Norhaida Aman - The Nuts and Bolts of English Grammar

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

2018 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Text Norhaida Aman and Ludwig Tan

All illustrations by Hasyim Isa and Nursyazwani Ghazali

Published by Marshall Cavendish Editions

An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name(s): Norhaida Aman. | Tan, Ludwig, author. | Hasyim Isa, illustrator. |

Nursyazwani Ghazali, illustrator.

Title: The nuts and bolts of English grammar / Norhaida Aman, Ludwig Tan ; all illustrations by Hasyim Isa and Nursyazwani Ghazali.

Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, [2018]

Identifier(s): OCN 1015222349 | eISBN: 978 981 4794 81 7

Subject(s): LCSH: English language--Grammar.

Classification: DDC 428.2--dc23

Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd

For our NIE and SUSS students,
both past and present,
who have been some of our best teachers

Clauses, SVOCA Analysis,
Clause and Sentence Types

The Nuts and Bolts of English Grammar has a simple aim: to explain how the grammar of English works, in language as simple as possible. Hence, it has been written with a wide audience in mind, including students of English, trainee teachers, and even the general reader such as parents who does not have a background in English grammar, yet wishes to know how it works.

In this book, we take you on a journey through English grammar, beginning with the nuts and bolts of the English language the word, as well as units smaller than the word called morphemes and progressing to phrases, clauses and, finally, sentences..

When we began exploring the idea of writing a grammar book, we decided that it had to be easy enough to be read, from cover to cover, by someone with little or no background in English grammar. Yet, we also wanted it to meet the practical needs of students of grammar, as well as teachers and parents. We felt that, with almost 30 years of teaching experience between us, we were well placed to do this. As teachers of undergraduate students and trainee teachers, we have both accumulated a vast trove of grammar-related examples and puzzles, some of which have been incorporated into this book in the form of examples in the text. In addition, they may be found in the Grammar Detective puzzles, which are short exercises that get you to apply what youve just learnt to common issues in English grammar. Instead of ramming technical terms of which there are many in grammar! down the readers throat, we have tried to demystify them by breaking them down and explaining what they mean. To keep this book accessible to the general reader, we have deliberately kept this book fairly simple in its coverage, so it does not contain exhaustive lists of determiners, irregular verbs and suchlike. However, by the end of this book, you should have become sufficiently familiar with grammatical terms and concepts to be able to consult reference grammars such as Practical English Usage (by Michael Swan; Oxford University Press) and the Cambridge Grammar of English (by Ronald Carter & Michael McCarthy; Cambridge University Press).

Writing a book is never easy, and the gestation of this book was anything but smooth. This book has been two years in the making. During this time, weve been able to count on She-reen Wong, our excellent editor at Marshall Cavendish, for her infinite patience, especially when draft chapters were slow to appear. Weve benefited greatly from her meticulous attention to detail and valuable insights into language and publishing, which have made our manuscript come to life, resulting in a book that is, we hope, better than it might otherwise have been. To her, we owe a huge debt of thanks and gratitude. We would also like to acknowledge the help given to us by Lee Mei Lin, especially when the book was at the proposal stage.

We would also like to thank our families for their support and patience during the past two years. Without them, this book would never have seen the light of day.

Norhaida Aman and Ludwig Tan

December 2017

Dr Norhaida Aman is lecturer and programme leader of English Language and Literature at the National Institute of Education, Singapore (NIE). She holds a PhD from the University of Delaware, USA. She is a linguist and teacher educator specialising in grammar and language acquisition; almost half of her life has been dedicated to teaching and serving current and future generations. She teaches grammar across all programmes at NIE, and also courses on language acquisition. Over the years, she has established strategic partnerships with various agencies: Ministry of Education, Singapore, local and international schools, government agencies and academics. These collaborations, together with her teaching and research interests, have allowed her to impact teacher education and pre-school education both locally and abroad.

Associate Professor Ludwig Tan is Vice Dean of the School of Arts & Social Sciences at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). He holds a PhD and MPhil (Linguistics) from the University of Cambridge, and a BA (First-Class Honours) in English Language and Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK. A linguist and a trained teacher, he has worked as a teacher educator at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore, and served as a consultant to the Ministry of Education on its 2010 English Language Syllabus. At SUSS, he teaches courses on grammar, phonetics and Singapore English. He is a steering committee member of the Speak Good English Movement, and co-author, with Alvin Leong, of English Grammar FAQs: 100 Questions Teachers and Students Frequently Ask