Questions tagged [grammar]
The grammar of a language defines the way in which its sentences are constructed by establishing its structure, syntax, and morphology
63
questions
23
votes
4answers
1k views
Is doing a huge amount of grammar exercises helpful for learning English?
Some books that teach English come with pages and pages of grammar exercises. Are these helpful?
I see that a few exercises are helpful to help you understanding the grammar. However, after that, ...
18
votes
3answers
1k views
What resources are there for learning Toki Pona?
I recently started using Memrise to learn Toki Pona, because I find that language to be very interesting. Memrise is indeed useful regarding vocabulary, but I think it is not enough.
Are there other ...
12
votes
2answers
82 views
Strategies to deal with declensions
Languages like German or Russian have declensions. However my native language does not have those declensions, and thus I have a hard time understanding their “point”, that is their added meaning and ...
11
votes
5answers
172 views
Are there learning resources to drill my Dutch?
When I was learning English we used lots of exercises that were referred to as use of English, which help you train some particular grammar.
Now, I am learning Dutch and most of the exercises ...
10
votes
1answer
85 views
Grammar and language learning books/software for Irish
I am currently learning Irish with the help of the Android application "Duolingo". It doesn't teach me the grammar; it works with translating sentences. I don't think the app is very useful; ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How can I put grammar rules into flashcards?
Putting vocabulary into flashcards is (relatively) a no-brainer: word -> translation, translation -> word. (Yes, it can be more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it.)
Grammar rules, on ...
9
votes
2answers
140 views
Why learn English grammar first? Just gets in the way
I watch Thai kids learning grammar; they can diagram English sentences at age twelve but almost tremble with fear when addressed with "How are you?" (as often as not they say "I am 12 years old.")
My ...
9
votes
2answers
72 views
Identifying cases by rephrasing to a question – is this any useful for language learners?
Background
The German language has cases, but for many words some or all cases are identical.
However, interrogatives are distinct for each case.
Therefore native speakers often identify the case of ...
9
votes
1answer
762 views
French Grammar Book B1/B2
Salut!
My French is currently around level B1+ and I'm planning on spending 2-3 months in a French-speaking country and fully commit myself to improving my abilities. The goal is to have quite good ...
9
votes
1answer
229 views
What resources can I use to master German word order?
There are a number of tricky parts to learning German, but for this question I'm particularly concerned about word order. I'm using Duolingo and I often miss questions where this is the only thing I ...
9
votes
2answers
110 views
What are the advantages of tables with declension endings to study a declension system?
Update: What I'm asking is if there's any evidence in the field of language learning stating if a mere table with declensions is useful for learning those declensions.
This is opposed to the usual ...
9
votes
0answers
70 views
How to practice honorifics?
Japanese has honorifics (敬語 - "keigo"), a feature of which my native language English is devoid. For example, there is different vocabulary and grammar to use when speaking to a social superior, about ...
8
votes
2answers
784 views
List of Chinese “verb plus object” verbs?
In Chinese, many verbs consist of two characters. However, not all two-character verbs function in the same way.
One category of two-character verbs consists of verbs where the two characters cannot ...
8
votes
1answer
104 views
Are second languages processed the same way as first languages?
Everyone who is cognitively normal is capable of learning a language natively. The fact that humans seem to have an innate capacity to learn any natural language is one of the underlying principles of ...
8
votes
3answers
91 views
Slightly Incomplete Sequential Acquisition, Possible to Fix?
I have had my first exposure to English at about six years of age (and have used it ever since), and I generally consider myself a native speaker since I use it a lot (even if this is probably ...
7
votes
1answer
91 views
How do natives write without knowing grammar rules?
Grammar is boring, but how can native speakers write academically, without mistakes, without knowing the grammar rules they learnt in high school? Most natives learn grammar when they are in school, ...
7
votes
2answers
595 views
Is it possible to learn grammar through spaced repetition, and if yes, how?
Spaced repetition is mostly used for learning vocabulary, but learning vocabulary is not all there is to learning a foreign language. Grammar also needs to be acquired, one way or another. Since doing ...
7
votes
2answers
123 views
How can I speak in impromptu situations without organizing my thoughts beforehand but still communicate properly?
I have a problem that has been bothering me since I became conscious of it. I am not fluent in my speech. This has really affected my confidence such that I'm not able to speak in impromptu situations,...
7
votes
2answers
62 views
What should I focus on if I only have 10-20 minutes a day, with speaking practice once a week?
I have a friend who is willing to help me speaking a relatively rare language here in the U.S. (Afaan Oromo) once a week over the phone. When I was calling him regularly several months ago, I would ...
7
votes
2answers
88 views
Should I correct my grammar mistakes or just ignore them while practice speaking?
While practice speaking a foreign language, I often find myself make a mistake during the speech and correct it immediately. The mistakes usually come from grammar, which I rarely do in writing. For ...
7
votes
2answers
113 views
Is there an online resource to exchange grammar corrections in one's native and target languages?
I have a text written in English (scientific). I want to ask somebody to give me some advice in writing and grammar. I have time to do the same for other persons in Spanish, my native language. Is ...
7
votes
1answer
355 views
How to learn conjugations?
Perhaps it's because I'm still not very familiar with Russian but I often find myself using the wrong conjugation for specific verbs. How do I go about memorizing those?
I thought about drawing a ...
7
votes
1answer
82 views
How does the existence of a case system affect the learnability of a foreign language?
Case is a grammatical category that can be found in Slavic languages, Finnic languages, Greek, Japanese, Tamil, etc. (The Finnic language Veps apparently has 23 grammatical cases, and tops even ...
7
votes
3answers
163 views
Is there evidence that languages with complex grammar take longer to learn as a mother tongue?
This question is about learning to speak a language as a mother tongue (i.e., from birth (L1), not as a second language (L2)).
Some languages have more grammar rules than others (number of cases, ...
6
votes
3answers
625 views
When studying German, how much time should be spent on learning grammar rules vs. vocabulary?
How much time do I need to give to learning grammar rules versus vocabulary while studying German, or is it possible to speak a foreign language without needing to learn grammar rules?
6
votes
2answers
348 views
German grammar books with exercises and answer key for self study
I am looking for a grammar book or series of grammar books for German that match the following criteria:
the book or books must be in German, i.e. all grammar rules and instructions must be in German ...
6
votes
2answers
80 views
Going from 9.5/10 to 10/10 in grammatical correctness in spoken English
I speak French natively, with a level of spoken English I would rate at around 9 or 9.5 out of 10, in terms of grammatical accuracy. (My written English is at least as good.)
Problems I sometimes ...
6
votes
1answer
521 views
French grammar books with exercises and answer key for self study (A2 - B2)
I am looking for a grammar book or series of grammar books for French that match the following criteria:
the book or books must be in French, i.e. all grammar rules and instructions must be in French ...
6
votes
1answer
106 views
Is there any research on the effectiveness of learning verb tables?
I own books with verb tables for French, German and Spanish, i.e. for several languages with rather elaborate verb conjugations. At school, I was made to learn such conjugations for French verbs and ...
6
votes
2answers
91 views
How can an advanced learner in an FL context get rid of grammatical errors?
Imagine someone who learnt foreign language (FL) from the same language family as his native language (L1) for three years at secondary school and then continued studying this language at university. ...
5
votes
3answers
97 views
Explain contemporary high-school language teaching to me [closed]
I do appreciate the answer to this question varies on where you are in the world but I'm happy to hear of different approaches from different countries. I'd be particularly interested in responses ...
5
votes
0answers
47 views
Spanish grammar books with exercises and answer key for self study
I am looking for a grammar book or series of grammar books for Spanish that match the following criteria:
the book or books must be in Spanish, i.e. all grammar rules and instructions must be in ...
5
votes
0answers
58 views
How and where can I begin learning grammar and syntax in their most abstract form?
I am interested in learning grammar and syntax. I use those words because that's what I learned in middle school, perhaps what I'm really trying to learn is more aptly described by the term '...
4
votes
2answers
82 views
Does memorizing French verb conjugations with the sound of English characters have negative impact in the future?
I'm struggling to memorize the verb conjugation in French as different conjugations are pronounced the same but the characters are different. For example, I tend to write the following sentence:
Nous ...
4
votes
1answer
57 views
Question about Macedonian Grammar
I'm trying to learn Macedonian and one if the resources out there was paraphrased as saying the following about the Macedonian language:
Belamaric-Wilsey says that the majority of Macedonian-...
4
votes
1answer
59 views
Grammar books with exercises and answer key for autonomous study of Italian
I am looking for a grammar book or series of grammar books for Italian that match the following criteria:
the book or books must be in Italian, i.e. all grammar rules and instructions must be in ...
4
votes
2answers
62 views
What types of resources can a native speaker of Dutch use to teach Dutch grammar to non-native speakers?
Most native speakers aren't linguists, so they may get stumped when non-native speakers ask them grammar questions. So what types of resources can a native speaker of Dutch use to teach Dutch grammar ...
4
votes
2answers
50 views
How can I find the correct word order for Marshallese sentences?
I am trying to make a set of cards (for the card game "Kloo") in the Marshallese language. It's basically color-coded for noun, verbs, etc... to be placed in a certain order. How do I discover the ...
4
votes
1answer
373 views
Grammar book for Russian B2-C1 exam preparation
I would like to review Russian grammar for passing the entry exams at a Russian university. Can you please suggest books where I can find structured chapters on Russian grammar?
UPDATE
I can ...
4
votes
0answers
75 views
The “fully grammatical” approach towards learning Indo-European languages
I have stumbled upon this video on Youtube (sorry - it is in Russian).
Here's a short summary:
The spokesperson introduces the following scheme of learning an Indo-European language:
"Learn by ...
4
votes
0answers
42 views
What can teachers do to promote or increase mastery of 把 structures in Standard Chinese?
Each lesson in the Chinese series of texbooks New Practical Chinese Reader contains a section entitled "Master the following phrases". Below are a few examples from lesson 16 (in volume 2):
现在就去 - ...
4
votes
1answer
62 views
What strategies can students use to learn grammar when studying independently? [closed]
I would never advise students to focus mostly on grammar, but spending some time focused on grammar can be useful (Paul Nation recommends spending 25% of time focused on language, including grammar ...
4
votes
0answers
63 views
Is there evidence that supports the idea that vocabulary is more important than grammar in conversation? [duplicate]
"Focus on your vocabulary first, then fix your grammar."
This is a maxim that has been drilled into my head over several years of my Spanish teachers saying this, but is there really any truth to ...
3
votes
2answers
130 views
Can English people understand my English even if I do not use English grammar, but just words, adverbs and context?
I would say English language is way too difficult because of its grammar.
For example, we have to conjugate many different tenses.
Other languages such as Vietnamese do not conjugate tenses.
For ...
3
votes
1answer
57 views
How does the existence of a separate present progressive tense affect the learnability of a foreign language?
In English, the present progressive tense has its own distinguished syntax.
For example, the present progressive I am writing differs from the simple present tense I write.
On the other hand, in ...
3
votes
1answer
41 views
Creating flashcards for grammatical rules that requires a few steps of thought, such as SPOCK versus WEIRDO
If there's grammar rule that requires a couple of steps of thought in order to create the correct output, how do I put it into flashcards?
For example, Spanish has (as well as imperative) the ...
3
votes
1answer
36 views
Grammar books with exercises and answer key for autonomous study of Dutch
I am looking for a grammar book or series of grammar books for Dutch that match the following criteria:
the book or books must be in Dutch, i.e. all grammar rules and instructions must be in Spanish (...
3
votes
1answer
50 views
Book or other resources on activities for teaching Chinese grammar?
I am looking for a book or other resources about tasks and activities for teaching Chinese grammar. There are book on teaching English grammar, e.g. Task-based grammar teaching of English by Susanne ...
3
votes
0answers
25 views
Is there any evidence based on research that reading certain types of texts can be harmful to your language learning?
I've been learning Italian for some years (at present my level is C1): during that time I've been essentially a self-learner, with the exception of a few months, and I've been a quite active user of ...
3
votes
0answers
49 views
Modern grammar theories for serial language learning
When learning multiple foreign languages, would it be worthwhile investing time into mastering modern grammar theories (generative grammars, construction grammars, etc.) or are those too theoretical ...
