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English Grammar for Beginner Level

English Grammar for Beginner Level

Is knowing a language without grammar possible? For sure, but only to a certain level. This is, for example, how toddlers speak their native language. They can indicate their wishes and problems or ask questions, often twisting words and sentences so sweetly. But it is impossible to have a full command of a language tool without knowing its grammar rules.

Beginner level English grammar is quite an accessible level revealing the laws of using parts of speech and constructing sentences.

Nouns and articles

In English, nouns are practically not declined, however beginners will have to deal with plural form nuances, depending on the letter at the end of a word. Options:

  • cat — cats,
  • crash — crashes,
  • lady — ladies,
  • thief/leaf — thieves/leaves, но hoof/cliff — hoofs/cliffs.

In addition, there are 11 exceptions like person (plural form - people), woman (plural form - women), etc., which one need to remember.

An important point for beginners is short untranslatable words-articles that are used with nouns according to certain rules.

English verbs for beginners

There are 16 tenses in classical English, and they are all formed using verbs. However, at the beginner level it is enough to master the so-called "simple" tenses only - past, present and future (Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple) - and Present Continuous which is the fourth.

The infinitive is always used with the particle "to," and in the third person singular, verbs are ended with -s/es. In addition, verbs can be regular and irregular: while regular verbs simply get the ending “-ed” in the past tense, irregular ones change their forms differently (or does not change at all) - and these are to be learned by heart too.

Simple parts of speech

At the beginning of studying English grammar it is also necessary to familiarize oneself with the class of pronouns (personal, possessive, and reflexive) and with adjectives. What a relief for a student to learn that adjectives are not inflected and do not change neither in gender nor in number.

Adjectives that are derived from a noun are typically not transformed in any way. For example, "дубовый стол" can be expressed using only the two words - oak and table.

The comparative and superlative degrees are formed by adding the suffixes er/est, and the superlative degree is always used with the article "the", for example:

short (короткий) — shorter (короче) — the shortest (самый короткий)

Наконец, важнейшая часть речи любого языка — имена числительные. Для начала необходимо выучить счет хотя бы в пределах первой сотни.

Finally, the most important part of speech in any language is numeral. To begin with, it is necessary to learn how to count at least within 1 to 100.

How to construct sentences in English

One of the English grammar requirements is a strict word order in a sentence. For example, a narrative sentence always begins with a subject followed by the action and its additional characteristics (where, when, etc.), and a question sentence with a question word or a verb in the required form.

Main constructions for beginners are there is/there are, with the verb to be and with the verbs of preference (prefer, like, etc.)

How children and adults learn grammar

Regardless of how confusing English grammar may seem students of any age can master the beginner level. However, brain activity of a child and an adult is noticeably different, therefore approaches to language learning cannot be the same. For example, an adult after learning basic uses of Present Simple is likely to easily see the system, while a four-year-old boy/girl will be horrified by the excess of information and will not be able to understand at all how to apply it.

There is also the flip side of the coin which is in favor of children: according to psychologists children take everything on trust and simply will not understand why one word comes after another, but the adult will get stuck in logical reasoning that he/she is in need of.

The British school CIS International School offers a unique opportunity to study English with full immersion in the language environment. Call and find out the terms of enrollment to the educational institution which will present to your child the prospects of entering the most prestigious universities and colleges of the world.

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