Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar 🎬 Learn English with Jennifer

Do you know what kind of movies I probably watch the most?

Well, if you've seen my lesson on the uses of WOULD, then you know I watch a lot of romantic comedies.

Of course, that's not what I watch with my children. Together over the years, we've watched a lot of family movies.

Family movies usually have little or no swearing,

minimal violence, and they're usually filled with innocent humor.

In this lesson, I'll recommend five good family movies that you can watch with children.

I've seen them all dozens of times, and I still find them funny.

So adults will find these family movies entertaining as well.

They're not animated and they're not musicals. Those are movies genres of their own.

As we go through my countdown, I'd like to talk about a very important language point:

prescriptive grammar

versus descriptive grammar.

Let's begin.

Number five: The Goonies. If you were going to be forced out of your home by a land developer,

what would you do?

Well, in this Steven Spielberg movie a group of kids follow a treasure map and try to find pirate treasure.

Their hope is that the pirate treasure will be enough to help their parents save all of their homes from foreclosure.

In grammar, there's something called the subjunctive.

One of the things that the subjunctive can help us do is express an unreal situation.

Although we're talking about the present or future, we use a past form.

If you were going to be forced out of your home, what would you do?

Of course, you're not being forced out of your home, but I'm asking you to imagine this.

Imagine if you were.

In the subjunctive, "were" is the form of BE used for all subjects.

I were, you were, he were, she were, and so on.

We can also use the subjunctive to give advice, as in, "If I were you, this is what I would do."

But you'll hear some American English speakers say things like, "If I was you" or "if I was in their place."

Is that correct?

According to most textbooks and according to the rules,

no, but it's understood. And in everyday conversation it's acceptable.

We're talking about the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar.

Prescriptive grammar tells us what structures we should use. These are the rules and the standard patterns.

"Prescriptive" is an adjective.

It comes from the same word family as the verb "prescribe" and the noun "prescription."

Like a doctor writing a prescription. A doctor prescribing medicine.

Descriptive grammar

acknowledges what people actually say and write.

This grammar describes language the way people use it, whether they follow the rules or not.

I think it's good to be aware of both prescriptive and descriptive grammar.

Most of the time standard grammar will serve you best, but rules are often broken and language changes over time.

Also, in communication with other people, you need to handle variations.

You need to understand which structures and which patterns have the same meaning.

All right, let's go on.

Number four:

Baby's Day Out.

This adorable

comedy follows the adventures of a baby boy who is kidnapped and taken from his very wealthy family.

The three kidnappers think it will be an easy way to earn a lot of money.

But the baby turns out to be much smarter than they are.

The bad guys don't really trust each other or like each other, so they're always arguing and this creates more trouble.

"Each other" and "one another" are reciprocal pronouns.

In school, I was taught to use "each other" for two people or things and "one another" for three or more.

Today there's a lot of overlap, and I don't think the distinction matters much anymore.

This is a case where descriptive grammar has won the battle. It's become acceptable to use these pronouns

interchangeably,

especially in spoken English.

The kidnappers don't like each other. The kidnappers don't like one another.

Number three: Matilda.

This movie is based on a children's book, and I recommend the audio book read by Kate Winslet. It's hilarious.

The story is about a highly intelligent girl born to ignorant parents.

The parents are truly terrible. They don't value books or good food.

They'd rather Matilda watched TV and ate frozen dinners.

They also want her to learn the family business of crime and not learn in school.

Luckily, Matilda discovers that she's not only smart, but very

gifted and she uses her magical powers to change her life for the better.

If you saw my lesson on the uses of WOUILD,

you know that we can use WOULD RATHER to talk about what we want someone else to do.

For example, they'd rather she watched TV.

This is actually another use of the subjunctive.

The use of the simple past expresses a wish for another situation.

But descriptive grammar

acknowledges that the base verb is also used in American English.

They'd rather she watch TV. They'd rather she watch TV than read.

The truth is we don't use WOULD RATHER very often to talk about what we want someone else to do.

There are other choices.

Let me show you two.

They wish you would watch TV.

WISH + WOULD + base verb

They would prefer it if she watched TV. WOULD PREFER IT IF + simple past

Number two: The Parent Trap.

This is a remake of a movie from 1961.

This version stars Lindsay Lohan.

My daughter and I have watched this family movie many times.

It's about two girls who have never and then when they do, they discover they're identical twins.

They plot to get their divorced parents back together. The parents of course never planned to see each other again.

Well, anyone who watches a family movie knows they'll get a happy ending,

so I'm not really giving a spoiler when I tell you that the girls get their way in the end.

Prescriptive grammar tells us that we should use singular reference words for indefinite pronouns like everyone,

anyone, someone.

But in everyday English, it's a lot easier to use plural reference words.

Today both patterns are acceptable.

Anyone who watches a family movie knows they'll get a happy ending.

Anyone who watches a family movie knows he or she will get a happy ending.

Which sounds more natural to me? The first with "they."

The second is correct, but it sounds rather formal to me. I think descriptive grammar is winning this battle.

Number one: The Princess Bride.

The Princess Bride and The Parent Trap have both American and British English speakers. That's good practice for your ears.

I can't say that The Princess Bride will expose you to a lot of everyday conversation,

but it's very entertaining.

A grandfather is reading a story to a sick grandson, and most of the movie is that book brought to life.

The story has a bit of everything. There's romance, adventure,

humor, and fight scenes.

My whole family has watched this movie together several times. We love it.

I've talked about the use of THERE IS and THERE ARE in other lessons.

The basic rule is to use "there is"

before a singular noun and "there are" before a plural noun.

But it's acceptable in American English to use "there is" or the contraction "there's"

before a singular noun or uncountable noun that's the first item in a list.

Again descriptive grammar has probably won a little battle here.

There are more examples of descriptive grammar, but I'll save them for a future lesson. After all, there are more movies to recommend.

Let's end here. Please remember to like this video and share it with other people learning English.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

Become a member of my learning community. Click the JOIN button to become a member of my YouTube channel English with Jennifer.

You'll get a special badge,

bonus posts, on-screen credit, and a monthly live stream.

Note that YouTube channel memberships are not available in every country at this time.

I'd like to say a very special thank you to the current members of my channel.

Hopefully, more of you will join us for the next live stream.

Follow me and gain more practice on Facebook and Twitter. I also have new videos on Instagram.

If you haven't already,

subscribe to my channel so you get

notification of every new video I upload to YouTube.