A GUIDE to BASIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR

× GRAMMAR AND ITS IMPORTANCE ×

What exactly is grammar?

What is its importance?

There are several other such questions that we need to understand before we begin this book, to understand why we are putting in so much of effort in the first place, and also to realize that grammar is nothing to be afraid of! I know, many of us are actually afraid of those syntax and all. Even I was!

So, if I ask you what is grammar, then what will your answer be?

Maybe, ‘the rules of a language’! Right?

But does any language actually follow a particular set of rules? Confused? Let’s answer it this way…

If we say the word ‘rules’, doesn’t that give us a feeling that someone created the rules first, gave those guidelines, and then the spoken language came into existence that followed the given set of rules. But as we all know, that’s not the case. Language, the way of communication, developed way before the word ‘grammar’ came into existence. Humans started with signs and symbols to communicate first, which later got evolved into several forms, much more than we have come to know about even today.

Just as the saying goes, “Change is the law of nature,” all languages change over time. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. We can quote an example for this from the ancient culture of India as well. As per the history of India, languages evolved in several forms from the undeciphered ones, to Pali and Prakrit, to Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic , and finally to Hindavi that is being spoken in most of the part of Northern India today, and undoubtedly this will keep evolving further as well.

We can say that, what we call ‘grammar’ is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time. Agreed?

Now, the question that arises is,

Is grammar really a basic necessity to learn a language?

Ever seen a child? Ever heard him speak?

A child starts speaking even before he becomes familiar with the word ‘grammar’. There are many people in the world who are speaking their own native language without feeling the need to learn its grammar. We can say that, all that differentiates between the correct and the incorrect usage of language in this case is experience.

But when it comes to studying a foreign language, the answer to above question becomes ‘yes’.

Let’s take an example. Suppose, someone gives you a few pieces of wood and asks you to build a wooden house using them. The catch in here, you don’t have any glue, or nails, or superglue, or anything of that sort that can hold the pieces together. Will you be able to make one? Or even if you, somehow, succeed in making one, will that be able to stand strong in front of all the adversities?

No, right?

The words of a language are like these wooden pieces and to hold them together, we need grammar. We can say that the grammar is like a friend that can help you in learning a language more quickly and more efficiently. When you understand grammar, you will be able to understand many things about the language yourself, and quite possibly you won’t even feel the need of a teacher or a book to correct you each and every time.

# IMPORTANCE OF GRAMMAR

From all that has been discussed above, we can infer that grammar is the structure and sound of a language. It is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves.

Quoting from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), America, “Grammar is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. And knowing about grammar offers a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.”

Knowing about grammar not only develops our understanding for using the language more effectively, but also prevents the tenacious misapplication of language. Understanding the meaning conveyed by sentences develops our ability to express and respond to this meaning.

So, in a nutshell, we can say that, no matter whether you are a writer or are appearing in a job interview, are studying abroad or are a student of a college or university, correct grammar won’t just demonstrate your English skills but will also show that you’re diligent and have an eye for detail.

# EFFECTIVE WRITING AND GRAMMAR

Writing is, undoubtedly, a really complex activity. There are several one of us who are quite fluent when it comes to spoken English but tend to make mistake while constructing grammatically correct sentences while writing.

And this is where we need to apply the basic grammar rules while constructing sentences to bridge this gap.

Development of proper writing skills is of great importance as by constructing sentences that have a proper meaning, one can express his ideas coherently, making the piece of writing enjoyable at the same time.

There are some very common grammatical mistakes take we make while writing. Some of these are:

~ Improper use of articles (A, An, The)

~ Placing of punctuation marks

~ Confusion in the use of ‘to’ as preposition or as an infinitive.

~ Mistakes in contractions (for e.g., You’re and Your)

~ No agreement between subject and verb.

And the list goes on! But not to worry! We will be discussing all of these in the upcoming chapters.

I felt this chapter was necessary to get you all familiarize with what actually grammar is. I hope you all got my point, though, I know I must have bored you all.

If in case, you still have any questions, please feel free to ask them here.

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And now the TASK.

Since, we won’t be having any exercise for this chapter, I want you all to write ‘How do you think grammar is helpful to you?’ You can write it with the point of view of a writer or you can also bring in your professional viewpoint. That’s totally your wish.

But in no case, your answer should exceed 150-200 words. You can submit your answers by Saturday, i.e., 29th of August, 2020 in the comment box below. The best answer will get a shout out and will get featured in the next chapter.

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Now, before wrapping up, let’s have our WORD OF THE WEEK. Yes, I will be giving you a new word every week. Just a small addition to the vocabulary of all of us. So, the word of this week is:

ESURIENT: hungry, greedy

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I hope this was helpful. See you all next week with the first lesson. Till then stay blessed and happy reading!

Signing off for now!

With love,
Stella ❤️