Did teaching grammar make us stupid?

[Wilber]

We all follow the real rules of our language, Wilber, because we can't do anything else. Little children do so.

You're still confused as to what constitutes a rule of English grammar. Tell us any that you have been actively taught and we'll almost certainly have a phoney one.

OGFT is likely coming up with some as we speak.

Or not.

Do you remember everything you were actively taught and do you believe that everything you were actively taught has no bearing on the person you are now or the grammar and spelling you now use? If you think you did it all by yourself, you are full of it.

[Je suis Omar]

Do you remember everything you were actively taught and do you believe that everything you were actively taught has no bearing on the person you are now or the grammar and spelling you now use? If you think you did it all by yourself, you are full of it.

No, I've not said such a thing, Wilber. All I said is that the grammar rules that have been taught are largely false. That should in and of itself point out to you that we as children do indeed learn the grammar of our respective languages by ourselves.

Parents and teachers don't know the rules of grammar so how could they ever teach them to children. And how do you expect a three year old to understand these most complicated things even if a body did know. And then turn those exceedingly complicated rules into grammatical speech.

This has nothing to do with spelling, which has nothing to do with grammar.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Je suis Omar

[On Guard for Thee]

No, I've not said such a thing, Wilber. All I said is that the grammar rules that have been taught are largely false. That should in and of itself point out to you that we as children do indeed learn the grammar of our respective languages by ourselves.

Parents and teachers don't know the rules of grammar so how could they ever teach them to children. And how do you expect a three year old to understand these most complicated things even if a body did know. And then turn those exceedingly complicated rules into grammatical speech.

This has nothing to do with spelling, which has nothing to do with grammar.

What silly comments. Who ever expected a 3 year old to be worried about grammar. Get a grip my man. Or is this another conspiracy theory that resides in your mind.

[Je suis Omar]

No idea what you have against good grammar, unless you have a fear you fall short.

OGFT: What is it you refer to as false rules.

You know exactly what I mean, OGFT. You could probably pick any one of those "grammar" corrections you make to make some money and you'd have a dandy example.

Why are you so reluctant to post some of your grammar advice?

[Wilber]

How can you make that statement if you can't separate what you actively learned from what you learned yourself because I say that you can't.

[Je suis Omar]

What silly comments. Who ever expected a 3 year old to be worried about grammar. Get a grip my man. Or is this another conspiracy theory that resides in your mind.

I didn't say that three year olds are worried about grammar.

Why are you so worried about posting your grammar advice?

[On Guard for Thee]

OGFT: What is it you refer to as false rules.

You know exactly what I mean, OGFT. You could probably pick any one of those "grammar" corrections you make to make some money and you'd have a dandy example.

Why are you so reluctant to post some of your grammar advice?

My advice is to be aware of grammar. It will help you be understood, and possibly make you sound intelligent

[Je suis Omar]

How can you make that statement if you can't separate what you actively learned from what you learned yourself because I say that you can't.

You have to understand what grammar is before we can continue, Wilber. If you could just post one grammar rule you've been taught, that would help.

[Je suis Omar]

My advice is to be aware of grammar. It will help you be understood, and possibly make you sound intelligent

Your second sentence is ungrammatical, OGFT, but we all understand you.

Why are you having so much trouble providing an example of the grammar errors you say you correct? For money.

[Wilber]

You have to understand what grammar is before we can continue, Wilber. If you could just post one grammar rule you've been taught, that would help.

I was taught quite a few of them and I still use some of them. They are part of me the same as everything else I have learned during my life.

[Je suis Omar]

I was taught quite a few of them and I still use some of them. They are part of me the same as everything else I have learned during my life.

Then where is the difficulty in describing one or two or three, Wilber?

[On Guard for Thee]

Your second sentence is ungrammatical, OGFT, but we all understand you.

Why are you having so much trouble providing an example of the grammar errors you say you correct? For money.

Nothing ungrammatical at all. Its a rather stupid thought that I would post private material to simply demonstrate a point to you. Take it from me, the reason they pay money to have things rewritten is very valid.

[Wilber]

Then where is the difficulty in describing one or two or three, Wilber?

What do you want, the uses of captitals, punctuation, nouns, verbs? Not difficult at all but you know that. You know, know not no. Time to read my book now. Goodnight.

[GostHacked]

Thats unfortunate because people with bad grammar have trouble getting a point across. Language is and always will be very important. As we descend into such garbage as saying things by way of LMAO, LOL, etc., communication is becoming shallow. Next thing you know nobody will know how to write a book.

Proper email business communications is very difficult for many. Never mind a book.

[On Guard for Thee]

Proper email business communications is very difficult for many. Never mind a book.

I reckon that the ability to properly communicate comes not just from what gets taught in the classroom, but also from the exercise of following a good book from cover to cover. What I tend to see all around me these days are people endlessly tapping abbreviated words and acronyms back and forth in what has become acceptable as a form of modern day communication. I guess I am old fashioned but Ill keep to the books.

[jbg]

Nothing ungrammatical at all. Its a rather stupid thought that I would post private material to simply demonstrate a point to you. Take it from me, the reason they pay money to have things rewritten is very valid.

Canadian is not his first language.

[Hydraboss]

Then where is the difficulty in describing one or two or three, Wilber?

Ooh, ooh Mr. Kadir...Mr. Kadir...

How about simple things like: "I before E except after C" (this is a high percentage rule), or "an E at the end makes the O hard" (ie. con vs cone)??

Of course, this is the English language so pretty much everything is an exception to the rule.

[Je suis Omar]

Its a rather stupid thought that I would post private material to simply demonstrate a point to you. Take it from me, the reason they pay money to have things rewritten is very valid.

You could easily post equivalent, non-private material to demonstrate whatever grammar point it is you want to demonstrate but that would take you into uncharted waters. Not at all where you want to go.

[Je suis Omar]

What do you want, the uses of captitals, punctuation, nouns, verbs? Not difficult at all but you know that. You know, know not no. Time to read my book now. Goodnight.

Capitals, punctuation, spelling, ..., is not grammar, Wilber.

[Wilber]

Capitals, punctuation, spelling, ..., is not grammar, Wilber.

You can Google rules of grammar for yourself, I'm not doing it for you.

I think rules and standardization actually make us smarter because they allow people who have been raised in different parts of the world and have never met to communicate and work together. Before the days of electronic communications, English speakers born and raised on opposite sides of the world could communicate with each other because they learned the language using the same rules, even though their accents might be very different.

Rules and standardization are what allow two pilots to operate a large complicated aircraft safely and as though they had been flying together for years, even though they never met until an hour before the flight.

Rules and standarization mean not having to guess what another person is saying, doing or means.

A person who doesn't believe in standardized language could never be part of the legal system or write legal documents.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Wilber

[Je suis Omar]

Canadian is not his first language.

"Canadian" is not a language, jbg.

[Je suis Omar]

How about simple things like: "I before E except after C" (this is a high percentage rule), or "an E at the end makes the O hard" (ie. con vs cone)??

Of course, this is the English language so pretty much everything is an exception to the rule.

Two dandy examples exemplifying the title of the thread. Why is there such great difficulty providing just one example of all the "grammar rules" we supposedly learned in school?

[Je suis Omar]

Wilber: I think rules and standardization ... .

You keep talking about rules but nobody seems to remember any. Kinda odd don't you think when so many folks follow these "rules"?

[BubberMiley]

You keep talking about rules but nobody seems to remember any. Kinda odd don't you think when so many folks follow these "rules"?

What are some of the "false" rules you spoke of?

[Je suis Omar]

What are some of the "false" rules you spoke of?

Many of the very ones you've learned, BM.

But it seems everyone is so terribly frightened that they're going to find out that their favorite uncle is a pedophile.