Grammar and Mechanics

21 Jun 2019

Too, spelled with two o’s, is a very common word in English, but one that is sometimes used incorrectly.

Using too as an adverb modifying a verb is pretty straightforward and easy. We can use it instead of also or as well.

Are you going to the movies? I’m going too.

Do you like scary movies? I like them as well.

Did you take TOEFL last week? I also took it.

Me too is frequently used to express agreement.

Speaker A: I thought that test was really hard.

Speaker B: Me too!

Using too as an adverb modifying an adjective or adverb is a bit trickier.

First of all, don’t confuse too with so. So can be used to mean really, very, or extremely.

That movie was so good! It was really amazing.

Too, on the other hand, has a negative meaning. It means to an excess.

That movie was too scary. I couldn’t even watch some of it.

That soup is too hot. I can’t drink it.

He’s driving too fast. He’s going to get stopped by the police.

She’s talking too fast. It’s hard to understand her.

We often use the phrases too much and too many. Remember that as adjectives (determiners), much is used with singular non-count nouns and many with plural nouns.

I ate too much dinner. It’s unhealthy to eat too much sugar. Those shoes cost too much money.

I had too many cookies. Fast food has too many calories. She has too many shoes.

We can also use too much as an adverb.

He slept too much. She talks too much. We have to study too much.

We can also use too much in a general, unspecific way.

Life was just too much for her. She needed a break.

Things have just been too much lately. I’m really depressed.

Way too is an informal way to intensify too.

I ate way too many chips. Our teacher gives us way too much homework. I was working way too hard.

Then, there’s too too, sometimes spelled too-too. It means going beyond the edge (over the edge, overboard) in terms of convention, acceptability, good taste, or common sense. We can use it as an adjective by itself or as an adverb modifying an adjective.

Her house is just too too. (Meaning that it might be over-decorated, too showy, too pretentious, too ornate, or over-the-top)

Her children are simply too too precious. (Depending on the tone of voice, this could mean that the speaker really thinks the children are precious (adorable, lovely, wonderful) or it could imply that although the parents think they are precious, the speaker doesn’t.)

In general, too as an adjective is a relatively weak word to use in more formal business or academic writing, so be careful not to overuse it. Good synonyms that specifically mean being to a higher degree than is desirable, permissible, or possible include:

excessively

overly

unduly

inordinately

disproportionately

18 Feb 2017

When I was in elementary school, many students learned to diagram sentences in English class. Not everyone enjoyed this. But I think the reason was not because of the method itself, but because of the way we were taught. Teachers would give us a sentence to diagram and make us stand up in the front of the class and write it on the blackboard. If we made a mistake, everyone would laugh at us … or so we feared.

In fact, I believe that the practice of diagramming sentences is not only fun, but also very useful. Diagramming taught me how English grammar works “in real life.” As a result, I became a much better writer. And when I taught my children at home, I made sure that they learned how to diagram sentences as well.

Diagramming helps students learn the different parts of speech. What is a noun, and a noun phrase? What is a preposition, and what is its object? What are verbs and what are adverbs? Diagramming trains you to identify these rapidly. It also teaches you how the same word can fulfill different functions … an important concept in English, where we have so many words that can be used for several parts of speech.

When you diagram, you have to identify the subject, the predicate, and how the different parts of the sentence fit together. It becomes much easier to construct grammatically correct sentences when you see how the whole sentence works together.

English learners particularly benefit from diagramming when their own language follows very different grammatical structures.

Diagramming isn’t for everyone. It isn’t for beginning learners. You need to have a solid understanding of basic English before you start. It isn’t for people who just want to speak and understand spoken English. Diagramming really focuses on written English … and spoken English often follows quite different grammatical patterns than written English.

I think diagramming works best for students who need to improve their writing skills, either for academic or business purposes. It also seems to appeal to people who have a logical, analytical turn of mind. For example, when I taught diagramming in class, the student who made the quickest progress and enjoyed it the most was a high school mathematics teacher.

You can find many resources for studying diagramming on the internet. However, I think that it really helps to work with a teacher, especially as you learn to diagram more complex sentences. Not every teacher knows how to diagram, and not every teacher believes it’s an effective method. But it’s definitely worth discussing this with your teacher, or seeking out a teacher who teaches it. See for yourself whether diagramming helps you master the challenges of English grammar.

29 Oct 2016

A student of mine recently commented that grammar textbooks are “old fashioned” compared to online resources. I beg to defer.

I’m certainly a fan of new technology. The internet has opened up fabulous opportunities for language learning that weren’t available a decade or so ago. YouTube videos, Ted talks, English discussion boards, online tutoring, even this blog are all resources that can help English learners tremendously. But there are some instances when a good old-fashioned grammar textbook can be a great help.

First of all, a good grammar textbook lays out the structure of English grammar in a coherent, systematic, progressive, orderly format. It starts with the basics and then layers on increasingly complex information. Many students, especially those who feel more comfortable with a logical, analytic approach to learning, will appreciate this format. It’s just easier to proceed step-by-step through a textbook than picking and choosing what you think you need to learn from a wide-ranging variety of websites which may differ greatly in both approach and quality.

Secondly, a good grammar textbook provides more reliable information. Let’s face it … anyone can post anything on the internet. There’s very little fact-checking or accountability in the process. This is not true for your average textbook, which is written by one or more highly-trained professionals, edited by knowledgeable colleagues, and proofread multiple times before publication. I’ve been appalled by some of the misinformation and errors I’ve seen at English grammar websites. I would always put more trust in the information in a high-quality grammar textbook than in material offered at a random website.

Also, a good grammar textbook is usually easier to use. When you browse haphazardly for information about a particular grammar point on the web, you may find it’s difficult to go back and review the material at a later date. Few people are systematic in recording where they’ve gleaned various information on the internet. On the other hand, a textbook can be marked up, highlighted, commented on, bookmarked, and consulted for years and years. The information is always there in the same place and it’s much easier to access and refer back to.

Grammar isn’t the end-all or be-all of English language learning. But it does provide the basic structures that, with the addition of a good working vocabulary, can help you to express your opinions, thoughts, ideas, and feelings in coherent, comprehensible English. And isn’t that the goal of language learning?

28 Feb 2016

Those tiny but oh-so-common words called prepositions cause lots of trouble for English learners!

Even when you are very fluent in English, you may still get your prepositions mixed up.

Prepositions do lots of different jobs in English. Right now, let’s think about prepositional phrases with the words at, on and in. A phrase is a group of words. A prepositional phrase has a preposition and its object. The object can be a noun or a pronoun. In English is a prepositional phrase: in is the preposition and English is its object.

Let’s look at the picture above.

The woman is sitting at her desk. AT is a preposition that places one thing at a certain, specific point. For example:

I am sitting at my desk. She is meeting him at school. They are meeting at 8:00.

In the picture, the computer is on the desk. ON is a preposition that marks physical contact between one thing and another. For example, in the picture:

The woman’s hands are on the computer. The pencil is on the notebook. The notebook is on the desk.

Finally, in the picture, the plant is in the jar. IN is a preposition that means that one thing is contained by another thing. For example:

I am in my car. The food is in the refrigerator. He is in his room. Her clothes are in the closet.

To practice using these prepositions, try making up a few sentences to describe what you see in this picture.

blog at

19 Feb 2016

In English, our nouns usually don’t have gender. That’s nice. You don’t have to worry about whether a chair is feminine or masculine.

However, we do have count and non-count nouns. Not surprisingly, count nouns can be counted. For example, there are five students in the room. I have twelve pencils. The United States has 50 states. Students, pencils, and states are count nouns.

To make count nouns plural, you usually add an –s to the end of the word. However, some common count nouns are irregular (like child/children and man/men).

Non-count nouns can’t be counted. They may be a liquid (you can’t count water) or a mass (you can’t count rice). Or they may be an abstract idea (you can’t count luck).

You can’t make these non-count nouns plural and you may not use an article like a and an in front of them.

There are lots of English words that we can use to make non-count nouns countable. For example:

A cup of water

A grain of rice

A bit of luck

One very common mistake English learners make is to treat non-count nouns like count nouns. Typically, the words I hear used incorrectly are:

Advice (never advices)
Work (very rarely works)
Homework (never homeworks)
Information (never informations)
Equipment (never equipments)
Knowledge (never knowledges)
Help (never helps)
Scenery (never sceneries)

These words are used frequently and you won’t sound fluent if you use them incorrectly. Try memorizing these common phrases.

Can you give me some advice? I need some advice. Here’s my advice.

I have some work to do. This work is hard. I have lots of homework.

I need some information. She gave me some information. Here’s the information you need.

We don’t have the right equipment to do this. We need better equipment.

Scientists search for more knowledge. He has a thirst for knowledge. Knowledge is power.

I need some help with this. This is a big help. He gave me a little help.

We saw some beautiful scenery. The scenery is gorgeous in China. We traveled by train and enjoyed the scenery.

Just to add a bit of confusion, there are some non-count nouns that seem plural (like [eye]glasses, jeans, and socks). When you need to specify a number of these, you generally use a pair of … For example, I have two pairs of glasses (my reading pair and my spare pair), three pairs of jeans, and 20 pairs of socks.

And, finally, to make you really confused, some nouns are both count and non-count! Usually, they have somewhat different meanings. For example:

He is raising chickens. His family eats chicken every Sunday.

There is a hair in my soup. I have blonde hair.

There are seven colors in the rainbow. This room needs more color.

14 Feb 2016

Neither is a good thing, but I think it’s better to be bored than to be boring.

Maybe you aren’t interested in anything. Life doesn’t seem very interesting. You’re tired of your work. It’s too tiring!

People learning English often confuse these little adjectives that are formed from a verb and end with –ed and –ing. They’re called participles or participial adjectives.

What’s the difference between the participles that end with –ing and those that end with –ed?

Participles that end with –ing are called present participial adjectives. They have an active meaning. The noun they describe does or performs the action. For example:

This is a boring class. The class is doing the action. It is boring you.

This is an interesting movie. The movie is doing the action. It is interesting you.

This is a tiring job. The job is doing the action. It is tiring you.

Participles that end with –ed are called past participial adjectives. They have a passive meaning. The noun they describe feels or receives the action. For example:

I am bored (because this class is boring).

I am interested (because this movie is interesting).

I am tired (because my job is tiring).

As you can see, there’s a big difference between being bored, and being boring! Using these little words incorrectly can confuse your listener. Is what you say confusing? Is your listener confused? The best way to practice is to keep repeating common expressions until they become stuck in your mind. You should know the difference between common adjectives such as:

Bored and boring

Interested and interesting

Tired and tiring

Surprised and surprising

Excited and exciting

Confused and confusing

This is a great little quiz you can take to practice these adjectives and a few more. (Note for American English: we use sports in its plural form when we are talking about sports in general; we use sport in its singular form when we are talking about a particular sport. So, for example, I’m really into sports, and football is my favorite sport.)

11 Feb 2016

Lately, articles in publications like The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine have pointed out that more and more people are now accepting they as a grammatically correct singular third-person pronoun.

In other words, it’s now okay to say:

Everyone has their pencil and paper.

Each student was talking to their partner.

First person: I went to my doctor today. Second person: Oh, what did they say? (Because the second person doesn’t know whether the doctor is male or female)

I’m meeting a friend and going to their house. (Because maybe you don’t want to say whether you are going to be with a male or female.)

Using they in these situations saves speakers the problem of using awkward phrases like he or she and his/her.

Sometimes we can avoid this problem by making our sentences plural. For example:

Every student did his or her work can be changed to All the students did their work.

However, this doesn’t always work. Sometimes, you are talking about a single person, but you don’t know their sex or you don’t want your listener to know. Notice that in that last sentence I used their to refer to a single person! Often this is just inevitable in English and it’s nice to know that language experts and editors are finally coming around. You may have a grammar teacher who doesn’t agree, but then you can just refer them to one of the articles I mentioned above (notice that I just used the singular third-person they again!).

9 Feb 2016

Most English grammar books introduce personal pronouns like he, she, him, and her very early on. However, it seems to take many ESL students a long time to really master them. Unfortunately, when you misuse these little words, you can really confuse your listener. Also, using personal pronouns correctly can improve your scores on tests such as the TOEFL iBT and IELTS.

When I taught Low Intermediate Grammar, I used to have the class practice personal pronouns by arranging the students in a circle and having them take turns describing each other. But how do you practice when you’re by yourself?

One simple way is to get a group photo of men and women from the Internet or a magazine. Practice describing these people out loud. For example, you could say: She (a woman) is wearing a green dress. Her shoes are green too. She is sitting by a man. He looks like her father. His hair is gray. He is talking to her. They look happy.

Be sure to speak aloud and don’t just “think” the words. It’s important to get really comfortable with speaking quickly about men and women. Your goal should be to be able to use the correct personal pronoun without giving it any thought. This can take time, but it’s worth the effort.

7 Feb 2016

Recently, it occurred to me that punctuation symbols in written English are a lot like brake and turn signals in a car. Students sometimes wonder why teachers care so much about periods and commas, but in English, they act like car lights … they help the reader know where you, the writer, are going. We often get annoyed by drivers who don’t use signals because they take us by surprise; suddenly, they do something that we don’t expect. Think of periods as brake lights and commas as turn signals, and then you will understand better how they help your reader.