English Grammar Follies

English Grammar - Ah! I studied it during my school days. It was not only about how to write framed sentences in English, but also about the proper usage of words, sentences, clauses etc. I crammed many of them at that time. Over a period of time though, those rules became irrelevant, as much of sentence-correctitude sense came from day-to-day usage of those words.

So, when I started studying grammar again now, I was simply startled by the fact every conceivably correct sentence written by us has a high chance of containing at least one grammatical mistake. While some of them are based on almost obsolete rules, some are the gifts of the casual way our conversation and writing have taken shape into over a period of time. Sadly the latter mistakes are more chronic and undetectable, unless told by someone.

I would just illustrate a few examples to drive home my point.

1> Usage of words signifying recurring action

Most commonplace mistake is of the usage of words, like repeat, recall, return etc. with adverb/conjuction- again, before etc. to stress upon the action. Ah.. there is no need to stress as they themselves mean a recurring action.

Incorrect:- Please repeat again

Correct :- Please repeat

2> Usage of 'anyways'

How many times have we seen people using anyways? Seems correct. Unfortunately it is not, and I too came to know this a few days back only. The correct form is anyway, and the hindsight does suggest that if it is 'any', it should be 'way', not 'ways'.

Incorrect:- Anyways you do this

Correct :- Anyway you do this

3> Usage of yours

'Yours' is a possessive case of 'you', and it never comes with an aprostrophe like your's. But have a purusal of the letters or applications written by a person, and you will find this mistake more often that not in the conclusive part of signature.

Incorrect:- Your's sincerely,

Correct:- Yours sincerely,

4> Usage of enjoy

Now this one is really tough, as this rule is known and most importantly, adhered to only by the puritans of the language. "We enjoyed yesterday" seems a very correct sentence, but the directive about usage of enjoy makes it incorrect. Enjoy should always have an object or a reflexive pronoun succeeding it.

Incorrect:- We enjoyed yesterday

Correct:- We enjoyed the party yesterday/ We enjoyed ourselves yesterday

These are only some of the illustrations of varying degree where the grammar rules are broken. There won't be any problem in the conveying of message with the incorrect usage, but the real joy of learning comes in writing correct English. Fortunately or unfortunately, there is no other way to learn these rules than to go through them individually. And that is what I too intend to do for the above piece of writing, as I know this will be littered with many grammatical mistakes, some even silly.