How to Learn Perfect English As a Native English Speaker [image: A grammar joke] <http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Grammar_895.jpg> <http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Grammar_895.jpg> A grammar joke
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Read, read, read! What you read is not really important, so choose subjects that you like. Not everything in print is perfect, but the vast majority of printed works, such as books and magazines, have been thoroughly edited. You will pick up structures, tones, and ideas from your reading. The more you read, the more mistakes and problems will start to "look" or "sound" wrong to you. Correctness will start to feel natural. - If you want to write with a particular style or in a particular genre, read things that are related to that. You will tend to adopt styles and ideas from what you read. 2. Listen to talk radio, podcasts, and audio books. It is good listening practice. Audio books, especially, are an opportunity to hear writing. You will learn how to pronounce new words and also hear the complex sentence structures inflected. 3. Keep proper pronunciation in mind. For most words that can be pronounced more than one way (such as "either"), all the different pronunciations are correct. For a few, such as "mischievous," one pronunciation is preferred. 4. Read out loud, with intonation. If you have kids, read to them, and ham it up with Dr. Seuss. Even if your dog or cat is the only one listening, reading passages out loud is one way to interpret their structures, and it will make you more conscious of their details. It will improve your speech, especially if you are hesitant when you speak or say "uh" and "um" all the time. If you practice reading aloud, you will be less likely to stammer or pause when you speak. You will be more likely to say words carefully instead of slurring them together. 5. Study the creation of works using proper English. What makes the artful imagery in a novel so beautiful? What makes a good speech so persuasive? 6. Build your vocabulary. Reading is the best way to do that because it exposes you to a far wider range of words than conversation or spoken media, such as radio or television. Collect words that you do not know. Also browse the dictionary, play word games (such as Hangman, Fictionary, and Free Rice), and subscribe to a word of the day. 7. Play with the language. Start a pun war. Dust off your Scrabble game. Invent your own word. Try your hand at a garden path sentence, write your own aprosdoketon or enter the Bulwer-Lytton contest for bad prose or one of its imitators. Making fun of the language is a great way to explore it. 8. Brush up on the rules. Get hold of a copy of William Strunk's The Elements of Style, a thin volume covering the essentials of good writing. If you prefer a physical book, an updated version by Strunk and E.B. White is still in print. Other style manuals discuss common, frequently-confused rules, too. 9. Practice writing. Write for a journal, blog, or wiki. Wikis, especially, need writers and frequently come with a whole community of editors who will help you. Whatever and wherever you write, practice daily, if possible. In email and text messages, use complete sentences. That counts as writing, too. 10. Consider your audience. Just as you wear different clothing for different weather, you should write or speak differently depending upon your audience. Having an audience in mind will help to focus your communication, too. 11. Consider your purpose. Is this communication factual or fanciful? Are you telling a story, arguing a point, or explaining a procedure? 12. Proofread your writing. Even a thorough grasp of English does not ensure perfect typing or ideal sentence structures in your first attempt. Proofreading will also tell you what sorts of things you regularly do wrong so that you can improve. Reading out loud is a very good way to catch things that you might have missed. 13. Have someone else proofread your writing. Something that sounds right to you may not make sense to someone else. 14. Do not be afraid to make mistakes. That fear may keep you from writing well. Language takes extraordinary amounts of practice to master, and mistakes are part of the learning process. 15. Try learning another language. It will make you more conscious of the structures and grammar in your own. Many of the Latin-based and Germanic languages have words and structures similar to those in English, and exploring these similarities and differences will strengthen both languages. Tips - Do not hesitate to split an infinitive when it is warranted. Grammarians, teachers, and writers used to try not to split "to" and the verb. The rule was supposed to make the English language more like Latin because the infinitive is one word in Latin. Strictly speaking, however, “to” is not a part of the infinitive, and both English and Latin use one-word infinitives. For example, in the sentence “I made my daughter clean her room,” “clean” is an infinitive without “to.” Split infinitives are not ungrammatical, considering that they are unavoidable in some sentences. Split infinitives are encountered in the most formal of English.Split infinitives can even be used in very formal writing that avoids the active voice. Infinitives do not have subjects and do not form clauses; voice is a property of clauses. <http://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Perfect-English-As-a-Native-English-Speaker#_note-2>In the sentence “Her plan is to not use the active voice,” the split infinitive prevents confusion. "Her plan is not to use the active voice" has a different meaning and does not make it clear that she is trying not to use the active voice. “To more than double” is another example. “More than to double” and “to double more than” are not English! - Do not be afraid to use a "split verb phrase." Some writers who do not split infinitives refuse to split verb phrases as well, but there is no such rule. If there were such a rule, we should all be saying, "I saw her not" instead of "I didn't see her." We should also say, "You are going?" instead of "Are you going?" but "You are going?" is a Nonstandard question. This rule is not consistent with the evolution of the English language. In fact, split verb phrases have the advantages (in terms of emphasis) of split infinitives when an adverb comes between the two parts of the verb phrase. - Realize that you sometimes have to end a sentence with a preposition. Consider this line from *Robots*: "You can shine no matter what you're made of." It would be ungrammatical to write, "You can shine no matter of what you're made," and it does not sound like English. Also consider that like Latin, the English language is able to use intransitive verbs in the passive voice! Consider "Speak only when you are spoken to." "Spoken to" are treated as a single unit in English, and this sentence can be "corrected" only by rewriting it in the active voice: "Speak only when someone speaks to you." This sentence makes assumptions because you may be spoken to by one person or by a group. When your sentence uses a relative pronoun, try to place the preposition in front of the relative. For instance, "It was the ball by which I was hit" works better than "It was the ball that I was hit by." Your sentences will generally be stronger if you try to follow this rule. After all, few people are going to say that their favorite part of speech is the preposition. Your writing will be more exciting if you end your sentences with an exciting word. - Use "who" and "whom" properly. You would never say, "Sally saw I," but you might say, "Who did Sally see?" without realizing that "whom" is the correct pronoun. "Who" is the subject pronoun; "whom" is the object pronoun. When you are unsure about which to use, rework the sentence and substitute either "he" or "him." From the question "Who did Sally see?" you could make the statement "Sally did see him." Because "him" sounds correct, "whom" is used in the sentence. If you feel uncomfortable using "whom" in speech, William Safire suggests recasting the sentence to remove the pronoun. When George Bush used "Who do you trust?" as a slogan, Safire suggested "Which candidate do you trust?" - An intuitive grasp of English usage, while not infallible, is the most flexible. You will write or speak most naturally if you can focus on the ideas and their communication, instead of thinking about the rules. - Remember that good writing calls for good grammar, good spelling, logical organization, clarity, attention to the audience, and a good selection of content. A good writer does not overlook any of those things. Be sure to allot plenty of time to check for grammar and spelling errors and poor organization. - Accept that the language evolves. It gains new words. "Finalize" is one, and there is no perfect substitute for it. It uses existing words in new ways. For example, "hopefully" used to mean only "in hopeful manner" but has gained a second meaning: "if hopes are realized." "If hopes are realized" is not a perfect definition, either; there is no substitute that is exactly equivalent. Languages also lose words. For instance, English used to make a distinction between formal and informal second-person pronouns: "ye" as the formal pronoun and "thou" as the informal pronoun. These pronouns also had subjective and objective forms: "thou" and "thee" and "ye" and "you." English speakers found that they did not need all of these different pronouns. "You" could be used in formal and informal styles and as a subjective and objective pronoun. - Write first, fix second. If you do not know how to spell a word, keep writing! Do not stop to correct errors if you might lose your train of thought. You can always make corrections later. - The ability to spell is not necessarily an indicator of the ability to write, although the two skills are closely related. If felt that you are not a good speller, use a dictionary or spell-checker before you make a final copy of your work. - Attention to written English will improve your spoken English as well. Warnings - No one is perfect. Even English mavens such as William Safire, Richard Lederer, and Lynne Truss draw comments and criticism on their writing styles. - Articles on the Internet (especially those on blogs) are more likely to contain errors than printed works such as books or magazines. Internet pages are often not checked as carefully as other written works. - Be careful about correcting others when you are in conversation. Some people take it the wrong way. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "English Learner's Cafe" group. 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