How i learn english grammar
How i learn english grammar
ТОП-11 бесплатных ресурсов для изучения английской грамматики
Мы уже говорили о том, как быстро и эффективно учить английские слова. Время узнать о подводных камнях английской грамматики. Опираясь на свой опыт, мы собрали список сайтов, на которых классно ее практиковать.
Для новичков
EnglishDom.Грамматика
Плюсы: подробные и доступные правила грамматики, несколько видов заданий на закрепление, интересные и популярные видеоролики с упражнениями. Удобный словарь с готовыми наборами и возможностью создавать свои собственные подборки. Абсолютно все упражнения подкреплены английской озвучкой, а подбор материала осуществляется на основе интересов студента. Сайт также подойдет и более продвинутым пользователям, ведь есть возможность выбирать уровень сложности, а список грамматических тем довольно большой.
Минусы: видео-пояснения есть не у всех грамматических тем.
ABC English Grammar
Плюсы: русскоязычный сайт, на котором представлены более 75 уроков по грамматике с примерами, пояснениями и тестами. На сайте есть отличные видеоролики, созданные носителями языка.
Минусы: не самый удобный и устаревший интерфейс.
Begin English
Плюсы: этот сайт отлично подойдет новичкам. Теоретическая часть написана понятным и простым языком, не нужно будет ломать голову, разбирая сложные конструкции. Все темы отлично структурированы — от легких до более сложных.
Минусы: студентам с более высоким уровням может быть просто и скучно.
Для знающих
BritishCouncil
Плюсы: тот самый сайт от British Council, где можно почитать правила на английском и попрактиковать грамматику, выбрав нужную категорию. На сайте есть и много другой полезной информации, а также игры на английском и подготовка к экзаменам.
Минусы: сайт позиционируется, как предназначенный для всех уровней, но при этом полностью на английском.
Блог Grammarly
Плюсы: интересный и подробный блог на тему грамматики от популярного сервиса Grammarly. Можно найти много полезной информации на тему грамматики, письма и современного сленга.
Минусы: нет заданий на закрепление правил.
engVid
Плюсы: крутой сайт от целого коллектива преподавателей с видео-пояснениями и веселой манерой подачи правил грамматики. Есть упражнения на закрепление и разбивка по темам.
Минусы: сайт полностью на английском, поэтому некоторые детали придется уточнять при помощи словарей.
EnglishGrammar
Плюсы: сайт удобно разделен на категории: времена, существительные, глаголы, предлоги и остальные темы грамматики. На сайте также можно найти видеоуроки и, если у вас нет постоянного доступа к интернету, задания и правила можно загрузить на компьютер или телефон.
Минусы: сайт может показаться сложным для начинающих изучать английский.
Ego4u
Плюсы: здесь находятся правила, примеры и упражнения, а также разделение на уровни сложности. Отличительная черта этого ресурса — после каждой темы есть пример использования правила не просто в предложении, а в художественном тексте.
Минусы: достаточно сложен даже для пользователей с высоким уровнем знания языка.
Для экспертов
Плюсы: очень известный сайт с отдельным разделом, посвященным грамматике. Пригодится всем, кто уже неплохо владеет английским и хочет разобраться в его отдельных аспектах и нюансах, ведь на сайте можно получить ответ от самых квалифицированных специалистов.
Минусы: нет заданий на закрепление правил, сайт полностью на английском.
Quora
Плюсы: сайт тоже не нуждается в представлении. Здесь можно узнать и о грамматике английского и об отдельных случаях использования определенной лексики.
Минусы: сайт предоставляет только справочную информацию, без упражнений на закрепление.
English @ Stack Exchange
Плюсы: сайт, которым часто пользуются многие преподаватели. Нюансы грамматики, частотность использования некоторых слов, современных сленг или история происхождения и произношение — это и еще больше можно узнать именно здесь.
Минусы: также нет заданий на закрепление правил, и стоит просматривать все комментарии, чтобы убедиться в правильном варианте ответа.
Надеемся, что приведенные выше ресурсы помогут вам освоить непростую английскую грамматику.
Продолжайте изучать английский комплексно: слова, грамматика, письменная и разговорная практика, живое общение. Именно такой подход поможет овладеть языком гораздо быстрее, чем изучение его отдельных аспектов.
Желаем вам удачи в обучении и ждем ваших комментариев!
Бонусы для читателей Хабра
Мы дарим вам доступ на год к курсу английского для самостоятельного изучения «Онлайн курс».
Для получения доступа просто перейдите по ссылке до 1 сентября 2017 года.
Индивидуально по Скайпу
3 Surprisingly Simple Steps for Learning English Grammar
You wanted to tell your friend that you were bored, but told them you were boring instead!
If this sounds familiar, you’ll need to brush up on your grammar.
Using correct English grammar will help you to communicate more easily. Here’s how!
Contents
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Master Those Confusing Grammar Points
Some words are so similar that it’s hard to tell the difference between them. Here are a few mistakes that are often made by English learners.
Don’t worry—they’re easy to correct!
Excited and Exciting
These words are both adjectives, so how are they different?
Basically, if it ends with -ed, like excited, then this adjective is used to describe how someone feels:
“I’m so excited. I’m going on vacation to Guam tomorrow!”
You can also use other adjectives such as relaxed, intrigued and bored:
“He’s bored because he has just had a three hour meeting.”
However, if the adjective ends with -ing, it usually refers to situations and things that make people feel a certain way. People’s personalities can also be described with –ing adjectives. A boring place will make you feel bored. You won’t want to talk to a boring person either.
“That book looks interesting!“
“Yeah, the characters and plot are pretty exciting.“
Seeing, Looking and Watching
These verbs all mean that you’re using your eyes to sense something. So why use three different words?
It all depends on how you’re looking at something.
Seeing is something that happens automatically. You see things when your eyes are open—whether you want to or not!
“Ooh, do you see that interesting spider on the ceiling?”
“No, and I don’t want to see it. I hate spiders!”
Looking is more active than seeing. You have to actively try to see something to look at it. Sometimes that means moving your head or body. Often it means directing your attention towards something.
“Wow, look at that girl’s hat!”
“Is that a hat? I thought it was an animal.”
“We’re lost again. Let’s look at the map.”
If you want to find something and you can’t see it, you can look for it until you find it.
“I don’t see my keys anywhere! Please help me look for them.”
Watching is the most active word of the three. You have to concentrate on something when you watch it. You can watch things that are moving, like playing animals, naughty children or a car chase on TV.
“Can you watch Billy for me when I go shopping?”
“Okay. He’s watching a movie right now.”
By and Until
These are two prepositions that make grammar tough!
They both indicate a time period that lasts up to a certain point in time.
Until is used when talking about how long things last. You can use it to describe how long a certain activity, situation or time period will continue.
If you’re doing something and the activity will finish at a certain time, use until.
“I will be on vacation until Friday.”
“Lucky you! I will wait until you get back.”
“The new movie won’t be released until January.”
By is generally used for deadlines—it’s quite a serious word. If something has to happen no later than a certain time or date, use by.
“I need your report on my desk by Friday.”
“We need to get to the airport by one o’clock.”
Now that you’re confident with these words, here are some ways you can practice at home!
2. Learn Perfect English Grammar with Great Resources
Websites
Edufind
This site has a brilliant section on grammar which is conveniently organized into different sections. It gives you plenty of helpful examples of how each grammar point is used in a sentence. The example sentences are in handy blue boxes which makes them easier to read.
The British Council Website
This site provides you with some great games to practice what you’ve learned! Although the games are for children, they’re great for adults too. For example, countable and uncountable nouns game is incredibly useful, and some of the games are timed which helps you to think faster.
TV and Videos
Grammar Girl
Have you heard of her already? Grammar Girl’s website is very informative when it comes to its main focus: English grammar. Her YouTube videos are also very handy! You can find many of them here. Most of her videos are short, easy to understand and give tips on how to remember certain words, phrases and grammar rules.
FluentU
FluentU is an immersion program that uses authentic English videos to teach you the language in an engaging way. There are videos for every English skill level, learning style and interest.
What kinds of videos do you love to watch? You can learn English through Disney movies, wildlife documentaries, trailers and even movie clips.
These videos become unique English lessons for every user through quizzes that are customized for each video. You can also pause the video at any moment to check the grammar of any word being used by hovering your mouse over it in the subtitles.
For more practice, you can add words to your flashcards, which will also let you see the word used in the same context in other videos, helping you to understand in a natural way how to use English grammar correctly.
YouTube and Netflix
Beyond educational English videos, there are also loads of fantastic subtitled TV shows and movies out there for you to watch. The subtitles will help you to spot any new English grammar points you’ve encountered and show you how to use them in conversation.
One great place to start is with Disney movies and other animated features. These kinds of movies are safe for all audiences and use wonderfully easy English. They also feature timeless tales that many people are familiar with—you’ve probably even watched some of these movies in your native language when you were a kid!
You can just relax and watch movies to learn new English easily. If you’re feeling studious, try hitting the pause button and writing down some new words!
Books
“Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss
Possibly the most famous grammar book around. Not only is it very funny, but it’s also perfect for perfectionists (people who demand perfection) and advanced English learners. Even the title is a joke, showing the subtle difference a comma can make. The word “shoots” can mean either young plants or the act of firing a gun—two things that you wouldn’t want to confuse! Since it deals mainly with written English, it’s useful for people who are writing essays.
“Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English” by Patricia T. O’Conner
Another fantastic book for students who are confident English speakers. It also deals with commonly confused words and uses fun and unusual examples to clarify them. It also includes a handy glossary to help you understand those tricky grammatical terms.
“English Grammar for Dummies” by Wendy M. Anderson, Lesley J. Ward and Geraldine Woods
One of the popular “for Dummies” series of books which teaches basic skills. It covers virtually everything, so it’s brilliant for learners of all levels. Unlike a textbook, it’s written in a casual style with a sense of humor. The examples are helpful and easy to understand and it even tells you how to use formal and casual English!
“James and the Giant Peach” by Roald Dahl
This classic children’s book is a wonderful fantasy story.
While it isn’t a book about grammar, it’s a great way to see how grammar is used. The language used in the book is simple and descriptive so it can be appreciated by beginners. It has also been made into a movie! The hero of the story is a small boy named James who accidentally causes a gigantic, house-sized peach full of friendly giant insects to grow in his aunts’ backyard garden. While enjoying the story you can use a pencil to underline tricky grammar points! For example, “disgusting little beast” is just one of the ways adjectives are listed in the book.
3. Be Patient
Don’t expect your grammar to be perfect right away—even native speakers make mistakes!
One of the best ways to become confident with a new grammar point is to use it as often as possible.
If you just learned about the difference between “who” and “whom,” use both of these words in sentences whenever you can. You can always check if you’re correct or not by asking a native speaker or checking online.
Remember to study just a little at a time. Take a break if you feel overwhelmed and come back to your studies later. You should also study in a way that suits your learning style. If you find watching movies or writing letters in a cafe is easier than reading books, go and find a good cafe with comfortable chairs. Don’t let tenses make you feel tense (stressed)—learning is supposed to be fun!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
20 Must-visit Websites to Learn English Grammar Online
Where can you get all the information you need, and how can you learn all of the rules (and the exceptions to these rules)?
Well, you can start right here with this list of 20 English grammar learning websites!
Contents
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
This list is not comprehensive, which means it doesn’t contain every single grammar website on the internet. That would be one huge list!
Instead, you’ll find a good mix of useful resources for any kind of grammar learning you want to do. You won’t (and shouldn’t) use all the websites. Instead, look around and find a couple of sites that you like!
Then—and this is important—actually use them. Bookmark the website on your computer and your phone, download the app if there is one and include one or two in your learning schedule. Doing so will make sure that you visit the websites regularly and continue to learn from them.
Grammar Bytes
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Intermediate learners; quick, fun lessons; learning grammar terms and more difficult grammar concepts; learning with PowerPoint presentations.
Description: Grammar Bytes has bite-sized (mini) grammar lessons and exercises presented in a really friendly and sometimes silly way. Interactive exercises let you test your skills, and they also contain easy-to-understand explanations with the correct answers.
In addition to the exercises, Grammar Bytes gives you grammar rules for quick reference, plus a glossary of grammar terms.
Grammar Bytes has pages that you can print out. These are helpful if you want to do the exercises by hand—or make a copy of grammar rules that you can keep handy.
The site also posts a weekly grammar workout on its Twitter account.
FluentU
Is it free? No, but there’s a free trial you can use to try out all the videos and features.
Best for: Learners at all levels; learning native-speaker grammar; practicing grammar with real-life examples; learning in context.
Description: FluentU helps you learn grammar through authentic videos—things like popular music videos, movie clips and street interviews—with interactive captions. When you click on a word, you’ll see its definition and example sentences, along with grammar tips.
After watching, you can review your English grammar with personalized quizzes based on each video clip. These have fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, and even speaking questions (where you have to talk out loud to answer).
The videos come in bite-sized snippets, so you could watch several in one sitting and pick up a lot of grammar points naturally, instead of having to memorize rules.
5 Minute English
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Beginners who want to understand the basics; learners who like short lessons; practicing verb tenses and moods; understanding prepositions and pronouns.
Description: The design for 5 Minute English might not be very fancy, but its explanations are clear and to the point. The site has some great information about common grammar questions and mistakes, like this page, which explains when to use “listen” and when to use “hear.”
In addition to the grammar explanations, you can find lessons on vocabulary, pronunciation, English slang and idioms, reading and listening.
British Council
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar practice; testing your level of English.
Description: The British Council is a great resource for all language learners, especially if you’re learning British English. There’s a huge amount of information here about any kind of grammar you may need to know.
Just choose your level and then you’ll get several specific grammar topics to explore. There are lots of practice exercises for each topic. You can also take tests to find out your level of English fluency.
Grammar Girl
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Intermediate to advanced learners; answering specific grammar questions.
Description: Grammar Girl is both a blog and a podcast that provides short, friendly tips to improve the grammar in your writing. Grammar Girl (also known as Mignon Fogarty) makes learning grammar fun and simple with memory tricks. Her “Quick and Dirty Tips” make it easier to remember and use difficult grammar rules.
Grammar Girl is used by native speakers as well, so you can be sure it’ll help your English sound more natural. You’ll learn about English grammar rules as well as punctuation, writing style and even business tips.
You can find her podcasts on Apple and Spotify, or you can get a free month when you sign up with the code GRAMMAR using Stitcher.
English Grammar 101
Is it free? No.
Best for: Intermediate learners; learning step-by-step; learning with short lessons.
Description: Do you prefer learning with a textbook, but don’t want to carry one around all the time? You’ll love English Grammar 101, which is set up like a grammar textbook.
Each easy-to-understand lesson (or chapter) only covers one topic at a time, and is followed by an exercise section to test your understanding of the topic. The short length of the chapters means you can spend a few minutes a day on one grammar rule, and learn a lot within just a short time.
Alison English Grammar Courses
Is it free? Yes, with a Premium option.
Best for: All levels; finding online courses; learning step-by-step; learning with others.
Description: Not everybody likes to learn alone. For those of you who’d prefer to learn in a classroom, you might want to try an online course. Alison has a number of free online courses for learning English grammar. These courses usually involve watching videos and then doing assignments.
The best part is that you can often interact with (talk to) the other students and the teacher. So if you have a question or want to practice with someone, you can.
Education First’s English Grammar Guide
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; clear examples for many grammar topics.
Description: Education First’s Grammar Guide is very well organized and is a good starting place to learn how to use parts of speech. The rules themselves are short and use many example sentences to show how everything works.
The Grammar Guide doesn’t include exercises, so you will need to practice with another resource. If you learn better through examples than through rules, though, this is an excellent place to start.
This resource is now being offered as free English resources on the Education First site. These resources include practice quizzes on many topics like love and jobs, free e-books to help you learn English, a free test of your English level and free learning apps with flashcards, games and more.
Oxford English Grammar Course
Is it free? No.
Best for: All levels; formal, British English; grammar practice with exercises.
Description: This website, which teaches proper British English, is meant to be a companion to the Oxford English Grammar Course books.
There are few or no explanations of the grammar rules, but there are many interactive grammar exercises to make sure you really understand each rule. Use this website to practice the rules you’re learning somewhere else, or to find out what you need to study more.
This resource is no longer being offered, although you can still find the companion books for all levels (basic, intermediate and advanced). Also, the following resource is similar to the Oxford English Grammar Course website.
EGO4U
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Beginners and intermediate learners; well-organized lessons; practicing verb tenses and moods.
Description: If you want to learn English grammar online absolutely for free, you have to try the EGO (English Grammar Online) site.
This page includes everything you need to improve your English grammar online, from an overview of all tenses with examples to a ton of English grammar lessons and exercises on tenses, the conditionals and even the mysterious English subjunctive.
EGO4U also has the most important English grammar topics divided into separate sections so you don’t get lost when trying to learn something new.
Each section includes grammar lessons and a lot of exercises for you to practice. Pay attention to the dots on the right side of each exercise link. They tell you about the difficulty of the exercises. Awesome!
Finally, EGO4U includes an amazing section where you can find the most confusing English tenses. If you’re having any problem distinguishing between the past simple and the past progressive, or you get a headache every time you need to decide if a sentence needs going to, will, the present simple or the present progressive, you’re going to love this section.
Daily Grammar
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Beginners and intermediate learners; learning parts of speech; understanding English punctuation.
Description: Daily Grammar is simple both in look and content. The website has over 400 lessons on parts of speech and parts of sentences, which you can go through in order, or you can use the glossary to look up a term.
Daily Grammar also posts lessons to their blog, along with exercises for practice.
If you’d like even more practice, there are also Daily Grammar e-textbooks and e-workbooks you can buy.
EnglishClub
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Beginners and intermediate learners; practicing verb tenses; learning parts of speech.
Description: EnglishClub is another website with grammar lessons, and the writing on this one is friendly and super easy to understand.
Some lessons have quizzes, and others have special tips that explain commonly misunderstood facts about each topic.
Grammarly Handbook of Grammar Rules
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Advanced learners; learning grammar rules with lots of written examples.
Description: You may have heard of the Grammarly spelling and grammar checker. It doesn’t just check your mistakes in your writing, but will also explain them to you so you don’t make the same mistakes again.
They’ve also collected a ton of rules, facts and tips on every possible grammar topic you can imagine, and put them together in a Handbook.
The topics are arranged clearly, so you can easily find out what you need to know about using adverbs, commas, capital letters. The Grammarly Handbook even covers more difficult topics like English idioms and passive voice.
Explanations are written in a blog-like way: personal and using full paragraphs instead of a few lines. Because of its more advanced English usage, it’s a fantastic resource for more advanced learners.
Grammarly isn’t an English learner website—it’s a website for native English speakers who want to improve their grammar. Because of that, the tips might be a bit overwhelming for beginner/intermediate learners.
English Page
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Intermediate and advanced learners; grammar tutorials; practicing verb tenses, prepositions and other grammar.
Description: English Page isn’t organized as well as some of the other websites on this list, but it has some of the best English grammar exercises you’ll find. The exercises here don’t just ask you to choose a correct answer from a list—you have to write the answer yourself.
This gets you to actually use what you learned, and to practice instead of just memorize. There’s an excellent section with grammar rules as well, with lots of sample sentences.
YouTube
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar tutorials; learners who like to to see and hear the lessons.
Description: Visual learners, we haven’t forgotten about you! For those of you who prefer to watch someone explain the rules instead of reading them, YouTube has plenty of lessons to offer.
Some great English grammar lessons can be found on EnglishLessons4U, Let’s Talk and many other channels. For lessons on something specific, search YouTube for “[topic] grammar lesson” and you’ll find many options.
My English Pages
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar tutorials; practicing verb tenses, prepositions and other grammar.
Description: I’ve been an English teacher for almost 20 years, and I know there’s a difference between knowing English grammar and mastering it.
My English Pages is an online free resource that’ll help you improve your English grammar at any level.
I love how all the different topics are divided into big sections. You have tenses, parts of speech, modal verbs, determiners, clauses…the list goes on and on! So if you don’t know how to improve your English grammar, start here!
For each topic, you’ll find a great grammar lesson or explanation with lots of examples, and at the end of the explanation, there are links where you can practice the grammar you just learned.
Englisch Hilfen (English Help)
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar tutorials; lots of exercises; practicing verb tenses, prepositions and other grammar.
Description: This German site is available in two versions, a German one and an English one. We’re trying to learn English grammar here, so I recommend you only use the English version.
Englisch Hilfen contains everything a learner of English will ever need. When it comes to learning English grammar, it includes amazing grammar explanations and exercises, and access to everything is completely free.
Just choose a topic from the list on the left side of the screen and start learning!
When you choose a topic, you’ll land on a webpage where all the available links related to that topic have been put together. The different links are normally arranged according to how you should learn the topic or in increasing difficulty.
At the end of the list of grammar links, you’ll also find links that’ll take you to the exercises on that topic. The site is very user-friendly and easy to use.
edX MOOCs
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: Upper-intermediate and advanced learners; grammar tutorials; practicing verb tenses; English writing practice.
Description: If you’ve never heard about edX and its MOOCs, you’re missing one of the best ways of learning English grammar online for free!
MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course. MOOCs are courses that you can do online, mostly for free. They’re prepared by world-famous institutions and universities such as Oxford, Cambridge or Google, and they allow you to learn from home at your own pace about the topics you really need or want to learn about.
edX is a platform that offers thousands of free MOOCs on many different topics. When it comes to learning English grammar, you can choose from several courses depending on your needs (you can find more info on how to learn English grammar online in this amazing post).
There are two courses I really recommend from this site:
1. Upper-intermediate English: Technology Today. This course is perfect for upper-intermediate learners who want to learn the vocabulary and grammar related to technology. The main goal of the course is to teach you how to write a business plan through English grammar lessons that revolve around technology and business.
2. Upper-intermediate English: Modern Life. If you want to improve your English grammar and vocabulary skills with the help of topics such as sports, health, movies, pets and more, this MOOC is perfect for you. This course is also amazing if you don’t know exactly how to improve your English grammar and want to break the intermediate plateau.
If you’d like a paid certificate to show what you’ve learned, edX also offers those.
Free English Study
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar tutorials with many examples; practicing verb tenses; using parts of speech.
Description: At first glance, Free English Study can look just like another boring English grammar website, but appearances can be deceiving.
Free English Study includes all the necessary grammar topics to help the beginner learner become an advanced user of English.
The grammar page has a list of all the main English grammar topics divided into categories. Nothing new for now. However, when you click on a topic, you start seeing why this page is different.
For starters, it gives you not only excellent grammar explanations but also tons of examples. This is the best way for you to see the piece of grammar you’re learning in action.
The examples, written in purple, normally include notes and short explanations when needed, and for many topics, you even have correct and incorrect examples so you can really see and understand how the grammar you’re learning works.
Passport To English
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; starting with the basics; many ways to learn; clear explanations; lots of practice exercises.
Description: Passport To English is a complete English course that starts from zero and teaches you English through vocabulary exercises, English grammar lessons, dictations, games, listening and reading exercises.
If what you need is a complete English course, start with the first English grammar lesson of the Beginning English level and follow the detailed instructions as you go on.
However, Passport To English is also an awesome site if you only want to improve your current English grammar level.
The list of grammar topics is alphabetical and it includes every grammar bit covered in the lessons of the course (you can see the level and the lesson number where each grammar topic appears in the course).
Passport To English is not only well-organized, but it also includes great explanations and a lot of examples. At the end of each topic, you have several exercises to check what you have learned.
LEO Network
Is it free? Yes.
Best for: All levels; grammar tutorials with clear examples; practicing verb tenses; learning in many different ways.
Description: I discovered the LEO Network by accident a couple of months ago, and I haven’t stopped using it with my students since then.
LEO allows you to learn vocabulary, chat with other learners, improve your writing skills, get better at dictations, take spelling tests… I’d need a whole post to name all the great stuff you can do on this site.
The grammar section is also amazing, and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it, too.
Each category and topic includes from one to three little symbols on the right. These symbols tell you what you’ll be able to do in each topic.
The notebook symbol (Read This!) means that when you click, you’ll find a grammar explanation. The grammar explanations in the LEO Network can seem rather short, but they’re accurate and focus on what’s important. You know you won’t be learning anything unnecessary.
The picture symbol (Picture This!) means that when you click, you’ll find cute little pictures and tons of examples related to the grammar topic. This is the perfect section to see the grammar in action.
Finally, the tick symbol inside a circle (Test This!) means that when you click, you’ll have a test or an exercise so you can practice the grammar you learned. This is where the magic happens, and where you can see if you really understood the topic or you need to review it.
Smart Steps for Learning English Grammar
Even with a list of great resources, learning will be easier if you follow specific steps.
1. Have a goal. Having a goal helps you create focus. Choose a specific goal for your grammar learning, such as feeling comfortable for a job interview, or fixing your spoken mistakes in the past tense.
2. Break that goal down into smaller goals. Now that you know what you want to achieve, you can figure out how to get there.
Let’s say that you want to fix your past tense mistakes. First, you’ll need to figure out what those mistakes are. To do that, you can ask others to point out your mistakes when you speak, record yourself and listen carefully, work on the past tenses you’re less familiar with and more.
Whatever you’re working on, you should find a way to break it down into smaller chunks.
3. Focus on one topic at a time. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Instead, learn one rule at a time and practice, using and reviewing that rule until you know it so well that you could teach it to someone else.
4. Study a few minutes a day. You don’t need to study for hours to learn English. All it takes is five to 10 minutes a day, as long as you use them wisely.
Each day, you can read a grammar rule, do a few exercises and then practice it for the rest of the day. In the next couple of days, use that rule while writing and speaking to make sure you didn’t forget it. Look for examples of that rule while you read, watch or listen to anything in English.
Follow these steps, and before you know it you’ll feel much more comfortable with English grammar.
Which of these websites will join your bookmarks/favorites?
Hopefully, you’ve found a couple of sites that you’re excited to start using. Remember to use these websites together with other English learning methods.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Grammar | How to Learn English Grammar: 06 Simple Steps
Tips for learning English grammar! Just because nobody taught you English and grammar in school at whatever learning level, it does not mean there is not much you can do to solve the problem. Here are some steps to learning this language and its grammar rules on your own. With these steps, you can easily rival the language and grammar skills experienced users of this language have.
Table of Contents
How to Learn English Grammar
Learn Parts of Speech
Each English word can be categorized into one part of speech. Therefore, understanding parts of speech is one of the key steps to learning grammar. The good thing about learning parts of speech is that you will be in a position to describe how each word in the English language can be used.
Here are different parts of speech.
9 parts of speech in English grammar
Learn Verb Tenses
There are three kinds of tenses– past, present and future. The past tenses describe things that happened before the time of reporting, while present tenses describe what is happening as the thing is happening. Finally, the future tense describes what will happen after the time the statement is being made.
Learn all (12) tenses in English with useful grammar rules, examples and ESL worksheets.
Verb tenses in English grammar
Sentences, Phrases, and Clauses
Sentences
While studying English words is great, you have to learn how to put these words together into sentences. Sentences express your complete thoughts. In general, a sentence shows someone/something doing/being something, and it consists of a subject and a verb at its most basic level. Without one of these two parts, that sentence is considered improper.
For instance, “Dogs can bite.” is a complete sentence, while “The excited children.” is not a proper sentence.
After learning basic sentences, you can go on to learn more complex sentences, for instance, compound sentences. With compound sentences, you join what would have been two sentences into one sentence using a conjunction.
For instance, instead of having two sentences, “The doctor entered the room.” and “The doctor took the file.”, you can write, “The doctor entered the room and took the file.”
Phrases
You can think of phrases as units of language. They are a group of words, but usually not enough to form a complete sentence. There are different kinds of phrases, each of which is described based on what part of speech it helps to describe.
Gives more information about a noun, for instance, “the tall” building.
Provides more information about an adjective, for instance, “very” intelligent.
Offers additional information about a verb. These phrases are very complex. For instance, in the sentence, she will eventually have her own car, “will have” is the verb phrase.
Gives more information about an adverb, for instance, “going” quickly.
Provides additional information about a preposition, for instance, “after” the exercise.
Clauses
Like phrases, clauses are also units of language. All clauses have a subject and a verb, and some are independent while others are dependent.
Dependent clauses act like parts of speech, as phrases do, and they cannot stand on their own as complete sentences.
For instance, “Although the package came, he could not open the door.” The part “he could not open the door” is an independent clause, but “although the package came’ cannot stand as a sentence and is, therefore, a dependent clause.
Generally, clauses are used when forming compound sentences.
Conditionals, Reported speech, Passive voice, Quantifiers and Determiners
The English language has many types of sentences. For instance, a conditional sentence demonstrates that one part of a sentence is true if the other part is true. For instance, “if it rains, the crops will grow.”
Reported speech is a way of writing or speaking where instead of quoting what the speaker said, you use your own words to convey their message. For instance, if the person said, “I will come”, the reported speech would be “he/she said she would come.”
In passive voice, the subject receives the action rather than performing it as is the case with active voice. For instance, “the cat poured the milk” is active, while “the milk was poured by the cat” is passive.
Generally, active voice is much preferable as it uses fewer words and makes statements less complicated and more powerful.
Quantifiers are used when providing information about a number relating to something. For instance, most people change jobs by age “thirty.”
Determiners are words or phrases that come before a noun or a noun phrase. Their role is to demonstrate its reference. For instance. There were “a few” cookies left.
Basic Grammar Rules: English Sentence Structure
We’ll look at some common elements of English sentence structure. If you find these ideas difficult, don’t worry. As your English improves, you’ll learn to recognize these patterns. And this will give you a deeper understanding of not only English, but also your own language.
Rule #1: A complete sentence must include a noun and a verb.
Rule #2: A complete sentence must include a subject and a predicate.
Rule #3: The only exception to the above rules is the imperative sentence.
Rule #4: Adjectives can go directly before the noun they describe, or after it, if separated by a verb.
Rule #5: A compound subject includes two or more simple subjects.
Rule #6: A compound predicate includes two or more predicates.
Rule #7: A compound sentence includes more than one subject or predicate.
Rule #8: An independent clause consists of a subject and a predicate, like a complete sentence.
Rule #9: A dependent clause cannot form a complete sentence without additional words.
Rule #10: The direct object is the noun being acted on by the verb.
Rule #11: The indirect object is the noun which receives the direct object.
Rule #12: When written in passive voice, the object of the verb becomes the subject of the sentence.
Rule #13: Conjugations of the verb “to be” are essential to passive voice.
Rule #14: Sentences written in passive voice can omit the subject of the acting verb.
Rule #15: In passive voice, the subject of the acting verb is connected by a prepositional phrase.
Rule #16: Prepositional phrases are sometimes separated by commas.
Rule #17: Adverbs function like prepositions.
Rule #18: A subject compliment describes the subject of the sentence.
18 Basic English Grammar Rules
Learn to Write Numbers and Punctuation Marks
When writing, there are certain rules you should follow. For instance, one-digit numbers should be spelled out, for instance, “two.” However, numbers greater than 9 should be written numerically.
Still, you should never mix up spelled and numerically written numbers within a sentence. For instance, “they were 10 girls and two boys” is incorrect, while “they were 10 girls and 2 boys” is correct. Additionally, you should not start sentences with a numerically written number.
Also, as you write fractions, you should use hyphens, for instance, “two-thirds”. Also, decimals should always be written numerically, as well as days of the month, for instance, “0.6” and “August 10”.
Learn more with useful lessons on punctuation marks and punctuation rules in the English language.
Grammar Lessons
There is obviously more to knowing English grammar than the steps shown above, but these basics should help you make significant progress in this important learning journey. By keeping these simple rules in mind, and trying to learn as much as possible with following grammar lessons, you can easily become a very proficient user of this language.
Grammar Video Lessons
Learn 60+ grammar video lessons with American English pronunciation.
Goodbye Grammar! 3 steps to learn English grammar + video
Learning English grammar is seen as a boring, time-consuming and sometimes impossible task! Most students run away when they hear the word “grammar” and prefer to learn English vocabulary! You cannot imagine how many times I have heard this question:
How can I speak English without learning English grammar?
I have a simple answer: It is not possible to speak, read, write or listen in English without a good knowledge of English grammar! So, here is another question:
How can I learn English grammar in an easy and effective way?
Well, worry no more because I am going to tell you everything about learning English grammar! You can join an online English course to learn English grammar, but you also need to know the best way of doing so. Let me tell you everything!
Don’t study English grammar alone!
Grammar cannot and should not be studied alone. You should always learn English grammar together with English vocabulary. But why?
Let’s look at it this way: why do you learn new English grammar rules? To make sentences! But to do so, you need to know what words you can use to form a sentence. Similarly, why do you learn new words? Again, to make sentences, right? However, you need grammatical structures to form a correct sentence using the new words you have learned. Therefore, the ultimate goal of learning English vocabulary and grammar is to make sentences in order to communicate in English, whether in written or spoken form.
The aim of learning English grammar (and other skills) is to make sentences in order to communicate
Now that we know the goal is to make sentences, what is the best way of learning English grammar? Don’t worry, just follow these 3 incredibly simple, yet effective steps!
Step 1: understand sentence composition:
Sentence composition?! What is that?! As mentioned earlier, we learn English grammar to make sentences. Therefore, it is necessary to know what a sentence is and what roles do different words play in a sentence. These different roles are also called “parts of speech”. What are they?
Overall, there are 8 parts of speech. The four main parts of speech are:
| Nouns | Einstein, Oxford, Italy, religion, food |
| Verbs | play, eat, sit, laugh, increase, destroy |
| Adjectives | beautiful, nice, crazy, smart, interesting |
| Adverbs | beautifully, nicely, normally, absolutely |
For example, look at how these parts of speech can form a sentence:
4 main parts of speech and how they work together
As I said earlier, there are 8 parts of speech in English. So, what are the other 4? The four other parts of speech are:
| Pronouns | I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they |
| Prepositions | In, at, from, of, by, to, with, near, above, under |
| Conjunctions | Because, although, whereas, but, so, therefore, thus |
| Interjections | Oh! Yes! Huh! Wow! Yum! Yuck! |
For instance, let’s have another look at this sentence:
4 other parts of speech
Now that we know what roles can different words play in a sentence, how should we learn them to improve our English grammar?
Start simple: understand how the four main parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) work together to form a sentence.
| Verbs | Describe actions | The driver drives. |
| Adjectives | Describe nouns | The angry driver drives. |
| Adverbs | Describe verbs | The angry driver drives angrily |
| Describe adjectives | The really angry driver drives angrily | |
| Describe other adverbs | The really angry driver drives absolutely angrily |
That is what I mean by understanding sentence composition. By improving your vocabulary, you will learn new verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs to make sentences. By learning English grammar, you can use the new words you have learnt considering their parts of speech to make correct and meaningful sentences.
Step 2: learn English grammar tenses
Tenses are basically “times of the sentences”. In the English language, there are three main tenses: past, present and future. Each of these tenses can have 4 different forms: simple, continuous/progressive, perfect and perfect continuous. You can see an example of all English grammar tenses in the table below:
| Past | Past Simple | Subject + verb (past form) | I finished my homework yesterday. |
| Past Continuous | Subject + was/were + verb + ing | I was doing my homework yesterday. | |
| Past Perfect | Subject + had + past participle | I had done my homework before the class. | |
| Past Perfect Continuous | Subject + had been + verb + ing | I had been doing my homework for hours. | |
| Present | Present Simple | Subject + verb (base form) | I do my homework on time! |
| Present Continuous | Subject + am/is/are + verb + ing | I am doing my homework now. | |
| Present Perfect | Subject + have/has + past participle | I have done my homework. | |
| Present Perfect Continuous | Subject + have/has been + verb + ing | I have been doing my homework for hours. | |
| Future | Future Simple | Subject + will + verb (base form) | I will do my homework soon. |
| Future Continuous | Subject + will be + verb + ing | I will be doing my homework, so please don’t text me! | |
| Future Perfect | Subject + will have + past participle | I will have done my homework by tonight. | |
| Future Perfect Continuous | Subject + will have been + verb + ing | I will have been doing my homework before going to class |
Now, here’s a million-dollar question: how to learn these English grammar tenses?
1- Learn the essential tenses: Start with the simple tenses- Simple present, simple past, simple future.
| Past Simple | To talk about finished actions in the past |
| Present Simple | To talk about habits, hobbies and things which are always true |
| Future Simple | To talk about future events |
2- Try to make many different sentences with each English grammar tense, but remember: the key is to keep it simple!
| Past Simple | I slept at 10 pm last night. |
| I talked to my friends yesterday. | |
| My father called me this morning. | |
| I finished my homework. | |
| Present Simple | I am a student. |
| I study at Polytechnic University. | |
| My friend is a pianist. | |
| I go to gym every evening. | |
| Future Simple | I will call my dad tonight. |
| I will finish my homework before class. | |
| My mom will cook something delicious for dinner. | |
| I will study for my exam. |
The key is to make sentences which are true for you. In this way, it is easier for you to connect with the English grammar tenses, their structures, meanings and examples. One thing you can do is to have a small notebook and each night, before going to bed, write down the things you did that day and the things you will do the next day!
3- Little by little, try to make your sentences longer by using different parts of speech. Play with different parts of speech (adjectives and adverbs) in the three tenses:
| Past Simple | I slept quickly last night. |
| I talked happily to my close friends yesterday. | |
| My rich father called me this morning. | |
| I finished my difficult homework successfully. | |
| Present Simple | I am a clever student. |
| I study hard at Polytechnic University. | |
| My friend is a great pianist. | |
| I go to gym lazily every evening. | |
| Future Simple | I will call my rich dad tonight (maybe to ask for money!) |
| I will definitely finish my difficult homework before our boring class. | |
| My lovely mom will cook something delicious for dinner. | |
| I will study hard for my difficult exam. |
4- Gradually, learn new English grammar tenses (perfect, continuous, and perfect continuous forms) and add them to your sentence-making exercise.
| Past continuous | I was playing tennis with my friend yesterday. |
| My father was watering the plants. | |
| My brother was doing his homework. | |
| My sister was watching a TV show. | |
| Present continuous | I am studying English. |
| My friend is playing a computer game. | |
| My teacher is teaching English. | |
| Our dog is playing in the garden. | |
| Future continuous | I will be watching TV tonight. |
| She will be washing the dishes. | |
| My mom will be cooking dinner. | |
| My father will be working from home. |
5- Again, try to use the different parts of speech (adjectives and adverbs) to create longer, more accurate and better sentences:
| Past continuous | I was playing tennis with my best friend yesterday. |
| My father was watering the beautiful garden plants peacefully. | |
| My younger brother was doing his homework angrily. | |
| My older sister was watching a boring TV show. | |
| Present continuous | I am studying English carefully. |
| My really lazy friend is playing a computer game. | |
| My smart teacher is teaching English incredibly! | |
| Our playful dog is playing in the garden noisily. | |
| Future continuous | I will be watching an interesting TV show tonight. |
| She will be washing the dirty dishes unwillingly. | |
| My mom will be cooking a delicious dinner. | |
| My rich father will be working hard from home. |
6- Mix the different English grammar tenses and tell simple stories:
For instance, I am going to use past simple, past perfect, present simple and future continuous tenses to write a short story:
Today, I woke up at 6. I woke up really early, because I had gone to bed early last night. I do not always wake up early. Sometimes, I wake up at around 10 in the morning. Tomorrow, I have an exam. So, I think I will be studying this evening.
7- Now, it is time to add some adjectives and adverbs to this text:
Today, I woke up at 6. I woke up really early, because I had gone to bed early last night. I do not always wake up really early. Sometimes, I wake up late at around 10 in the morning. Tomorrow, I have an important exam. So, I think I will be studying hard this evening.
Well done! If you keep repeating these steps, I promise you will master the English grammar in no time! So, what’s next?
Step 3: Other English grammar structures
English grammar is not only about the tenses. You should also learn different grammatical structures, and there are many!
The book “Practical English Usage” by Michael Swan contains 635 Entries, each of which full of notes and rules and exception, reaching to more than 10,000 rules easily! So, it will take many years to learn them all! But listen: as I said earlier, learn the essentials first.
What are the Essential grammatical structures other than the tenses?
These are the alphabet of English grammar. Little by little, learn these grammatical structures and at the same time, keep improving your vocabulary. That is how you should study grammar!
Conclusion:
The following diagram shows the entire process of learning English grammar:
I hope you have enjoyed this article! If you want to learn English grammar correctly, completely and efficiently, you can join my online English course! See you with the next articles!