It’s all very well to be told you need to improve your grammar, but what exactly is ‘grammar’?

A set of rules

In order to use a language and communicate effectively with other users you need an accepted set of rules.  This set of rules is the grammar of the language.  In any language the grammar can be complex and there will be plenty of exceptions to the rules.  “A grammar” can also be used to mean a book that collects the rules of the language together.  Often the rules can change depending on what part of the country you are in.  It can be perfectly correct for one dialect to use a certain phrase, while in another part of the country language users would think that same phrase is ungrammatical, lazy or just plain wrong.

For some languages, there are no grammar books.  Just because the grammar has not been recorded in a book doesn’t mean it isn’t an accepted set of rules.

Other communication skills

Grammar alone won’t help you communicate in a language.  You also need to know the correct pronunciation and plenty of vocabulary.

Another interesting point is that you can construct sentences that are grammatically correct, but that make no sense! For instance: “The bland red thoughts felt yoghurt.”

Many people feel they don’t know the grammar of their own language because they haven’t been formally taught it – or they didn’t pay attention to the lessons at school.  However, if you are able to communicate in your native language, then you do know its grammar.  Written and spoken grammar in a language can be slightly different.  Things which are acceptable in the written language can seem overly formal when spoken, for example.

Further reading

For a list of good books on grammar that can get you started see the Publishing Training Centre’s website:

http://www.train4publishing.co.uk/books/editorial/

These books are the ones recommended to professional editors.

Do you have any particular editing queries?  Please let us know.  Post a comment below.