flagrant grammar mistakes that make your resume and you look stupid

These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. Often, we’re in a hurry, quickly dashing off emails with typos, grammatical shortcuts (I’m being kind here), and that breezy, e.e. cummings, no-caps look. It’s expected. It’s no big deal. But other times, we try to invest a little care, avoiding mistakes so that there’s no confusion about what we’re saying and so that we look professional and reasonably bright.

Grammar and vocabulary:

seven ways to help students enjoy grammar

Introduction

Students’ reactions to grammar-focused lessons seem to be typically one of three kinds. Some students find grammar very appealing, some find it intrinsically boring, and some find it useful but really hard work.

There might be a number of reasons for these reactions. For example, some students’ brain chemistry might be more (or less) pre-programmed for learning grammar. If this is the case, the teacher has limited power to promote the enjoyment of grammar. But it’s also possible that students have had a negative learning experience with grammar – they might be used to listening to long lectures about grammar (yes, even today) and doing long, esoteric exercises on one particular area of target language.

In order to make grammar more interesting for students, I’d recommend a more inductive approach, i.e. students should be allowed to work out the meaning and the rules of the grammar for themselves. I also think that the teachers’ ‘metalanguage’ (i.e. the language used to talk about the target language) should be kept to an absolute minimum. Furthermore, it’s crucial to get learners to use the target language in an authentic way about their own lives. And, in addition to such communicative work, I think that students can be encouraged to do some analytical work, particularly where communicative outcomes are affected.

Let’s now study, in more detail, what I mean by the above. Below are the seven ways, together with sample teacher language for each part of the lesson.

‍CONTINUE........

یک مطلب در مورد زبانشناسی

What is Etymology?

The word etymology is derived from the Greek etumos which means real or true. The ending ology suggests the study/science of something, as in biology or geology. And that is the etymology of etymology. It is the study of the origins of words; how they evolved. Confused?

Here is another example. The Ancient Greek word hippos means horse. And potamus means river. Hence hippopotamus literally means river horse.

A few other parts of words derived from Ancient Greek are tele (long distance), micro (small), phone (speak), and scope (look). From these come such words as telephone, telescope, microphone, and microscope.

Of course not all words are derived from Ancient Greek. The English language is a rich mixture of many languages, and that is what makes its etymology so interesting. In the Interesting Etymology section you can learn how many words came about, particularly those with amusing origins. We also have a page about the origins of sayings and expressions.

If you are keen to discover more, browse the reviews in the etymology section of our online language bookstore. There are very many excllent books on etymology and dictionaries of etymology available.

How we teach grammar

در پاسخ به دوست عزیزی که درباره ی زبانشناسی گفتند من تو آرشیو

مطالبی در مورد زبانشناسی دارم.و یکی از کورس های موردعلاقه ی

خودم هست....ازاین به بعد پست های بیشتری رو به این رشته اختصاص

خواهم داد....اول یه مقدمه در مورد زبانشناسی.

Writing Topic Sentences

قبلا در مورد ساختار جمله بحث شد. در اين قسمت د ر مورد ساختار Topic Sentence كه اولين گام براي نوشتن پاراگراف ميباشد بحث ميكنيم.........

I want to familiar you with the  sentence.

The Sentence

Sentences are used in all languages. Sentences are used in both speech and writing.

 are learning about writing in English. When we talk about the . sentence in this class, we are talking about the written English sentence. We are not talking about sentences in other languages. We are not talking about spoken sentences.

A. What is a sentence?

A written English sentence is a group of words with four characteristics:

1. All sentences begin with a capital letter: A, B, C,�.

(The other kinds of letters are called lower case: a, b, c, �.)

2. All sentences end with a period or an exclamation point or a question mark: . ! ?

3. A sentence contains at least one clause.

That is, a sentence contains at least one subject and at least one predicate.

4. All sentences follow a standard word order. These are correct sentences:

The dog bit the man.

The man bit the dog.

But this is not a sentence because the words (the same used in the two sentences above) are not arranged in a Standard English word order:

*The bit man dog the.

B. What is a clause?

A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.

1. A clause tells us that someone or something (subject) is or was or does or did something (predicate).

A subject is usually a noun or pronoun.

A predicate always contains a verb. A predicate may also contain other things (adverb, object, complement), but a predicate always contains a verb.

2. A clause may be a sentence: Mary sings.

3. A clause may be a part of a sentence: Mary sings and Bill plays the guitar.

4. Some examples of clauses:

SUBJECT PREDICATE

Someone/Something is/was/does/did something.

George is a boy.

He loves to eat.

What he loves to eat is pizza.

George and his friends might have pizza for lunch.

Pizza is not served at George's house.

C. What is a predicate verb?

A predicate verb has the following three characteristics:

1. A predicate verb has a subject. A subject is usually a noun or a pronoun, but a clause can be a subject.

2. A predicate verb has voice (active or passive; see Passive Sentences).

3. A predicate verb has tense (past or present; see Tenses) or a modal (see Modal Auxiliaries).

These are the predicate verbs in the clauses above:

is (present tense, active voice)

loves (present tense, active voice)

is (present tense, active voice)

might have (modal, active voice)

is not served (present tense, passive voice)

D. What is a dependent clause?

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and predicate. A dependent clause usually begins with a subordinator. Subordinators include relative pronouns (see Adjective Clauses), subordinating conjunctions (see Adverb Clauses), and noun clause markers (see Noun Clauses). Dependent clauses are also called subordinate clauses.

1. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence by itself. A dependent clause that is not part of a sentence is a fragment. That is, a dependent clause which begins with a capital letter and ends with a period is a fragment. Don't write fragments.

2. A dependent clause can only be part of a sentence. Every sentence must have at least one independent clause.

3. There are three basic types of dependent clauses: adjective clauses, adverb clauses, and noun clauses. Some dependent clauses look like this:

SUBORDINATOR + SUBJECT + PREDICATE

that his bike is beautiful

which he got for Christmas

because his bike had a flat tire

Other dependent clauses look like this:

SUBORDINATOR + PREDICATE

who loves his bike?

whatever is on his plate?

which is painted red and blue?

The subordinator is also the subject in these clauses.

4. Subordinators can sometimes be omitted, so dependent clauses sometimes look like independent clauses (Subject + Predicate).

Object relative pronouns (see Adjective Clauses) can usually be omitted.

The bike which he got for Christmas is beautiful.

The bike he got for Christmas is beautiful.

The noun clause marker (see Noun Clauses) that can be omitted if it is not the first word in a sentence.

He knows that his bike is beautiful.

He knows his bike is beautiful.

5. Below are some examples of sentences with one independent clause and one dependent clause. The dependent clauses are underlined.

George is a boy who loves his bike.

George's bike, which is painted red and blue, is new.

Because his bike had a flat tire, George walked to school.

George eats whatever is on his plate.

The parts of the sentence are a set of terms for describing how people construct sentences from smaller pieces. There is not a direct correspondence between the parts of the sentence and the parts of speech -- the subject of a sentence, for example, could be a noun, a pronoun, or even an entire phrase or clause. Like the parts of speech, however, the parts of the sentence form part of the basic vocabulary of grammar, and it is important that you take some time to learn and understand them.