Grammar is the system that structures a language, and every language has its own guidelines. Grammar is like the groundwork for effective communication whether it is written or verbal conversation. Just like an improperly configured telephone wire can cause incomplete phone conversation during call, similarly improper grammar can affect the meaning and clarity of an intended message. Correct usage of grammar makes written content more readable and turns it into more interesting content for the reader. Grammar skills are useful in every aspect of life from education to leadership, and social life to career opportunities. Just as other rules are necessary for daily life, grammar rules are likewise important in everyday life for clarity of meaning and intent. Proper grammar is essential for understanding English as well as for learning a new language also since all languages follow grammatical patterns.
How to Improve Grammar Skills
There are numbers of resources and style guides present to guide people who want to improve their grammatical skills. Following are some practices for improving your grammar skills:
- Learn the Basics: First of all, you have to learn the basics of the grammar like knowledge of parts of speech. It is the basic rule of grammar, so it’s important that you are well aware of these. These are the types of words that make up the language and they are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and sometimes articles also. For putting the sentence properly, you have to understand the whole concept of the parts of speech. Secondly, you have to get knowledge about the points of view. Like in English there are three points of view; First person, second person and third person. You have to recognize all these points of view for making a good grip over grammar. There are some other basic things like proper word orders, conjugate verbs etc. you have to take care of all these things to put an effective grammar in your language.
- Read as Much as You Can: Read a variety of material, start with the children’s book. Children’s books may not be grammar textbooks but they are designed to teach the basics of the language, including fundamental words and spelling, regular and irregular nouns and verbs, simple conjugation, and sentence structure. When you over with these books try to move on advance material like grammar textbooks or you can try the newspaper’s editorial section. Read as much you can, this will nourish your grammatical skills as well as vocabulary. Focus on reading different genres and styles of writing, such as classic literature, textbooks, science-fiction, science books, biographies, blogs, essays, and articles. Pay attention to everything you read in the content like how sentences are built, structured, word order, spellings etc.
- Listen to Others: Observe the others while they are speaking. Listen to them and pay attention to how they construct sentences, where they place words in sentences, how they say common phrases and the vocabulary they use. Try to follow what other people say by repeating it in order to understand how sentences are formed and to expand your vocabulary, but before doing this be sure that they have a grasp of proper grammar. Note down the new words and practice them in your daily life.
- Play Grammar Games: There are various grammatical and word games are present over the internet for the different platforms. So, you can play them in your leisure time, by doing so you can enjoy as well as you can learn new facts about the grammar and enhance your grammatical skills. Since these games are educational, they’ll often provide explanations for wrong answers so you can learn from your mistakes by yourself without any external help. Moreover, libraries, bookstores, and online resources will also offer grammar lessons, practice exercises, and quizzes. So you can try these as well.
- Write Every Day: If you really want to improve your grammar skills then you have to work hard. Set up a routine of writing an article daily. Or you can keep a journal, write short stories, or even just chat in English with friends or family over social sites or applications like Whatsapp, Facebook etc. This daily writing will improve your grammar. Also, apply and practice any new rules or words you've learned. Take the time to look over your mistakes so that you can learn from what you did wrong.
- Proofread Loudly: Most of the time when we re-read our work what we have written; our brain automatically fills up the gaps of missing information. Also, we do not always catch our own mistakes when we proofread. So at that time, reading what you have written out loud, preferably to someone else, is an efficient way to figure out that you have used correct grammar or not. You are more likely to find out your errors if you read the content aloud, rather than in your head to yourself.
- Use Online Resources: Make the wise use of the available resources for improving your grammar and find out your weaknesses. Use online resources or programs, such as Grammarly, GrammarCheck or GrammarBook.com to help you answer a grammar question when it comes up. You could also switch the spell and grammar check on MS Word, your iPad or Google Doc to check your spelling and grammar in English. Nowadays everybody has a smartphone. Make optimum use of it. Download a dictionary app and a grammar app. There are various relevant apps available put them in use.
- Keep Pocket Dictionary: Dictionary is also very helpful in this case. The dictionaries like Oxford or Longman is good. Keep it with you while reading a newspaper. You will be surprised to find out the improvement in your vocabulary skills as well as grammatical skills like adverbs, adjectives etc. in just a month. This will help you do antonyms, synonyms, reading comprehension; one-word type questions either directly or indirectly.
- Avoid Common Mistakes: Work on your usual mistakes, don’t repeat them again and again. Also, don’t get confused between the similar and confusing words, as English has numerous words in this category which are look similar to each, sounds same when you pronounce them.
- Grammar Manual: It is useful to have a grammar reference book nearby whenever you start writing from which you can consult while writing. Whenever a grammatical question arises; you can quickly refer to the manual to obtain the answer. There are many high-quality grammar and writing guidebooks in the market. Moreover, you can speak to a librarian or writing instructor for recommendations or about any other query which you are facing.
- Watch Movies with Subtitles: Watch English movies with the subtitles because it is a natural fact that we can learn fast with the visuals. Moreover, by doing this the learning becomes interesting. Closely observe all the dialogues written in the subtitles and see the usage of words, sentence formations etc.
Start by learning the basics and setting up your writing schedule. Avoid tangents, filler words, and other negative content in your copy. Use more and more literature in your daily life as practice makes perfect. Grammar needs a great understanding and practice. There is no another magical way to get a grip on grammatical skills. This is done only by practice and efforts made by you to learn. Pay complete interest in the language learning and soon you will see the results. Students of any age can take benefit by putting in extra efforts to enhance their grammar. Use the above methods regularly and you will greatly improve your grammar skills before you know it.
