I never thought I’d say this, but I’m thankful for grammar. You heard me right. I’m thankful for grammar. I guess maybe I should say that I’m thankful that I learned grammar. It’s really true. As an author, I learned quickly to be grateful for those years of elementary school, junior high, and high school grammar class.
Do you remember sitting through those dreadful grammar classes? I sure do. I remember being asked to memorize the function of a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb and adjective. And I remember learning the difference between the subject of the sentence and the predicate of that same sentence. I have no real memory of how the concepts of grammar made it off the pages and from the teachers’ mouths into my head, but they did. I never intentionally paid attention during grammar class because at that time I was years away from deciding to be a writer. I guess the grammar I needed to learn somehow came to be through osmosis. Think about our what our society would be like without the existence of grammar.
Basically, grammar is the thing that allows us to communicate the same kind of English. Sure, you and I both know what a...