Learning English Grammar Step-By-Step: How To Get Started

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Feeling lost when it comes to English grammar? Finding ways to improve your English grammar? Look no further as we’re here to guide you on how to learn English grammar step-by-step.

Why Learn English Grammar? 

Firstly, it’s important to understand why grammar is important for any language learner. Grammar refers to the rules and structure of a language. It helps us choose and arrange words so that we can understand each other easily. 

While some may find grammar rather difficult to learn, just remember that grammar is your friend, not your enemy! We may not realise it but we’re already using grammar rules in our daily conversations to communicate effectively.

Why Grammar Matters

When someone asks ‘Can you please bring me a bottle of water?’, there are clues in the sentence itself that provides us with some context. From the sentence, we know that the person is asking for one bottle of water as the noun is used in its singular form while the indefinite article ‘a’ tells you that it could be any bottle of water. 

Isn’t it amazing how language has evolved to become so detailed? Instead of having to ask or explain further, grammar rules provide us with clues to keep our communication clear and concise. 

Now that we know why grammar is important, let’s look at how you can start learning English grammar step-by-step!

Learning English Grammar: A Step-By-Step Approach

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Step 1 - Learn the parts of speech 

Each word makes up a part of speech and has a role to play in a sentence. Different parts of speech come together to convey meaning accurately. The different parts of speech are: 

• Nouns 

• Pronouns 

• Articles 

• Verbs 

• Adjectives 

• Adverbs 

• Prepositions

• Conjunctions 

To find out more about each of the parts of speech with some examples, click here

While many of you may be able to categorise words that you know into different parts of speech, you must also know how to use them correctly in a sentence. Therefore, the first step in our learning English grammar step-by-step guide is to understand the meaning and purpose of the different parts of speech. 

If this sounds like a lot, don’t worry. With practice, you won’t even need to think about the different parts of speech when forming a grammatically correct sentence. You’d be on your way to using ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ correctly in a sentence without a doubt! Many native or advanced speakers of any language often automatically know what is right and wrong. 

Step 2 - Expand your vocabulary

Once you’re familiar with the different parts of speech, you can then step up your vocabulary game. Vocabulary is the set of familiar words that you often use when speaking a language. The more words you know, the more details you can convey. The more comfortable you become with different words, the more it will help you improve your English grammar. You also get to be creative with your sentences to make them more interesting!

One way to expand your vocabulary is to read and watch more English content. It could be in the form of books, articles, tv shows, or films. When you come across a new word, take the time to find out its meaning. Besides that, pay attention to how similar words are used in different ways. 
When you’re writing essays, use Thesaurus to discover a list of synonyms for you to use. Additionally, who says learning grammar can’t be fun? You can play games such as Wordle or online Scrabble to discover new words!

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Step 3 - Master the basic sentence structure

The next step in our learn English step-by-step guide is to get your basic sentence structure right! At a minimum, a sentence must contain both a subject (the noun or pronoun that is doing the acting) and a verb (the action that the noun is doing) to be considered complete. 

For example, ‘I love apples’ or ‘Sarah walks to school’. As you can see, a complete and grammatically correct sentence can simply be three or four words long! Therefore, when you’re learning to form grammatically correct sentences, start short! Practice forming short sentences and then slowly add in more words as you gain more confidence. Once you get the concepts right, you’d be ready to construct more complex sentences.

Bonus tip 

Before we wrap up, we would like to highlight one key tip that you should always keep in mind when you’re learning grammar step-by-step. Do not be afraid of making mistakes and do not give up! Having this mindset when learning grammar is important so that you’d keep practising and improving to master the English language. 

When you’re doing grammar exercises, don’t be discouraged if you get some of the answers wrong. The key is to understand the mistakes and then try again. You would also need to practice speaking in English which can be intimidating for English learners. 

So start by speaking to friends, family or teachers that you are most comfortable with and highlight to them that you’re trying to improve your English. Then, as you build your confidence, try using it more often in public. 

If you do find yourself in a situation where someone is trying to put you down because of your English, ignore them and remember what you’re trying to achieve. Find the courage to continue practising and know that in the end, you will be the one benefitting from it!