Aww yeah! So today we are talking about what many consider a hot topic, and that is grammar! So if
you watch this video until the end you are going to make amends, and we will help you
to learn to enjoy grammar, because we will help you understand that grammar is just a foundation,
that language is a living being, how grammar is like Yoda, that context is everything,
it's okay to make mistakes, how you probably already know more than you think, and finally that
you should learn what to use before how to use it. But before we get into any of that I want to let
you know that if you are new here, every single week we help you to understand
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Now, before we really jump into the bulk of today's lesson, do you know what grammar
really is? Now grammar is simply the structure of the language, it's kind of how we determine
what words to place where. Now while this is super important and it's really crucial that you study
the grammatical structure when you're learning another language, this isn't the sole thing that
you should be focusing on, and learning grammar is so much more than just memorizing the rules.
I'm sure that you have encountered that natives break the rules all the time.
You might hear in a different song just for example from The Beatles.
They have a song where they say, "She's got a ticket to ride, but she don't care."
Now in school I'm sure that you learned that it should be: he-she-it
doesn't care, but we can see that natives will be really flexible with the language.
All right, so I want you to take a moment to think of the English language a bit like a house.
Now if you were looking at a house grammar would be like the foundation of that house. It's
what gives it structure and helps it to stand. Now, if all you have is grammar then your house
might be a bit bare. It might be a bit empty, you might not even be able to live in it and that is
why you might have things like word choice, for example. Now this might be like the color that
you paint the walls, or the sofa that you have in your living room, so it's when people come and
visit your house how are they going to perceive it, how is it going to make them feel emotionally.
Now when we speak a language we don't usually have such a conscious knowledge of how it works, most
natives aren't actually aware of the grammar rules and I'm sure, if you think about your knowledge of
your own language, this is probably the case, unless you're actually a teacher of it. However
knowing the rules and studying them can be very empowering if you're doing it in the right way.
And the main point that you really should take away here is that grammar is like the compass
that makes sure that we're all speaking the same language.
So Wade Davis said that language is a flash of the human spirit. Now, what this means
is that English speakers worldwide are constantly reinventing the language. It's always growing and
changing and evolving. Now what was spoken in Shakespearean times for example is not at all
the same grammar that we're using in today's English. Just to give you an example, you
probably learned in school that one way to form the future tense is by saying, "I'm going to."
However you will almost never hear natives say it this way. You might hear very often "I'm
gonna," but did you know that we shorten it even more nowadays? You can encounter people saying
"I'm anna" instead of I'm gonna, or shortening it even more all the way down to "imma."
Now just to give you another example, centuries ago English actually had two forms of the pronoun
you. So for the singular we would say thou and for the plural we would say ye. Now, nowadays
most people will probably just use one word for both the singular and the plural, and that's you.
However if you go to some places, for example in the South of the United States,
you might hear people instead using "you all" for the plural of the second person of the you.
So they say you if they're just talking to one person and you all if they're talking to a group.
Or in other parts of the U.S you might hear people saying you guys to refer to a group
of both men and women. And furthermore the rules are going to vary depending on
where you're using the English. So if you travel to the UK you might
find some little bit different rules than you would find if you're using American English.
So really when you're thinking about what is correct grammar, you first have to think about
where are you actually taking the use of that English language, and in addition to this,
modern British grammar and vocabulary and so many other aspects are highly influenced
by American English, because of all of the media that comes out of the United States.
So what's more, grammar rules can be flexible in both spoken and written English. Just to give you
an example of this, you can hear certain people use ain't all the time when they're speaking,
but you probably would not want to use this if you're doing some sort of formal writing.
Now, finally it's really important that we remember that grammar tries to explain what
natives naturally do when they speak a language. So grammar is really complex
and an ambiguous system, and there are even discrepancies between the leading grammarians.
So if you're a Star Wars fan then you already know that Yoda's wisdom gave Luke guidance on his
journey to help him decide what the best next step to take was. So in the same way grammar is like an
old friend that helps you to make informed decisions when you're speaking or writing in
English. It takes you to the next level and helps you to give a more accurate sense of your ideas.
so it helps you to be independent, but it should be used in a constructive way. So
this is just in the same way that you'd use a flashlight to find your way in the dark
or that you would use floaties to help yourself feel more secure when you're swimming.
So you should use grammar in your favor, not against you. Friends push each other forward,
they don't hold each other back. And we would love to be your Yoda on your English learning journey
and help you to learn grammar the natural way. So a really great place to get started
is with our Power Learning Mini Course. You can join that absolutely FREE. You
can learn more and sign up looking up here or down the description below.
Do you remember when you were a child learning your first language?
Did you have to learn all the grammar rules before you could start speaking? And nowadays,
do you know all the grammar rules flawlessly to be able to communicate in your native language?
So in the very same way when you're learning English it's useful to know the function of
different grammar points before its rules. So a good idea can actually be learning what to use
before how it's actually constructed in a grammatically correct way.
So just to give you an example of this, say that you want to talk about something that
you did in the past but that you don't do anymore. So you would use "used to"
or "would." Now by knowing this then you can know how you would correctly conjugate this
in the affirmative or the negative or what kind of verb form needs to come after this.
So I would be willing to bet that this is not how they taught you at all in school. It's okay
to figure out the grammar rules as you're going about your journey learning the language. You
don't need to have them all memorized before you can start speaking. Just to give you an example,
when I was learning Catalan I didn't study the grammar at all. For the first few years I actually
just started using it first, to be able to understand different things that I enjoyed, like
music or TV series. And to start being able to speak with different friends in that language. And
then a couple years ago I was really determined to actually start studying the language to be able to
kind of polish up some of my mistakes. And so when I started at that point studying grammar
it made perfect sense to me, because I had already encountered these things hundreds of times if not
thousands. It wasn't just some abstract set of rules that I felt like I had to memorize.
So that leads us perfectly into the next point and that is that context is everything.
So without context, memorizing the rules in a grammar book won't do anything for you,
and that's why it's so great to learn English by reading or by watching series. Because you'll
actually see the different grammatical structures used in context and sometimes
these can actually be absorbed without you even realizing them. And this is exactly
what we'll do for you in that Power Learning Mini Course that I told you about earlier.
So to help you understand this a little bit better let's look at an example.
So the present continuous can be used in a variety of different functions.
Let's look at four different ways, just so that you'll understand why context is so important.
So first off, she's eating dinner, that's why she can't answer the phone.
He's studying for his S.A.T exams. People are texting much more than they used to.
When we moved to Italy, we're buying a house on the coast.
So as you can see if you don't know what you need to express in a certain context,
knowing that you form the present continuous by adding the verb to be plus a verb plus ing,
is going to be completely useless to you. However schools will often teach grammar
blindly in this way. And also, as we touched on earlier, the place where you grew up,
the region that you live in, and even the family that you grew up with,
can also influence how you speak the language. So let's take a look also at how important context
is in informal and formal situations. So we'll look at different examples
and both of them can actually be correct, depending on what context that you're in.
So as you can see it's nearly humanly impossible to know and be aware of all
the different variants of a language and what is considered correct in each of them and again
some things might be considered grammatically incorrect, but natives still do them anyway.
So grammatical competence is the ability to make sense of grammatical sentences in at least one
language and transfer that to another. So you may already be able to take some things that you know
in your native language and apply those to English, you're not starting completely from zero.
Now in addition to that your previous exposure is absolutely essential,
so have you ever had that feeling that you are speaking or you're writing something and you
just know how to say that correctly, and you're not even sure how to explain why you know that?
Now this is based on the previous exposure that you've had for the language, you've probably seen
that use some place and your brain has been able to kind of connect the dots, even though
you can't explain it. And you've probably learned some sort of different grammatical structures
that maybe you haven't even formally studied yet. And this is exactly why constant exposure is so
crucial: the more that you expose yourself to a language by listening to it and reading it,
the less time that you need to sit down formally studying at your desk. So one place we can see
that this is important is that sometimes two different varieties of saying one thing
can be used in the same variety of English. So American or British for example, and on the other
hand only one form might be accepted in another variety of the language. So just to give you
an example of it let's look at these sentences. So is jack here? No, he's just gone home. Now who
do you think would say that? Brits or Americans? Now actually you could hear both Brit and
Americans using it that way. However if we change the dialogue a little bit and instead it becomes:
Is jack here? No, he just went home. Who would say it that way?
So you could know that that person is an American speaking because this is accepted
in American English but not in British English. So let's take a quick look at another example.
So say someone calls me on the phone. I could answer and say, "Hello, is that Susan?"
Now who do you think would say it that way? Would that be a Brit or an American?
Now that would be a Brit that would say it that way. An American would actually say,
"Is this Susan?" and by the way if you want to learn more differences between
British and American English, then I highly recommend that you check out this video.
You'll find that by clicking up here or down the description below.
It's okay to make mistakes. Repeat it to yourself like a mantra. Making mistakes is a crucial part
of the learning process. I mean how many times did you fall down before you learned to walk?
Now, having a reasonable amount of correctness is important because people need to be able to
understand you. It's quite unnecessary that you can perfectly speak the language. I mean natives
don't even speak the language perfectly. We talked earlier about how natives often make mistakes
and these mistakes can actually become the norm, so much so that eventually they're accepted into
what is considered correct grammar or correct English. So just to give you an example,
the word data was not always said this way. For the singular of this we used to
say datum which comes from latin. So just to give you an example of this:
only having one datum for my paper was not enough to prove my theory. And it has gained different
meaning and been used as a singular uncountable noun ever since. So, to give you an example,
they transfer the data to a flash drive. So we don't know if they're talking about one piece
of data or multiple pieces of data in that case. So if you go to Starbucks and you order coffee,
the barista of course is not worried about whether or not you're correctly applying the entire table
of contents of your grammar book. They just need you to be intelligible enough so they know
what you're asking for. They can place your order correctly and you can enjoy a nice cup of coffee.
Remember, if you hold yourself back for fear of not speaking flawlessly
then you are bound to forget what you've already learned. Remember that grammar
is not the most important thing in the world. Alright so we've talked about a lot in today's
video, so in it you remembered that grammar is the foundation of the language, but its rules are not
set in stone. The language is constantly changing and evolving and the grammar is too. Understanding
the radical rules will empower you but they should only come second when communicating.
You already know more than you think so trust your guts, and making mistakes is okay they're
natural part of the learning process. So I want to know what are your main
takeaways from today's lesson? What surprised you the most? Write it down in the comments
below and let's start a conversation. And now it's time to go beyond the
classroom and live your English! And you'll learn the grammar along the way.