Practical tools for learning and teaching grammar

Part I
Teaching grammar
Grammar – background and history
3
Teaching strategies for the contemporary classroom
8
Practical suggestions
14
Part II 
The parts of speech
Introduction
21
1 Nouns 
22
Common nouns 
22
Proper nouns 
23
Collective nouns 
25
Abstract nouns 
27
Revision of nouns 
29
Things we can say about nouns 
30
Number 
30
I
II
v

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Gender 
32
Case 
34
2 Pronouns
35
Personal pronouns 
35
Demonstrative pronouns 
38
3 Verbs
41
Finite and non-finite verbs 
41
Tense 
44
Simple and continuous verbs 
45
Auxiliary (helper) verbs 
49
4 Adjectives
53
Adjectives formed from nouns and verbs 
56
Words that can be used as several parts of speech 
56
Adjectives of degree and comparison 
58
5 Adverbs
62
Adverbs of time 
63
Adverbs of place 
63
Adverbs of manner 
63
Interrogative adverbs 
64
Comparative adverbs 
64
Irregular adverbs of comparison 
64
6 Articles
68
The indefinite article 
69
The definite article 
69
7 Prepositions
71
8 Conjunctions
73
Coordinating conjunctions 
73
Subordinating conjunctions 
73
9 Interjections
75
10 Sentence forms
76
Statements 
76
Questions 
76
vi
contents

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Commands 
77
Exclamations 
77
11 The apostrophe
80
Contractions 
80
Possession 
81
Avoiding confusion 
82
12 Commas
84
The comma separates 
85
A comma before the word ‘and’ 
86
13 Inverted commas
89
14 Subject and predicate
92
Abbreviations 
95
15 Objects – direct and indirect
97
The direct object 
97
The indirect object 
100
I or me? 
101
The complement 
103
16 More about verbs
108
Subjects matching verbs 
109
Transitive and intransitive verbs 
111
Active and passive voice 
113
17 Participles
116
Present participles 
116
Past participles 
117
Adjectival participles and gerunds 
118
18 Perfect tenses
122
The present perfect tense 
122
The past perfect tense 
122
The future perfect tense 
123
19 More about adjectives and adverbs
128
Numeral adjectives 
128
Indefinite adjectives 
128
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Quantitative adjectives 
128
Interrogative adjectives 
129
Possessive adjectives 
129
Adverbs of comparison 
130
Adverbs modifying other parts of speech 
130
Adverbs formed from adjectives 
131
20 More punctuation
132
Colons 
132
Semicolons 
134
Hyphens 
135
Parentheses – brackets and dashes 
136
Ellipsis 
137
21 More pronouns
139
Interrogative pronouns 
139
Possessive pronouns 
140
Indefinite and distributive pronouns 
140
22 Emphasis
143
23 Mood
145
Indicative mood 
146
Imperative mood 
146
Subjunctive or conditional mood 
146
24 Case
150
Nominative 
150
Accusative 
150
Dative 
150
Genitive 
151
Vocative 
151
25 Phrases
153
Adjectival phrases 
154
Adverbial phrases 
155
Noun phrases 
155
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 26 Clauses
160
Main clauses 
162
Subordinate clauses 
163
Adjectival clauses and relative pronouns 
164
Adverbial clauses 
167
Adverbial clause of time 
168
Adverbial clause of place 
168
Adverbial clause of reason 
169
Adverbial clause of manner 
169
Adverbial clause of condition 
170
Adverbial clause of result 
170
Adverbial clause of purpose 
171
Adverbial clause of concession 
172
Adverbial clause of comparison 
172
Noun clause 
174
27 Clause analysis
177
Format 1 – clause analysis chart 
178
Format 2 – clause analysis table 
179
Format 3 – clause analysis tree 
182
28 Word building
188
29 Improve the way you speak and write
192
Confusion between words 
192
Past tense and past participle 
195
Double negatives 
195
Double comparatives 
196
Redundant adverbs 
196
30 A final word
198
Bibliography
200
Glossary
202
Index
208
ix
contents

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Dedication
To my daughter and business partner Sarah,
who is my constant supporter and critic.
And to Gavin, also our business partner,
supporter and friend.
Acknowledgment
Thank you to my husband John who suffers my long 
work hours and sometime distraction!
and Karen Pennell, my patient and efficient typist who 
reads my handwriting remarkably well.
Also I acknowledge all of our Quantum Literacy Tutors, 
supporters and friends, who have been enthusiastically 
awaiting the book.

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I
Teaching
grammar
Part I

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Grammar – background
and history
Grammar instruction
The word ‘grammar’ often invokes a negative reaction in both 
teachers and students. Many teachers have come through a period in 
which grammar was neglected; for others, grammar has been taught 
in a haphazard way. What has brought about this situation?
During the 1960s and 70s, many believed that traditional 
elements of scholarship should be updated to suit the practices of 
contemporary education. There followed a period of uncertainty. 
No one was sure whether grammar instruction should take place 
or not. Often, if they believed it should, the new curriculum failed 
to allow it. 
However, many in the profession believed that the absence of 
grammar instruction was contributing to a lowering of literacy 
levels. As a return to the grammar instruction courses of the past 
would be unacceptable, a supposed solution was devised – a system 
which became known as new or functional grammar. This system 
involved the generalisation of grammatical terms, and stressed the 
function that language performs, rather than the parts of speech 
described in traditional grammar.
But before the age of 12 or 13 – long after the need for basic 
grammar tuition – children do not normally begin to think 
in abstract terms. No wonder that both parents and teachers 
complained that the children disliked ‘new’ grammar, while they 
themselves found it difficult to follow. 
…
3

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David Crystal, author of 
The
Cambridge Encyclopaedia of 
the English Language
, wrote, ‘In the popular mind, grammar has 
become difficult and distant, removed from real life, and practised 
chiefly by a race of shadowy people (grammarians) whose tech-
nical apparatus and terminology require a lengthy novitiate 
before it can be mastered … It is a shame because the fundamental 
point about grammar is so very important and so very simple.’ 
The final statement is the significant one. We need to show that 
grammar need not be dry or tedious, but can be both fascinating 
and relevant.
Some of you may have received no grammar instruction at all; 
others may have been offered it in a random fashion, eclipsing 
its true function. Grammar provides a whole cohesive system 
concerning the formation and transmission of language. The 
question is, how do we pass on this knowledge? Firstly we need 
to understand it ourselves and, even better, develop that passion 
and enthusiasm in our students.
4
GrAMMAr for eVerYone
I trip (verb) over the rug (noun) and then you say I’m clumsy (adjective)!

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What is grammar?
We all use grammar from the time that we can speak in intelligible 
sentences, because grammar deals with ‘the abstract system of 
rules in terms of which a person’s mastery of his native language 
can be explained.’
1
We assume that it all happens naturally and 
are only confronted with the need to understand and define how 
English works when we learn another language or attempt to teach 
English to others.
So how might we define grammar? The simplest and perhaps 
the truest definition is ‘a language to talk about language’. Just as 
one cannot explain how a motor engine functions (or is failing to 
function) without naming words for its parts and their specific 
actions, so it is impossible to explore the function of words and the