Download The importance of grammar With the advent of email and text

Oxford Learning Institute
University of Oxford
The importance of grammar
With the advent of email and text messaging, grammar is often seen as less important.
However, for effective and professional communication it is vital to use basic English
grammar correctly.
Common grammatical mistakes
Fewer/less
Use “fewer” when talking about things that can be counted one by one: “Next time please
put fewer tea bags in the pot”.
Use “less” when talking about things that cannot be counted individually: ”I take less
sugar in my tea than Jane”.
Note, however, that ”less” is also used for time and for money: “Roger Bannister was the
first to run a mile in less than four minutes” and “I thought that would cost less than
twenty pounds”.
What/which
Use “what” when talking about a wide range of things: “What would you like to do today?”
Use “which” for a defined range: “Which film shall we go to see?”
Active and passive sentences
In active sentences the “doer” comes before the “done”:
“Maureen chose the blue folder”
In passive sentences, the “done” comes before the “doer”:
“The blue folder was chosen by Maureen”
While passive sentences are not used as frequently when talking, they are very useful for
occasions when a more formal or objective impression is required, such as for instructions
“Smoking is not allowed” and in minutes “Two reports were considered by the committee”.
Word classes
It is useful to be familiar with the seven main word classes, since many mistakes relate to
choice of a similar word from a different word class – such as writing “stationary” (the
adjective meaning not moving) instead of “stationery” (the noun indicating envelopes etc).
Nouns are "naming" words for "people, places or things" e.g. the cat, the school
Adjectives describe an attribute of a noun, e.g. cold weather, violent storm
Verbs are defined as "action" words or "doing" words e.g. I work, Mary sings
Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb e.g. Mary sings
beautifully and David is extremely clever
Determiners are the words that often precede nouns such as the, a, or an
Prepositions are words that govern, and usually come in front of, a noun or pronoun and
express a relation to another word or element e.g. She left before breakfast. As a rule a
preposition is followed by a noun not a verb
Conjunctions are used to express a connection between words. The most familiar
conjunctions are and, but, and or
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