Learning English Grammar Essay

There is a general supposition that he who can use a language correctly knows its grammar. However, the supposition is wrong because it is contrary to fact; children speak the language much before they learn the grammar rules. Grammar is important as a corrective measure—that is, as part of the in-built system of Understanding, which is responsible for proper use of language. There is a lot of logic in grammar, and knowledge of the grammar rules is not enough to judge a sentence as correct, because a logically invalid sentence cannot be all right in spite of its being grammatically correct. In fact, he who uses his analytical faculty to cultivate language sense and develop understanding of language use learns language better and quicker than those who do not. As for learning a foreign language, learning it through the mother tongue is a good idea. However, this idea will work only if the native learner knows his language well enough and has learnt how to exploit knowledge of his mother tongue. A native learner of English can use Hindi to compare the forms and functions of the two languages and succeed in translating

The sentence “There are five girls on the playfield” has the word “there” as subject. What does this word mean? How can it be a subject if it stands for no person or thing? The native learner would feel baffled if he undertakes to translate into English the Hindi sentence, which states the fact of five girls on the playfield. “Five girls on the field” cannot be a subject in an English sentence, but it can be a subject in a Hindi sentence. The reason for the difference in the two languages is due to structure of sentence. How does it happen? The learner gets the answer when he compares structure of the two sentences, draws a distinction between logical subject and grammatical subject, and works out the rationale for treating “There” as grammatical