Virginia Yip is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern

Languages and Intercultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Stephen Matthews lectures in the Department of Linguistics at the

University of Hong Kong. They are the authors of Cantonese: A

Comprehensive Grammar (1994).

This book is for learners of Cantonese who aim to take their knowledge

of the language beyond the phrase-book level. While our Cantonese: A

Comprehensive Grammar was designed as a reference book, Basic

Cantonese is more pedagogical in orientation. It highlights the key building

blocks of sentence structure, leaving details of grammar and usage for the

more advanced learner. It also provides practice for the grammar points

of each unit in the form of communicatively oriented exercises.

The book is self-contained in the sense that it can be used on its own

for self-paced learning. With the grammar points presented in approximate

order of difficulty, it should also be useful for practice, revision and

reference. It can be used in conjunction with a language course or lessons

from a tutor. Either way, it should be understood that to learn a tone

language such as Cantonese effectively requires some aural support –

ideally from native speakers, or as a second best option from audiovisual

materials such as tapes or CD-ROMs.