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Step 3 – Grammar Review and Related Items
My thoughts
A. Keep it simple and fun
First let’s define “grammar.” Simply put, it’s a map to the structure of a language. Some may say it’s the rules of a language. If that is the case, then English has just as many exceptions to the rules as the rules. As with any guide, the guide is not the actual activity but guides the activity.
Grammar is not unique to English, therefore, you can leverage it using your own language to understand how it applies to English. For example, a noun is a person, place or thing. In your own language you have words that describe a person, place, or thing. Since this is the case, you don’t have to re-learn this fact, you just need to learn what the English word is and substitute it.
The next step is to simply use it in a conversation which is the reason for spending a significant amount of time in conversation with someone.
B. Grammar details can be a two-edge sword
Basic English grammar is a good thing because it gives you knowledge about the structure of English. However, too much grammar details can work against you because after learning the basics of English grammar it can become overwhelming to try to fit each word into the proper grammar category while simultaneously trying to construct the words into sentences. Furthermore, it can discourage you and cause you to just say, “Forget English” and return to the comfort of your mother tongue.
It really isn’t necessary in achieving English fluency to know all there is to know about English grammar. I would venture to say that most native speakers don’t know the names of the grammar categories beyond the basic figures of speech. Unless you’re majoring in English, you don’t have to spend time in this aspect of English. Your time would be better spent in English conversation.
Soccer players don’t become good by studying a soccer regulations manual but by learning the basic rules of the game and practicing soccer.
C. Basic Grammar Review
Traditional grammar classifieds words into 8 Parts of Speech as follows:
1. Nouns – These are words that are used to describe a person, place, thing, idea, or event.
Example: “Mary went to the store.” (Mary is the noun)
2. Pronouns – Pronouns replace nouns to make the sentence less mechanical and cause the sentence to flow better.
Example: “Mary went to the store because she needed bread.”
“She” is used instead of repeating Mary in the sentence because the name of the person is already known. Otherwise, it would read: Mary went to the store because Mary needed bread. The pronoun “she” replaces “Mary” to avoid redundancy. “She” is the pronoun.
3. Adjectives - Adjectives simply describes a noun.
Example: ”Smart Mary went to the store to buy bread.”
Smart describes that Mary was intelligent, therefore, “smart” is the adjective.
4. Verbs - Verbs are words that describe an action or a state of being.
Example: “Smart Mary went to the store to buy bread.” Which word(s) in this sentence describe an action? Upon close examination we see that the word “went” describes an action because Mary left to go to the store.
Also the word “buy” is a verb because once she was at the store she performed the action of purchasing bread. Therefore, this sentence has two verbs, “went” and “buy.”
Verb tenses: Past, Present, and Future – It tells the timeframe when something occurred.
Example: Walked (Past), Walk (Present), Will Walk (Future)
5. Adverbs - These are words used to describe or modify a verb.
Example: “Smart Mary went quickly to the store to buy bread.” The word “quickly” gives more detailed information concerning the word “went” or modifies the verb “went” to inform the listener that she traveled very fast to the store.
Note: An adverb can be placed before or after the verb that it is modifying. For example, the sentence could read: “Smart Mary quickly went to the store to buy bread” although the first example is better.
6. Prepositions – A preposition is a word that shows a relationship between a noun and the rest of the sentence.
Example: “Smart Mary went quickly to the store to buy bread on the shelf.”
In this case, Smart Mary went quickly to the store. Therefore the word “to” is the preposition describing the relationship between Smart Mary and the store.
Also in this sentence the word “on” is a preposition showing the relationship between the bread (noun) and where it’s located (on the shelf.)
7. Conjunctions – Conjunctions join two words, sentences, phrases, or clauses together instead of making two separate sentences.
Example: ”Smart Mary went quickly to the store to buy bread on the shelf and she returned home. The word “and” connected the first part of the sentence with the last part of the sentence. ”And” is the conjunction.
8. Interjections - An interjection is a word that shows emotion and is not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence.
Example: “Wow! Smart Mary went quickly to the store and returned in a heartbeat.”
Wow is the interjection that shows the emotion of amazement that Mary went to the store and returned quickly.
There you have it, the 8 Parts of Speech in a nutshell. All of them have sub-categories with a lot of additional information with the exception of Interjections. However, it is not necessary to learn what the names of these categories are to be fluent in English. As long as you learn the appropriate word for what you’re trying to communicate you don’t have to know the grammar name.
However, if you want to know more details of the Parts of Speech, you don’t have to go any farther than the Englishbaby Home Page Grammar Section
http://englishbaby.com/lessons/grammar
Related Items
This is the part of English that gets really juicy and may drive some non-natives crazy. After you leave the knowledge of the 8 Parts of Speech you will venture into an area of English that for the most part is not literal, doesn’t make any sense, and is weaved into the very fabric of everyday English.
However, be encouraged because it is not as difficult to learn as you may think. The key is to learn word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase, and idiom-by-idiom as you communicate frequently in English. You will be exposed to them from time to time on a case-by-case basis. The categories are:
1. Figures of speech
2. Phrasal verbs
3. Phrases
4. Idioms
5. Slang
All of these are a separate study within themselves and I won’t take the time and space to explain them here. If you have any questions concerning them, just post a question.
In addition, I invite you to read my forum “Understanding American English Phrases” for lessons on various phrases and slang.
http://englishbaby.com/lessons/5744/member_submitted/understanding_american_english_phrases?page=7
That’s it for Step 3; Step 4: How to train your ears to understand English
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