漢語虛詞學習手冊 A Student Handbook for Chinese Function Words（簡體書）

Foreign learners of the Chinese language always find function words, such as prepositions, auxiliaries, conjunctions, articles, etc., difficult to master. A Student Handbook for Chinese Function Words, written by Professor Jiaying Howard, is to make learning Chinese function words easier. It contains more than 500 regularly used function words, which are coupled with straightforward explanations and detailed descriptions of the usage. To facilitate students' learning, sample sentences in Chinese, English and pinyin are constructed with the most commonly used 2,905 characters, among which many have appeared in elementary and intermediate level Chinese textbooks.

Some special features:
1. All entries are listed in alphabetical order of pinyin.

2. Each entry includes:

‧The word in Chinese character(s). The traditional form of a character, if it exists, is also included;

‧pinyin for the word;

‧part(s) of speech (such as adverb, preposition, conjunction, auxiliaries) in English;

‧English explanation of the word's meaning;

‧English explanation of how to use the word when it has more than one function in the language;

‧Sample sentences in Chinese characters (both simplified and traditional);

‧Sample sentences in pinyin; and

‧English explanation of the sample sentences

3. Three indexes, namely the pinyin index, the strokes index in simplified Chinese, and the stroke index in traditional Chinese, are included for readers' easy reference.

The Handbook will be a comprehensive and handy reference for students and teachers of Chinese at all levels (elementary, intermediate and advanced).

Professor Jiaying Howard is currently Program Head of the Department of Chinese Studies of the Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics at Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA.