's it: you will not return to them over and over again; long term you'll need some concise, dry, table-happy and deeply indexed grammar reference (for the French, I got me le Petit Grevisse; I'm sure there's something analogous in Italian, but I'm not ready for it yet).

Bottom line: you'll love this book if you're an absolute beginner; buy with confidence. Otherwise you won't so get something else.

This book is an academic text and, as such, is a bit pricier than your average Italian grammar reference. My feelings about this book are mixed. While I feel that there is much to learn from this book, the overall layout of the book is abysmal. I agree with another reviewer who complained about the difficulty in finding sections later on. Some grammar explanations are scattered throughout, and it is common for the author to refer you to previous sections of the book. Flipping around to piece together explanations is hardly conducive to learning. This book would work better as an electronic resource.

There are also some sections where the author doesn't provide enough explanation, assuming knowledge that the student might already have. I have also followed her recommendations on usage and have been corrected by native speakers. While I wouldn't say that there are gross errors, sometimes the nuance of usage is not conveyed or important pieces on usage as omitted.

That being said, there are useful sections to the book, and I would recommend it to advanced students as a useful aid. Beginners might find this book dizzying, and intermediates would do better with Insieme: An Intermediate Italian Course (Student Edition). The author is an expert in her field, and you can see this expertise in her writing. It is no easy task to create a reference work such as this and be completely perfect. The author has tackled a complicated subject and presented the information in a cogent and approachable style.

On its own, it's weak but coupled with other texts, it is more potent. As far as a grammar references go, there are better sources in Italian such as Federico Roncoroni's "Grammatica Essenziale della Lingua Italiana" and Luca Serianni's "Grammatica Italiana" among others as well as Anna Lepschy's The Italian Language Today, Second Edition as well as Soluzioni! : A Practical Guide to Italian Grammar, and Prego! An Invitation to Italian.

There is an accompanying workbook to this book. In my opinion, it is not worth purchasing and should have been included as one single volume.

If you already know a reasonable amount of Italian and you read through this book, you will pick up some worthwhile information about word usage etc. The problem I had with it, and the reason I only give it three stars, is that I found it difficult to impossible to use as a reference. Suppose you remember that there was something about a particular usage..well, to find it again, you will have to remember what functional section it was in (was it in talking about other people? or in describing your likes and dislikes? and so forth.) And you can't really look anything up if you don't already know it's in there. So if you are puzzled by the grammar of a sentence you read in the newspaper, it will be very difficult to look anything helpful up in this book. And you can't just look up, say, uses of the subjunctive. So I don't recommend it too highly. A better and more useful book in my opinion is the Cassell's reference grammar (not the little Cassell's but a larger book) which covers much of the same ground.

This text combines a traditional structural grammar section with the bulk of the book then divided into chapters on communicative functions. Comprehensive and clearly written. This book and Martin Maiden's A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian (which complements Proudfoot's book) should be in the library of any serious student of Italian.