Grammar can be really, really hard. Especially in English. English has more exceptions than rules. You do have to learn the rules. You also have to learn the exceptions. You also have to be ready for everything to change. And you can’t expect much help from teachers or textbooks.
Textbooks overemphasize the rules. Teachers often tell you , “That’s how we say it.” Trying to explain a rule and the exceptions gets too confusing, and in the end, it all boils down to: That’s how we say it. But that may not be how you learn it.
Why the hell is that!?!
The rules in English are not always the same. They are not the same in England and America. They will not be the same tomorrow as they are today. When people change the way they speak they begin creating a new rule. People may stop following the old rule. When teachers and people who write books like this start changing the way they speak and especially the way they write, we really will have a new rule. Not everybody likes this and we constantly argue with each other about what is correct. Sometimes when we argue like this we cannot find an exact answer and we have to agree to disagree.
Always when we argue like this we have a better understanding of English. It makes our brains and our language stronger and more beautiful. Listen to a drumming circle sometime or watch people dancing. There is a rhythm. There are rules. At first everyone might be doing the same thing but pretty soon people start mixing things up. They follow but don’t obey the rhythm. In English we do have to know the rules even if we are going to break them. While we have to keep within the rules for everything to make sense, breaking them beautifully changes everything.
There are rules. You don’t have to master the rules. You have to understand them and respect them– like the referee in a game. Play the game, let the ref figure the rest out.
Let’s not think about what the rules prohibit. Let’s think about all the things they make possible.
Let’s start with the heart of it all. We have words. Grammar is the what we do to the words to make sentences and express ideas. And in English the way we fit the words together can change the meaning of what we are saying.
There are three things we do as we fit the words together:
We change a word. Dog bites man. Dog bit man.
We change the order of words.
Dog bites man. Man bites dog.
We add a new word.
Dog bites man. Dog never bites man.
Each change also changes the meaning of the sentence. The middle pair: “Dog bites man” and “Man bites dog” is the classic example of what is and isn’t news. A dog biting a man isn’t news, that’s normal. A man biting a dog, that’s news because that’s very unusual.
Let’s look at another example. See if you can explain how the grammar changes the meaning of the sentence, “I love you.”
I love you.
I loved you
You love me.
I will love you.
This is our starting sentence.
Three simple, powerful words.
What happens to the meaning with even the slightest change?
Changing the word: loved
Changing the order: you, me
Adding one word: will
I love you.
I loved you
You love me.
I will love you.
What happened here?
The tense changed. “I love you” is in the present tense. I love you now. (Yay!)
“I loved you” is in the past tense. I loved you before, but not now. (Ouch!)
I love you.
I loved you
You love me.
I will love you.
What happened here?
The subject and the object of the sentence changed.
This changes who loves who. (And I to me.)
It might be easier to think about with a more active verb, hit.
“I hit you” is not the same as “You hit me.”
Hopefully, I love you and you love me. When we don’t both love each other, it hurts. Just like being hit.
I love you.
I loved you
You love me.
I will love you.
What happened here?
The tense changed from the present to the future.
“I love you” is the present tense. I love you now. (Yay!)
“I will love you” is the future tense. I don’t love you now (ouch!), but I will love you tomorrow. (…..Yay!)
That’s nice. What about the test?
Keyboard Village 