So a bit of a disclaimer: Firstly i am not done with the book yet, I am at around chapter 4, but I will update my review when I'm finished. I cannot recommend one single book more highly. We are using this book in our New York Bengali class. My only complaint could be that the audio in the CD has, for some odd reason, way too much reverb in the men's recordings. If you ask a Bengali for a list of these he/she will draw a blank but they are constantly in use and yet can be hard to find in dictionaries. These are lists of peculiarly Bengali forms like Common Compound Verbs and Common Conjunct Verbs. There are additional features, some of which, to my knowledge, are not available elsewhere, such as unless you seek out Bengali A Comprehensive Grammar. These are what you would hope to find in a good language book, though you might not get all of them. It also has a wealth of well-organized and culturally useful information, such as Exercise Answer keys, Bangla Grammar Overview, Using Bangla Dictionaries, basic dictionaries of Bangal and English, a clear explanation (!) of the Inherent Vowel, verb charts, Common Verbs, a complete list of Muslim and Hindu family relations, Months and Seasons. It is a book which demands real study and focus from the learner, but is definitely a valuable resource when learning a language which is both dimly familiar and grammatically confounding for a speaker of Romance languages. Thompson's approach is informed by many years of classroom teaching of Bengali, a real affection for the ins and outs and peculiarities of the Bengali language and shows a very clear understanding of what the stumbling blocks are for a foreign learner and how to deal with them. It starts with information for total beginners up through a strong basic knowledge, along with plentiful exercises, and encouraging comments and information about study methods.

This is definitely one of the best Bengali study books in the not-too-enormous field of Bengali. A new Bengali learning book from Hippocrene Press has been published by Hanne-Ruth Thompson, author of the magisterial 700-page 'Bengali -A Comprehensive Grammar' as well as other Bengali language books.

Bengali alphabet fill in the gaps