Tagalog Structures

This is a good grammar book with straightforward explanations. Although almost 40 years old, I think it is still the best book on the market at the present moment. My only caveat is that the author does not know how to use the accent system of Tagalog, a suprising thing from someone teaching the language. For instance "child" is spelt báta' whereas it should be spelt batà or bátà; "nothing" is written wala instead of walâ (last syllable stressed and closed by the glottal stop), etc. Also accents are not used systematically, many sentences are left without accents. Imagine a similar book about Czech, French, Spanish without their accents!

This book is excellent for those who learned some Tagalog word and expressions and like to see the structure behind this language. The way Tagalog is structured is very different from Western languages, so if you want to learn it from scrap then "Conversational Tagalog" by Teresita Ramos is the book you need; if you want to clarify your ideas on the language rules or if you love grammar, this book is an excellent introduction.