By Shivam
If you are new here please read this first.
English grammar is not necessary for speaking fluently; you only need to focus on idioms, phraseology, and slangs in order to communicate like a native. It is for this reason that even after years of learning English grammar at school you can’t speak fluently.
Well, that’s somewhat you read when you hit up my personal blog, or be it English Harmony or any other English learning blog.
Is this a mere saying or we are just making you believe this so you read our blogs?
Hey there everyone,
My name is Shivam Singh and today I will let you in on some secret juice of speaking like a native and bust some myths down the line.
Coming back to our topic, English grammar definitely doesn’t even stand close to that of learning native phraseology, idioms or slangs if it’s about speaking fluently. When you notice a little improvement in your spoken English after learning some phraseology and idiomatic expressions, you kind of subconsciously permanent this fact that English grammar is not necessary for speaking fluently and you are like:
“Yeah, He said that English grammar doesn’t hold much importance for speaking fluently and I am trying to speak English from my school days and I could not. Maybe I should learn only vocabulary and sooner I will speak like a native.”
Sorry to break your hearts, but readers often misinterpret the concepts of learning differently than what we say.
Where is the problem?
Being a non-native I can put myself in your shoes, and I completely understand we sometimes make mistakes while speaking, but that should not take place every time you start your conversation. More often than not, we make these mistakes in grammar, so the bottom line is, learning grammar isn’t that bad you see.
If I have to put all the concepts in a single graph, I would say, English grammar holds about 10 percent importance in your spoken English.
The 10 percent rule? (Tense+ conditionals+ prepositional verbs)
We, as a teacher, often suggest you not to pay much attention to your grammar because there are more than thousands of rules in a language book and if you follow every single one of them you will be extra cautious about not to make any mistakes. As a result, people lose their flow of words and don’t speak fluently. It is indeed a fact you only need as little as 10 percent grammar knowledge to speak fluently, but the problem is people sometimes even ignore that 10 percent grammar they must know.
Not paying attention to grammar doesn’t mean that you always make mistakes, even at the easiest sentences that you should always speak correctly. So today, let’s see some of the most common mistakes that are just unacceptable and which you should never repeat down the line.
1: Using the second form of the verb with the helping verb ‘did’
This is one of the common mistakes I find when I read comments, emails or be it any remark or statement on social media by a non-native, to be more precise, Asians. We always use the first form of the verb with the helping verb ‘did’ (did + first form of the verb) in past indefinite tense. Now let’s consider some of the example sentences for better understanding:
- I did not went to school yesterday. (WRONG)
I did not go to school yesterday. (Did +the first form of the verb) - Ron did not came to my birthday party. (WRONG)
Ron did not come to my birthday party. (Did + the first form of the verb)
2: Wrong use of prepositional verbs
I totally get it, that it’s not that easy for a non-native to use the right preposition every single time they speak, especially if you are a beginner. And the matter of the fact is, there is only one shortcut to learn them and that is to practice and learn, hence there are no shortcuts to learn them all in a single day. You will definitely make mistakes, but the bottom line is to keep learning and improving.
A few example sentences:
- Robin was accused for the theft that happened yesterday.
Robin was accused of the theft that happened yesterday. - She is married with a famous footballer.
She is married to a famous footballer.
3: Misuse of ‘which’ in place of ‘who’
Let’s first consider a few examples for the clarification:
- The guy which worked as my assistant quitted the job.
The guy who worked as my assistant quitted his job. (CORRECT) - I don’t know the girl which was standing beside you yesterday.
I don’t know the girl who was standing beside you yesterday. (CORRECT)
Did you notice the mistake?
We never use ‘which’ for referring to a person because he/she is a living being, so you should always use ‘who’ in this case instead of ‘which’.
Almost every third non-native makes this mistake, but from now on you should not.
4: Unnecessarily using ‘more’ for the comparative degree of the adjective
Example sentences:
- It’s more hot today than it was yesterday.
It’s hotter today than it was yesterday. - You are doing more good day by day.
You are doing better day by day.
I get it when people read comparative degrees of adjectives like ‘beautiful’ or ‘interesting’ which are ‘more beautiful’ and ‘more interesting’, it might have struck their mind – it won’t be wrong if I use ‘more’ anywhere for the comparative degree of an adjective.
But you go to accept certain rules and follow them, and please don’t ask why you can’t use ‘more’?
There are certain grammar rules that we have to follow without any reason and it is one of them.
I hope you would have found this article useful and relatable and easy to learn. Make sure you never make these mistakes down the line and work on your weak issues.
It is for this reason, Robby created English Harmony System where you will not only learn thousands of idiomatic expressions, phraseology, and collocations but also correct your mistakes. I will be loyal to you in my review, English harmony System is not for language learning, but the technique Robby used is outstanding to learn English and speak fluently. There are built-in dialogues with spaced repetition technique to permanent them in your mind and you will learn the whole sentence instead of just the phraseology, hence leaving almost 0.01 percent chance for you to make any grammatical error down the line (I can’t assure you of that 0.01% though, ha-ha).
Lemme know in the comment section below about your views and if you made any of the mistakes I mentioned in the above article.
And in case you wanna give my blog ‘Your English Vocabulary’ a knock, don’t hesitate to check that out after you are done with English Harmony.
Keep learning and improving.
Take care, and till then?
Bye-bye.
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!