Bad grammar: to how people boring angry make!

Posted by on May 10, 2013 in Grammar |

There really is nothing quite so tedious and boring as a prescriptive grammarian.  And I’m a native speaker, and an English teacher with a section about grammar on his blog!  I really have a lot of sympathy for people who are learning English.  Let me explain what I mean by “prescriptive grammar.” To paraphrase the linguist David Brazil, a grammarian must begin from one of the following assumptions: We can discover the rules...

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Free spelling and grammar checking software

Posted by on Mar 15, 2013 in Grammar, Writing |

We all use a spell-checker when we write, but most of them don’t notice when we write the wrong word.  If I wrote, “I had a bear at the pub last night,” all of the words are spelled correctly but I should have typed “beer.”  Ginger is a new kind of spelling and grammar checker that checks the context of your words, not just the words in isolation.  Ginger notices “pub” in the sentence and offers to...

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Learning with the BBC

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Learning Websites, Listening, Reading, Videos, Vocabulary, Writing |

The BBC is possibly one of the richest sources of high-quality, free English learning material on the Internet.  Their Learning English site has so many sections I really can’t talk about all of them here (although I will say Words in the News is a very good place to start).  Skillswise has excellent sections on spelling, reading, and writing.  Their Video Nation site has interviews with real people and a short quiz afterwards to see if you...

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Advanced writing techniques for American university students

Posted by on Mar 11, 2013 in Grammar, Writing |

The Guide to Grammar and Writing is a resource for American college students so the language on the site is considerably more advanced than on a site for English learners.  However, the information is extensive and you may find the pages on punctuation (under Word and Sentence Level) and sentence combining skills (under Paragraph Level) particularly useful.

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