7 Surprising Truths About Grammar

Aww yeah! So today we are talking about what many  consider a hot topic, and that is grammar! So if  

you watch this video until the end you are  going to make amends, and we will help you  

to learn to enjoy grammar, because we will help  you understand that grammar is just a foundation,  

that language is a living being, how grammar  is like Yoda, that context is everything,  

it's okay to make mistakes, how you probably  already know more than you think, and finally that  

you should learn what to use before how to use it. But before we get into any of that I want to let  

you know that if you are new here, every  single week we help you to understand  

fast speaking natives, to be understood  by anyone and to connect to the world! 

Just like our fan Charlie, who says that for  the first time in his life he's actually able  

to understand. So we're going to help you  a ton too, it's really simple: hit that  

Subscribe button and the Bell down below, and  you won't miss a single one of our new lessons. 

Now, before we really jump into the bulk  of today's lesson, do you know what grammar  

really is? Now grammar is simply the structure  of the language, it's kind of how we determine  

what words to place where. Now while this is super  important and it's really crucial that you study  

the grammatical structure when you're learning  another language, this isn't the sole thing that  

you should be focusing on, and learning grammar  is so much more than just memorizing the rules. 

I'm sure that you have encountered that  natives break the rules all the time.  

You might hear in a different song  just for example from The Beatles.  

They have a song where they say, "She's  got a ticket to ride, but she don't care." 

Now in school I'm sure that you  learned that it should be: he-she-it  

doesn't care, but we can see that natives  will be really flexible with the language.

All right, so I want you to take a moment to  think of the English language a bit like a house.  

Now if you were looking at a house grammar  would be like the foundation of that house. It's  

what gives it structure and helps it to stand. Now, if all you have is grammar then your house  

might be a bit bare. It might be a bit empty, you  might not even be able to live in it and that is  

why you might have things like word choice, for  example. Now this might be like the color that  

you paint the walls, or the sofa that you have  in your living room, so it's when people come and  

visit your house how are they going to perceive  it, how is it going to make them feel emotionally. 

Now when we speak a language we don't usually have  such a conscious knowledge of how it works, most  

natives aren't actually aware of the grammar rules  and I'm sure, if you think about your knowledge of  

your own language, this is probably the case,  unless you're actually a teacher of it. However  

knowing the rules and studying them can be very  empowering if you're doing it in the right way.  

And the main point that you really should take  away here is that grammar is like the compass  

that makes sure that we're all  speaking the same language.

So Wade Davis said that language is a flash  of the human spirit. Now, what this means  

is that English speakers worldwide are constantly  reinventing the language. It's always growing and  

changing and evolving. Now what was spoken in  Shakespearean times for example is not at all  

the same grammar that we're using in today's  English. Just to give you an example, you  

probably learned in school that one way to form  the future tense is by saying, "I'm going to." 

However you will almost never hear natives say  it this way. You might hear very often "I'm  

gonna," but did you know that we shorten it even  more nowadays? You can encounter people saying  

"I'm anna" instead of I'm gonna, or shortening  it even more all the way down to "imma." 

Now just to give you another example, centuries  ago English actually had two forms of the pronoun  

you. So for the singular we would say thou and  for the plural we would say ye. Now, nowadays  

most people will probably just use one word for  both the singular and the plural, and that's you. 

However if you go to some places, for  example in the South of the United States,  

you might hear people instead using "you all"  for the plural of the second person of the you.  

So they say you if they're just talking to one  person and you all if they're talking to a group. 

Or in other parts of the U.S you might hear  people saying you guys to refer to a group  

of both men and women. And furthermore  the rules are going to vary depending on  

where you're using the English. So  if you travel to the UK you might  

find some little bit different rules than you  would find if you're using American English. 

So really when you're thinking about what is  correct grammar, you first have to think about  

where are you actually taking the use of that  English language, and in addition to this,  

modern British grammar and vocabulary and  so many other aspects are highly influenced  

by American English, because of all of the  media that comes out of the United States. 

So what's more, grammar rules can be flexible in  both spoken and written English. Just to give you  

an example of this, you can hear certain people  use ain't all the time when they're speaking,  

but you probably would not want to use this  if you're doing some sort of formal writing. 

Now, finally it's really important that we  remember that grammar tries to explain what  

natives naturally do when they speak a  language. So grammar is really complex  

and an ambiguous system, and there are even  discrepancies between the leading grammarians.

So if you're a Star Wars fan then you already  know that Yoda's wisdom gave Luke guidance on his  

journey to help him decide what the best next step  to take was. So in the same way grammar is like an  

old friend that helps you to make informed  decisions when you're speaking or writing in  

English. It takes you to the next level and helps  you to give a more accurate sense of your ideas. 

so it helps you to be independent, but it  should be used in a constructive way. So  

this is just in the same way that you'd use  a flashlight to find your way in the dark  

or that you would use floaties to help  yourself feel more secure when you're swimming.  

So you should use grammar in your favor, not  against you. Friends push each other forward,  

they don't hold each other back. And we would love  to be your Yoda on your English learning journey  

and help you to learn grammar the natural  way. So a really great place to get started  

is with our Power Learning Mini Course.  You can join that absolutely FREE. You  

can learn more and sign up looking up  here or down the description below.

Do you remember when you were a  child learning your first language?  

Did you have to learn all the grammar rules  before you could start speaking? And nowadays,  

do you know all the grammar rules flawlessly to  be able to communicate in your native language? 

So in the very same way when you're learning  English it's useful to know the function of  

different grammar points before its rules. So a  good idea can actually be learning what to use  

before how it's actually constructed  in a grammatically correct way.  

So just to give you an example of this, say  that you want to talk about something that  

you did in the past but that you don't  do anymore. So you would use "used to"  

or "would." Now by knowing this then you can  know how you would correctly conjugate this  

in the affirmative or the negative or what  kind of verb form needs to come after this. 

So I would be willing to bet that this is not  how they taught you at all in school. It's okay  

to figure out the grammar rules as you're going  about your journey learning the language. You  

don't need to have them all memorized before you  can start speaking. Just to give you an example,  

when I was learning Catalan I didn't study the  grammar at all. For the first few years I actually  

just started using it first, to be able to  understand different things that I enjoyed, like  

music or TV series. And to start being able to  speak with different friends in that language. And  

then a couple years ago I was really determined to  actually start studying the language to be able to  

kind of polish up some of my mistakes. And so  when I started at that point studying grammar  

it made perfect sense to me, because I had already  encountered these things hundreds of times if not  

thousands. It wasn't just some abstract set  of rules that I felt like I had to memorize. 

So that leads us perfectly into the next  point and that is that context is everything.

So without context, memorizing the rules in  a grammar book won't do anything for you,  

and that's why it's so great to learn English  by reading or by watching series. Because you'll  

actually see the different grammatical  structures used in context and sometimes  

these can actually be absorbed without you  even realizing them. And this is exactly  

what we'll do for you in that Power Learning  Mini Course that I told you about earlier.  

So to help you understand this a little  bit better let's look at an example.  

So the present continuous can be used  in a variety of different functions.  

Let's look at four different ways, just so that  you'll understand why context is so important. 

So first off, she's eating dinner,  that's why she can't answer the phone. 

He's studying for his S.A.T exams. People are texting much more than they used to. 

When we moved to Italy, we're  buying a house on the coast. 

So as you can see if you don't know what  you need to express in a certain context,  

knowing that you form the present continuous  by adding the verb to be plus a verb plus ing,  

is going to be completely useless to you.  However schools will often teach grammar  

blindly in this way. And also, as we touched  on earlier, the place where you grew up,  

the region that you live in, and even  the family that you grew up with,  

can also influence how you speak the language. So let's take a look also at how important context  

is in informal and formal situations.  So we'll look at different examples  

and both of them can actually be correct,  depending on what context that you're in.

So as you can see it's nearly humanly  impossible to know and be aware of all  

the different variants of a language and what  is considered correct in each of them and again  

some things might be considered grammatically  incorrect, but natives still do them anyway.

So grammatical competence is the ability to make  sense of grammatical sentences in at least one  

language and transfer that to another. So you may  already be able to take some things that you know  

in your native language and apply those to  English, you're not starting completely from zero. 

Now in addition to that your previous  exposure is absolutely essential,  

so have you ever had that feeling that you are  speaking or you're writing something and you  

just know how to say that correctly, and you're  not even sure how to explain why you know that? 

Now this is based on the previous exposure that  you've had for the language, you've probably seen  

that use some place and your brain has been  able to kind of connect the dots, even though  

you can't explain it. And you've probably learned  some sort of different grammatical structures  

that maybe you haven't even formally studied yet. And this is exactly why constant exposure is so  

crucial: the more that you expose yourself to  a language by listening to it and reading it,  

the less time that you need to sit down formally  studying at your desk. So one place we can see  

that this is important is that sometimes  two different varieties of saying one thing  

can be used in the same variety of English. So  American or British for example, and on the other  

hand only one form might be accepted in another  variety of the language. So just to give you  

an example of it let's look at these sentences. So is jack here? No, he's just gone home. Now who  

do you think would say that? Brits or Americans? Now actually you could hear both Brit and  

Americans using it that way. However if we change  the dialogue a little bit and instead it becomes:  

Is jack here? No, he just went  home. Who would say it that way? 

So you could know that that person is an  American speaking because this is accepted  

in American English but not in British English.  So let's take a quick look at another example. 

So say someone calls me on the phone. I  could answer and say, "Hello, is that Susan?"  

Now who do you think would say it that  way? Would that be a Brit or an American? 

Now that would be a Brit that would say it  that way. An American would actually say,  

"Is this Susan?" and by the way if you  want to learn more differences between  

British and American English, then I highly  recommend that you check out this video.  

You'll find that by clicking up  here or down the description below.

It's okay to make mistakes. Repeat it to yourself  like a mantra. Making mistakes is a crucial part  

of the learning process. I mean how many times  did you fall down before you learned to walk?  

Now, having a reasonable amount of correctness  is important because people need to be able to  

understand you. It's quite unnecessary that you  can perfectly speak the language. I mean natives  

don't even speak the language perfectly. We talked  earlier about how natives often make mistakes  

and these mistakes can actually become the norm,  so much so that eventually they're accepted into  

what is considered correct grammar or correct  English. So just to give you an example,  

the word data was not always said this  way. For the singular of this we used to  

say datum which comes from latin. So  just to give you an example of this:  

only having one datum for my paper was not enough  to prove my theory. And it has gained different  

meaning and been used as a singular uncountable  noun ever since. So, to give you an example,  

they transfer the data to a flash drive. So we  don't know if they're talking about one piece  

of data or multiple pieces of data in that case. So if you go to Starbucks and you order coffee,  

the barista of course is not worried about whether  or not you're correctly applying the entire table  

of contents of your grammar book. They just  need you to be intelligible enough so they know  

what you're asking for. They can place your order  correctly and you can enjoy a nice cup of coffee.  

Remember, if you hold yourself back  for fear of not speaking flawlessly  

then you are bound to forget what you've  already learned. Remember that grammar  

is not the most important thing in the world. Alright so we've talked about a lot in today's  

video, so in it you remembered that grammar is the  foundation of the language, but its rules are not  

set in stone. The language is constantly changing  and evolving and the grammar is too. Understanding  

the radical rules will empower you but they  should only come second when communicating.  

You already know more than you think so trust  your guts, and making mistakes is okay they're  

natural part of the learning process. So I want to know what are your main  

takeaways from today's lesson? What surprised  you the most? Write it down in the comments  

below and let's start a conversation. And now it's time to go beyond the  

classroom and live your English! And  you'll learn the grammar along the way.