Useful information on how to do different things in English.

HOW TO...

HOW TO... LEARN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

This month, SEVEN top tips to help you learn English grammar.
Grammar = the ways that words are put together in order to make sentences.

1. Perspective

in the future to generate other sentences with the same structure. For example, if you learn this sentence, Keira lives in America", you can then use it to generate hundreds of other sentences, just by replacing the subject (Keira), the verb (lives) and the complement (in America). For example: a) Mike studies in Brighton. b) Sara works in accounts.

The rst thing to do is to put grammar into perspective. Grammar alone isnt going to help you learn a language. In order for language development to take place, you need to read and listen a lot. Think about children they never sit down to learn grammar. Theyre exposed to lots of language and then pick it up naturally. You can do the same if you listen and read enough! In fact, the more you read and listen, the more language youll absorb, and the more youll see how the language ts together (which is what grammar is all about).

7. Drills

2. Psychological

You also need to remember that grammar is largely psychological. This means that the choice of tense often depends on what you (the speaker) want to say in a particular situation at a particular time the choice of tense is not determined by some external rule. So, the selection of either will or be + going to, or must or have to, or the Present Perfect or Past Simple, and all those other grammar structures that are often compared, will depend mostly on what you want to say.

Another thing you need to do is to build up your agility with the verb tenses. Do grammar drills on your own, with a friend or with your teacher to develop uency. For example, say a sentence in a particular tense, then create the negative or question forms that correspond to it: She went to the shops. / She didnt go to the shops. / Did she go to the shops? Keep doing this until you can do it automatically and without thinking. Then, when youre in a conversation, youll nd the tenses (and a rmative, negative or interrogative forms) come to you much more easily. To summarise: read and listen a lot, learn the verb tables, memorise key grammatical sentences, practise forming negatives and question forms and, above all, remember that language is all about communication it isnt a set of rules!

English Grammar Tenses

3. Freedom!

You also need to bear in mind that English is a dynamic language thats constantly evolving. Theres no linguistic organisation regulating it (as there is for French or Spanish). So, the concept of right and wrong doesnt really exist its more a question of what is (or is not) standard English. But as theres no universal concept of standard English, and there are hundreds of varieties of the language (Australian English, British English, American English, Jamaican English, South African English... and so on), and all of them are equally valid, it all gets a bit complicated. In many cases it isnt a question of what's right or wrong, but what's accepted (or not) as standard in a particular part of the world. For example, in some places, its acceptable to say, He dont like it! [sic]

Here are the key grammar tenses that you need to learn. The verb to be, the Present Simple, the Present Continuous, the Past Simple, the Present Perfect, Future forms (will, be + going to, the Future Continuous, the Future Perfect), Modal verbs, the Past Continuous, Passive forms, the Past Perfect and Conditionals (zero, I, II, III).

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English grammar isnt really that complicated. And there are a limited number of tenses that you need to learn (please refer to our English Grammar Tenses box). The rest of English consists of thousands of important words and expressions (each with their own grammar). If grammar is starting to sound overly complex or hard to grasp, youre probably going into too much detail. Learning how and when to use the tenses is a lot more di cult, and this is where your teacher or a good grammar book can help. There are often useful guidelines (albeit with a lot of exceptions) that can help you understand when the tenses are used. But real learning will take place from repeated exposure to the language through reading and listening, and seeing the structures in action for yourself.

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5. Verb tables

So, what can you do to learn English grammar? One thing is to memorise key verb tables. This can be done through the look, cover, write, check formula. Simply choose a verb table (the Past Simple, for example), look at it for a few minutes, then cover it and try to write it out again. Finally, compare your version with the original... then do it again until you can recreate the table perfectly. Then, choose another tense to work on. It shouldnt take long as there really arent that many key grammar tenses to learn.

6. Memory & repetition

You also need to memorise key grammatical sentences. Listen and repeat these back to yourself until youve learnt them by heart and you can say them uently. The sentences may be out of context, and they may not be entirely natural, but that doesnt matter because the purpose is to internalise the basic structure, which you can then use

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