Is grammar important?

Do you believe you know more about good grammar than you may think? Choose the right word in the following statement: Yesterday I (go, went) to the store. The correct choice is “went.” Almost everybody who grew up learning English will get that right. But why did you get it right? If you are a native English speaker, you didn’t need the official grammar rule: To express the indicative past tense in the first person, use the indicative first person past tense of the verb with the first-person pronoun. “Went” just “sounded” correct. But that didn’t happen by magic. You learned this grammatical principle a long time ago, and you learned it the natural way: by repetition. The adults around you spoke like that (if they spoke English). You imitated them, and they corrected you when you got it wrong. You didn’t have to lug around a grammar book when you were 3 years old, but you still learned when to say “went.” It became a habit. Unfortunately, as foreign language learners, we do not live in an English-speaking environment and are easily and strongly influenced by our mother tongue. In addition, we are probably exposed to language errors all the time: on TV, in schools, in the workplace, or from family and friends. So like everyone, we have probably formed some bad habits, habits that can be disastrous when it’s important to speak correctly. People judge you by the way you speak, and they can dismiss what you have to say if you say it carelessly. They might conclude that you lack the professional polish to do a certain kind of job or miss your point altogether because of mistakes or verbal clutter in your manner of speaking.

Like our acceptance and observance of most rules in the conduct of our lives, correct use of language becomes a habit, and it is with the cultivation of this habit that the program is concerned. As we work with habits of speech (eliminating old, undesirable ones; developing new, useful ones), we’ll have to rely considerably on “rules” and discuss the “right” and “wrong” ways of saying things, so it is only fair to say before we start that the rules are not universal, timeless laws, inscribed some-where in stone and to be applied mechanically to determine without question what is right and wrong. Language changes constantly and in many ways. Any student of language knows that words enter and depart from our common vocabulary and, while they do remain in use, they often undergo changes of meaning. Ideas of grammatical correctness also change. And a word or construction commonly accepted in one geographic area or by one particular group of people can be quite foreign to those in other locales or communities, even though all of them are speaking English. This variability is true even of the use each one of us makes of language, for our speaking and writing are frequently adjusted to the circumstances that surround them. If you are like most people, your language at a ball game is different from your language in a committee meeting; your official business letters are not written in precisely the same language as your e-mail messages or letters to your family; and there is considerable difference in the way you address your employer and your language with a 4-year-old child (unless you are particularly rash or you have an unusually dull-witted employer).

This variability in language suggests that we shouldn’t be too rigid or stubborn about what is right and wrong, for these are matters that many circumstances can change or modify. (Professional students of language can systematically study such changes; so that a thorough knowledge of language includes much insight into the processes of change themselves.) But although language changes, and although there is no absolute, permanent definition of correctness, we can take as our guide language that experienced and careful speakers accept as correct. We can determine what is “right” and “wrong” about our use of language by learning principles that will help us recognize this established standard. To put it bluntly: While some of the rules for correct English may be impermanent and relative, don’t try this theory out on potential customers or clients or employers, who may be quite naturally put off by what they regard as your improper (or inappropriate or uneducated) use of English.

The fact is that, at any particular time, it is possible to speak of specific uses of language, not as eternally correct, but as“accepted”. However, when your speech is sloppy, when it seems to reveal that you have never learned—or perhaps just don’t care—about using language properly, you certainly don’t do yourself any favors. Other people are likely to assume, whether fairly or not, that your thinking has flaws because your language does, and you may, as a result, fail to make the favorable impression that can so often be important. People may assume that, whatever your strong points, you will not fit in well in business or professional or social situations where the proper use of language is taken for granted. Even more seriously, they may be unable even to understand important things you’re trying to say because your language is inadequately serving its most basic purpose: to convey clearly what’s on your mind. In short, when your language doesn’t meet expected standards, you are likely to do serious injustice to your talents and your ideas.

On the bright side, a command of proper English provides a kind of invisible passport into the company of people who, because they respect language, almost automatically respect others who use it correctly. This is true in social gatherings, business conversations, everything from random exchanges to public addresses. In all these circumstances, an awareness that you are meeting common standards of correctness can breed a comfortable self-assurance; you can be quietly confident your use of language is an asset rather than a liability.