How To Improve My English Grammar

Check out these 5 tips to improve your English grammar.
Mar 3 / Jake Borland
Understanding the basic grammar rules is essential for communicating efficiently and today we answer the question 'How can I improve my English grammar? However, many of us have forgotten those concepts, so it is good to renew them once in a while. In the previous article How to learn English grammar, we clarified what grammar is and how you can get a better understanding of it.

Here are 5 tips that can help you improve your knowledge of English grammar:
1. KNOW THE PARTS OF SPEECH
2. LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONFUSING WORDS
3. USE PUNCTUATION PROPERLY
4. UNDERSTAND THE ARTICLES
5. CONJUGATE VERBS PROPERLY

1. KNOW THE PARTS OF SPEECH
To put sentences together correctly, you must understand what parts of speech are and how they function in sentences. In the previous article, How to learn English grammar easily, we only mentioned them, today I'll go into more detail and give you some examples.

  • NOUNS: Nouns are the elements that usually perform the action in a sentence. Those elements can be a person (Peter), place (London), thing (table), idea (philosophy), emotion (angry), animal (cat), or event (graduation).
  • ADJECTIVES: Adjectives modify nouns and describe aspects or characteristics of nouns. For example: blue, childish, active, small, and tall.
  • PRONOUNS: Pronouns take the place of nouns. There are personal subject pronouns (such as I, she, and they), personal object pronouns (such as us, you, it, and them), personal possessive pronouns (such as mine, yours, his, hers, and theirs), and relative pronouns (such as who, which, that, and whose).
  • VERBS: Verbs indicate actions or states of being and tell what the noun is doing. For example: walk, whistle, write, be, and run.
  • ADVERBS : Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, prepositions, and other adverbs. They are words like quickly, well, and slowly. These words often end in –ly.
  • PROPOSITIONS: Prepositions indicate relationships in time, space, or direction. Prepositions include to, in, on, over, of, and across.
  • CONJUNCTIONS: Conjunctions join nouns, clauses, phrases, and sentences. Coordinating conjunctions connect independent clauses (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Subordinating conjunctions connect dependent clauses (because, if, since, while, and although).
  • INTERJECTIONS: Interjections are words that indicate emotions. These include oh, hey, ouch, and wow. They are often followed by exclamation points.
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2. LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONFUSING WORDS

The second tip to improving your English grammar is to learn the difference between confusing words. English has a lot of words that look, sound, or are spelled the same, but they can have very different meanings. They can cause a great deal of confusion and result in frequent errors. ‍

Remembering them will help you avoid frequently made mistakes. We can divide them into 4 different groups:

  • Homographs: Words that are spelled the same
Bat – a piece of sports equipment used in baseball or a winged animal associated with vampires.

  • Homophones: words that are pronounced the same.
Brake/break – a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle/to be damaged and separated into two or more parts, as a result of force.

  • Heteronyms: words that are spelled identically but pronounced differently.
Lead, pronounced LEED, means to guide.
Lead, pronounced LED, means a metallic element‍.

  • Homonyms: Words that are spelled and pronounced the same.
Book – something to read
Book – the act of making a reservation‍

3. USE PUNCTUATION PROPERLY
Improper punctuation can mean that the meaning you're trying to achieve can be confused or lost. Many punctuation-related errors can occur in English.

Here are some tips to avoid them:
  • Use apostrophes correctly

The apostrophe is used for:
1. possessives (The school's cafeteria. Our family's holiday The shirt's colour.)
2. contractions (it's, let's, she's, they're, I've, don't, etc.).

The apostrophe is not used to form most plurals (She is looking at several schools. These shirts are on sale. We are dining with the Mayerses.)

  • Know where to place quotation marks


Periods and commas go inside quotation marks, even if they aren't part of the material being quoted. All other punctuation marks go outside the quotation marks unless they are part of the material being quoted.
Examples: 

"Any further delay," she said, "would result in a lawsuit."
 
His latest story is titled "The Beginning of the End"; wouldn't a better title be "The End of the Beginning"?

  • Always use a comma after introductory phrases or prepositional phrases.

It sounds like it makes no sense, but in fact, it is straightforward. The prepositional phrase is combination of words and the main element is a preposition. Usually, the prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun.

For example:  

Under the bed, we found her missing earring.
 
After a hard day at work, George loves to relax in front of a TV.


4. UNDERSTAND THE ARTICLES
The fourth tip to improve your English grammar is to understand articles. An article is a word used to transform a noun (that is a person, place, object, or idea). Technically, an article is an adjective, which is any word that modifies a noun. Usually, adjectives modify nouns through the description, but articles are used instead to point out or refer to nouns.‍

In English, there are two kinds of articles:
  • definite (the) – used when referring to something specific. 
Someone called the doctor living the next door.
  • indefinite (a/an) – used when referring to something in general
Someone called a doctor.
5. CONJUGATE VERBS CORRECTLY

The fifth and final tip to improve your English grammar is to conjugate verbs correctly. ‍

English technically only conjugates the present simple ("I love") and past tenses ("I loved"). It means that English verbs only have different forms or endings for these tenses. However, other verb tenses, such as the future ("I will love"), are created with the help of modal verbs.

Let's use the verb "to go" as an example with how to conjugate some of the main English tenses:

  • Simple present - uninflected verb, or verb + s/es in the third person (I go, you go, he/she/it goes, we go, you go, they go);
  • Present continuous - am/is/are + present participle (I am going, you are going, he/she/it is going, we/you/they are going);
  • Present perfect - has/have + past participle (I have gone, you have gone, he/she/it has gone, we/you/they have gone);
  • Simple past - verb + –ed for regular verbs (I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they went - “to go” is an irregular verb.
  • Past continuous - was/were + present participle (I was going, you were going, he/she/it was going, we/you/they were going);
  • Past Perfect - had + past participle (I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they had gone);
  • Simple future - will + uninflected verb (I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they will go);
  • Future continuous - will be + present participle (I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they will be going);
  • Future Perfect - will have + past participle (I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they will have gone).


These are just a few tips on how to improve your English grammar. I hope you find them useful. Besides just studying grammar rules, reading (the best way is to read aloud) and writing play an essential part of improving your English grammar. Focus on reading different genres and styles of writing, such as classic literature, textbooks, science-fiction, science books, biographies, blogs, essays, articles, etc. Read newspapers, listen to news radio, and watch televised news programs daily as well. Pay attention to how sentences are structured, word order, spelling, and creative variations the authors use.

I wish you the best of luck in improving your English grammar.

Jake Borland

Jake Borland is an experienced English teacher with 20 years in the field. As the co-founder and Marketing Manager of Speak English Institute, he is dedicated to delivering high-quality education both in-person and online. Jake’s passion lies in helping students improve their English skills through engaging and effective learning experiences.

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