Explains universal concepts of language structure to help students preparing to study a foreign language.

How to use this book; 1. Introduction; 2. Sentences, clauses, and their verbs; 3. Subjects; 4. Noun phrases; 5. Pronouns and subject-verb agreement; 6. Direct objects; 7. Double-object verbs; 8. 'Linking' verbs; 9. Personal pronoun systems; 10. Reflexives and passives; 11. Possession; 12. Gender, concord, and noun classifications; 13. Case systems and adpositions: the Latin system; 14. Tense, aspect, and auxiliary verbs: the English verb system; 15. Tense, aspect, and mood: the Spanish verb system; 16. The Latin verb system; 17. The Hebrew verb system; 18. The Navajo verb system; 19. The Mandarin verb system; 20. Negation; 21. Questions; 22. Adjectives and relative clauses; 23. Articles, demonstratives, and quantifiers; 24. Subordinate clauses, infinitives, and verbal nouns; 25. Participles; 26. Comparative constructions; 27. The segmental sounds of human languages; 28. Prosody; 29. Writing systems; 30. The lexicon; Epilogue: 'bad grammar'; Answers to the exercises; Glossary of technical terms; Languages used as examples in the exercises; References; Index.