grammar

Grammar is the study of how sentences in a specific language are constructed.

Grammar also refers to the features and rules of the language that guide users to creating properly constructed sentences. When we follow grammar rules it helps our listeners and readers understand what we’re trying to communicate.

For example, one feature of English grammar is that the order of the words in a sentence helps tell us what job each word is doing. If we put all the nouns at the front of the sentence, as in I dogs own three, you’d wonder what we meant. When we put the subject of the sentence before the verb and the object after it, as in I own three dogs, you can understand what we mean.

As with most languages, English has many different aspects of grammar that we follow in order to make understandable sentences. Most people learn and improve their grammar throughout their lives, starting when they first learn the language.

The first records of the word grammar comes from around 1325. It ultimately comes from the Greek word grammatikós, meaning “knowing one’s letters.”

The idea of grammar is much older than the word itself and older even than the English language, as we can see from the word’s origin. Every major language on Earth has some system of grammar, and some language experts believe that language itself cannot exist without grammar.

Usually, children learn to speak their first language without actually being taught the rules of grammar. Instead, they slowly learn by copying how other people talk. Once they start school, children are taught the rules they’ve been using unconsciously. Students are taught different grammar concepts throughout their schooling. People whose jobs directly relate to language, such as writers, editors, linguists, and lexicographers, learn even more about grammar as part of their job training.

Some people are especially bothered by even the smallest grammar errors, which we all make. Unfortunately, the errors many people are bothered by are not actually errors. You can learn more about this tendency at the entry for grammar nazi, though you might not want to use that term itself.

Many children learned grammar from books like these:

Although many people care about grammar, they often struggle with it, especially on social media.

I can't stand bad grammar. I must delete all my tweets with bad grammar. Grammar is everything.

— J (@JVCKJ) October 27, 2015

Day 1, Lesson 1, Question 1 of homeschooling my 7-year-old, and I’ve had to google it.

It’s a grammar question, and I’ve been a professional writer for more than 20 years 🤦‍♂️.

— mark smith (@markismith50) January 5, 2021

• language
• sentence
• syntax
• context
• part of speech
• spelling
• punctuation
• vocabulary

True or False?

Grammar only matters when it comes to writing and not speaking.