New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish

JOHN BUTT, Emeritus Professor of Modern Hispanic Studies, King's College, LondonCARMEN BENJAMIN, a native speaker of Spanish and a former lecturer in Spanish at King's College, London

The fifth edition reaffirms A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish as the most practical and comprehensive Spanish grammar book on the market. By illustrating grammar through references to English and other languages, the authors have created a unique resource, giving the English-speaking reader access to a wealth of knowledge about the Spanish language, explained in a clear, cohesive and effective way. This new edition is the first to incorporate the findings of the latest Nueva gramática de la lengua española, published by the Real Academia Española, making it compulsory reading for students at all levels, academics, translators and professionals interested in mastering the intricacies of the Spanish language. - Javier Muñoz-Basols, University of Oxford, UKThe 5th edition of Butt and Benjamin's New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish manages to improve an already outstanding text. It should be standard issue for all serious students of Spanish. - Ian MacKenzie, Professor of Spanish Linguistics, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, UKA New Reference is a title we consider compulsory as a reference book for our students in the final year of their BA and BComm International programmes, and also at MA level. I also use it as a reference and I have always found it very useful. This new edition will be even more useful as it includes the new spelling and accent rules and a glossary of computing vocabulary. It is definitely the only grammar book in the market for final year graduate and postgraduate students. - Begoña Sangrador-Vegas, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, National University of Ireland, Galway

• Preface to the fifth edition Conventions, spelling and abbreviations 1. Gender of nouns 2. Plural of nouns 3. Articles 4. Adjectives 5. Comparison of adjectives and adverbs 6. Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns 7. Neuter article and neuter pronouns 8. Possessive adjectives and pronouns 9. Miscellaneous adjectives and pronouns 10. Numerals 11. Personal pronouns 12. Le/les and lo/la/los/las 13. Forms of Spanish verbs 14. Use of indicative (non-continuous) verb forms 15. Continuous forms of the verb 16. The subjunctive 17. The imperative 18. The infinitive 19. Participles 20. The gerund 21. Modal auxiliary verbs 22. Personal a 23. Negation 24. Interrogation and exclamations 25. Conditional sentences 26. Pronominal verbs 27. Verbs of becoming 28. Passive and impersonal sentences 29. Ser and estar 30. Existential sentences 31. Adverbs 32. Expressions of time 33. Conjunctions and discourse markers 34. Prepositions 35. Relative clauses and relative pronouns 36. Nominalizers and cleft sentences 37. Word order 38. Diminutive, augmentative and pejorative suffixes 39. Spelling, accent rules, punctuation and word division Glossary of grammatical terms Bibliography and sources Index of English words Index of Spanish words and grammatical points