Would you like to know how to improve your grammar quickly and easily?
If I could tell you some simple tips about learning grammar I’d have to say two things:

Firstly, don’t get too concerned or worried about your grammar not being ideal or perfect especially when you’re just in the early or intermediate stages of learning. Does that statement mean that grammar isn’t an important part of the learning process?… no of course not, but it does mean that you can confuse yourself or set up too much personal stress by worrying about it. There is an easier way, which in fact is a method so natural and proven that you’ll be relieved to hear about it!

Secondly, English grammar is overall quite simple to understand once the student looks at it objectively and forgets about relying upon examples from their own language to use as a means of comparison to English. The first thing to realize is that English grammar does have some unfamiliar structural rules and it can be quite complex and confusing especially to the beginner and intermediate student.

One of the first thing that students should be focusing on is the fact that English grammar has three basic verb tenses; those being, ‘past’, ‘present’ & ‘future’. There are of course more aspects than just these three tenses but, those are the basic fundamentals to hold on to. The other simple thing to remember is the inclusion of adverbs such that give the main verb its correct context. Those adverbs for example are ‘is’ ‘am’ ‘are’ etc. etc (I’ll elaborate (tell more) on this topic in a separate article soon).

Don’t Worry About Mistakes

The thing to accept early on in ones study is that as a student you WILL definitely make grammatical mistakes. The problem is, that by trying to correct these mistakes simply by trying to remember all the correct rules will always fail you (especially in the early and intermediate stages) because there are just too many rules to remember and you’ll end up being frustrated and defeated before you get started.

So my advice is to learn the basics and then get started. Don’t worry about making mistakes because you’ll find that most English speakers will fully understand what you mean anyway (even with grammatical mistakes included), and they’ll probably help you by offering some corrective suggestions to your sentences. That in fact is how native speakers learn English grammar,- as children we start using our limited English speech and we start to put sentences together. Many times the grammar will be totally wrong but there is always someone to correct us, and there are always other native speakers around for us to listen to as good examples. That’s why students should take the opportunity to listen to as much native English conversation as possible, because it’s naturally full of correct everyday English grammar.

Improve Grammar by Watching DVD movies

The other excellent way of improving your listening is by watching English movies. I recommend to all my students that they should watch some DVD movies (ones they’ve watched before) and to watch them as a study exercise. Put the DVD on and select the English language. Then select English subtitles, and watch the movie in sections that contain good conversational dialogue. That will help with word identification, accent development, reading and comprehension, and also it will help greatly to improve grammar because it is the grammar that is holding the dialogue (speaking) together. It’s also a great way to naturally increase your vocabulary.

Improve Grammar by Reading Short Stories

The other excellent technique is to read as much as possible. I suggest that the student should find a book that he or she is interested in. It can be any book or a short story, and for very beginners it can by a children’s story or fable. Then simply read at least one or two pages per day (probably before bedtime) and that way you’ll be absorbing all the natural and good grammar that is holding the story together (see my article on effective reading for further tips about getting the most from reading practice).