One of the aspects of language learning that turns most people off is grammar. And when I pick up grammar books myself, I can, too, relate to that repulsion; and, I think, it'd be safe to say that the reason for that is that most grammar books make grammar look way more difficult than it really is.
A continuation, I propose an alternative way of looking at grammar of which it's primary goal is to simplify grammar concepts. Hopefully, reading this will help you understand grammar, its helpfulness and hopefully, you might even get to like it; even if just a tiny little bit.
These grammar concepts apply to most languages that I've studied, which include English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian, and I have enough reason to believe that they would apply to most, if not all languages, perhaps including even languages of animals!
(Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a grammar expert, I'm only sharing my own conclusions and tips)
First, let's think a little about the origen of languages. Let's teletransport ourselves a few thousand of years back into the past, when our ancestors, the first speaking humans, were barely starting to speak. Let's think about this, what kind of words, would you guess, they were most likely to have spoken first?
My guess would be words such as FIRE, WATER, SUN, DANGER, DAY, NIGHT, TREE, FOOD etc.
All of the above words have something in common, can you tell what it is?
The correct answer is that they are all NOUNS! pat yourself in the back if you guessed it right!
As you probably already know NOUNS are words that refer to things. That's basically all we need to know about NOUNS!
Now, let's get back to our ancestors, the first humans, and think about what would have been the next type of words they would have come out with.
While it is very difficult to say with total certainty what type of words they would have come up wth after nouns, I think we can narrow it down to 2 possiblities.
One possibility would be words like bright, dark, blue, black, big, small, tall, shallow, dangerous etc
.
Can you guess what all of these words have in commun?
That's right, all of the above words are ADJECTIVES. If the word ADJECTIVE doesn't make any sense to you, then let me give you a little tip to help you understand what ADJECTIVES are.
Let's go ahead and brake the word ADJECTIVE into two words like thus:
AD + JECTIVES where AD equals "TO ADD" and "JECTIVES" means OBJECT. In other words, ADJECTIVES are words that describe OBJECTS or NOUNS and thus, ADJECTIVES are words that are ADDED to OBJECTS!
So, we can add ADJECTIVES to NOUNS like this: BIG TREE, BLACK SKY, COLD NIGHT, etc.
Besides NOUNS and ADJECTIVES, the first speaking humans' first spoken words might have been words like eat, drink, sleep, run, stop, see, listen etc.
All of these words are VERBS and VERBS are words that denote actions.
But, our ancestors, the first speaking humans, might have also used some basic ADVERBS. Now, don't let words like these take the best of you. Here's a tip to help you remember what ADVERBS are and do. Again, let's split the word ADVERB in two. AD+VERB. Can you see where I'm getting at? I think you can.
Yes, that's right, ADVERBS are words that are ADDED to VERBS! The following words are all adverbs: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, TOMORROW, YESTERDAY, TODAY, NOW etc.
So we can add ADVERBS to VERBS like this: LOOK RIGHT. LOOK DOWN. LOOK LEFT, EAT NOW, etc.
Well, now that we know what NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS, and ADVERBS are, We know almost everything we need to know to help us understand most grammar concepts!
Below we have a small chart that groups words into 4 main groups: VERBS, NOUNS, ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES.
A continuation, I propose an alternative way of looking at grammar of which it's primary goal is to simplify grammar concepts. Hopefully, reading this will help you understand grammar, its helpfulness and hopefully, you might even get to like it; even if just a tiny little bit.
These grammar concepts apply to most languages that I've studied, which include English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian, and I have enough reason to believe that they would apply to most, if not all languages, perhaps including even languages of animals!
(Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a grammar expert, I'm only sharing my own conclusions and tips)
First, let's think a little about the origen of languages. Let's teletransport ourselves a few thousand of years back into the past, when our ancestors, the first speaking humans, were barely starting to speak. Let's think about this, what kind of words, would you guess, they were most likely to have spoken first?
My guess would be words such as FIRE, WATER, SUN, DANGER, DAY, NIGHT, TREE, FOOD etc.
All of the above words have something in common, can you tell what it is?
The correct answer is that they are all NOUNS! pat yourself in the back if you guessed it right!
As you probably already know NOUNS are words that refer to things. That's basically all we need to know about NOUNS!
Now, let's get back to our ancestors, the first humans, and think about what would have been the next type of words they would have come out with.
While it is very difficult to say with total certainty what type of words they would have come up wth after nouns, I think we can narrow it down to 2 possiblities.
One possibility would be words like bright, dark, blue, black, big, small, tall, shallow, dangerous etc
.
Can you guess what all of these words have in commun?
That's right, all of the above words are ADJECTIVES. If the word ADJECTIVE doesn't make any sense to you, then let me give you a little tip to help you understand what ADJECTIVES are.
Let's go ahead and brake the word ADJECTIVE into two words like thus:
AD + JECTIVES where AD equals "TO ADD" and "JECTIVES" means OBJECT. In other words, ADJECTIVES are words that describe OBJECTS or NOUNS and thus, ADJECTIVES are words that are ADDED to OBJECTS!
So, we can add ADJECTIVES to NOUNS like this: BIG TREE, BLACK SKY, COLD NIGHT, etc.
Besides NOUNS and ADJECTIVES, the first speaking humans' first spoken words might have been words like eat, drink, sleep, run, stop, see, listen etc.
All of these words are VERBS and VERBS are words that denote actions.
But, our ancestors, the first speaking humans, might have also used some basic ADVERBS. Now, don't let words like these take the best of you. Here's a tip to help you remember what ADVERBS are and do. Again, let's split the word ADVERB in two. AD+VERB. Can you see where I'm getting at? I think you can.
Yes, that's right, ADVERBS are words that are ADDED to VERBS! The following words are all adverbs: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, TOMORROW, YESTERDAY, TODAY, NOW etc.
So we can add ADVERBS to VERBS like this: LOOK RIGHT. LOOK DOWN. LOOK LEFT, EAT NOW, etc.
Well, now that we know what NOUNS, ADJECTIVES, VERBS, and ADVERBS are, We know almost everything we need to know to help us understand most grammar concepts!
Below we have a small chart that groups words into 4 main groups: VERBS, NOUNS, ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES.
Except for CONJUNCTIONS, which are words like AND, and OR and serve to join words/phrases, all other words fall under one of our 4 main categories.
What we want to know next is that ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES cad be subdivided into 3 subgroups respectively, as shown in the chart below.
What we want to know next is that ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES cad be subdivided into 3 subgroups respectively, as shown in the chart below.