A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish is a comprehensive, cohesive and clear guide to the forms and structures of Spanish as it is written and spoken today in Spain and Latin-America. It includes clear descriptions of all the main grammatical phenomena of Spanish, and their use, illustrated by numerous examples of contemporary Spanish, both Peninsular and Latin-American, formal and informal. Fully revised and updated, the sixth edition is even more relevant to students and teachers of Spanish. The sixth edition includes: * new chapters, providing more detail and examples of key areas of Spanish grammar; * an increased number of Mexican examples to reflect the growing interest in this country's variety of Spanish; * new information for readers studying Spanish and French together; * a glossary of grammatical terms including English translations of Spanish terms. The combination of reference grammar and manual of current usage is invaluable for learners at level B2-C2 of the Common European Framework for Languages, and Intermediate High-Advanced High on the ACTFL proficiency scales.

(abridged and revised) This reference grammar offers intermediate and advanced students a reason ably comprehensive guide to the morphology and syntax of educated speech and plain prose in Spain and Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Spanish is the main, usually the sole official language of twenty-one countries, } and it is set fair to overtake English by the year 2000 in numbers 2 of native speakers. This vast geographical and political diversity ensures that Spanish is a good deal less unified than French, German or even English, the latter more or less internationally standardized according to either American or British norms. Until the 1960s, the criteria of internationally correct Spanish were dictated by the Real Academia Espanola, but the prestige of this institution has now sunk so low that its most solemn decrees are hardly taken seriously - witness the fate of the spelling reforms listed in the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortograjia, which were supposed to come into force in all Spanish-speaking countries in 1959 and, nearly forty years later, are still selectively ignored by publishers and literate persons everywhere. The fact is that in Spanish 'correctness' is nowadays decided, as it is in all living languages, by the consensus of native speakers; but consensus about linguistic usage is obviously difficult to achieve between more than twenty independent, widely scattered and sometimes mutually hostile countries. Peninsular Spanish is itself in flux."

A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish is a comprehensive, cohesive and clear guide to the forms and structures of Spanish as it is written and spoken today in Spain and Latin-America. It includes clear descriptions of all the main grammatical phenomena of Spanish, and their use, illustrated by numerous examples of contemporary Spanish, both Peninsular and Latin-American, formal and informal. Fully revised and updated, the sixth edition is even more relevant to students and teachers of Spanish. The sixth edition includes: * new chapters, providing more detail and examples of key areas of Spanish grammar; * an increased number of Mexican examples to reflect the growing interest in this country's variety of Spanish; * new information for readers studying Spanish and French together; * a glossary of grammatical terms including English translations of Spanish terms. The combination of reference grammar and manual of current usage is invaluable for learners at level B2-C2 of the Common European Framework for Languages, and Intermediate High-Advanced High on the ACTFL proficiency scales.