Table of Contents

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

About the Author

JOHN BUTT, Emeritus Professor of Modern Hispanic Studies, King's College, London

CARMEN BENJAMIN, a native speaker of Spanish and a former lecturer in Spanish at King's College, London

Reviews

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, UK

The 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, UK

A 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