Michael DiGiacomo - The English Grammar Workbook for Adults: A Self-Study Guide to Improve Functional Writing (ESL & EFL Friendly!)

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R0 Contents If youre reading this workbook on a touch-screen device, you can add notes and highlight text just like you would in a physical workbook.

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Hey, everyone! Thanks for picking up this book. Im a native New Yorker who started on an English teaching journey in 1994 in Sendai, Japan. At first, I thought teaching English would be easy. Boy, was I surprised! Sure, English has a lot of grammar rules, but I soon realized that in many situations, those rules, their exceptions, and even some non-rules made learning and teaching English pretty tough. For example, I knew that in English, we use many before countable nouns ( many pens, many people ) and much before uncountable nouns ( much rain, much love ). But one day, one of my students said, I ate much food last night, which sounded weird to me.

When I tried to figure out why, I couldnt find the answer in any of the grammar books I had. I realized that while most books will teach you how to make the grammar (the structure), they dont teach you how to apply it. Thats how I became motivated to write this book. The lessons here will help you become more articulate and confident using English in your writing and everyday English conversations. What Does This Book Mean by Functional English Grammar? When something is functional, its both practical and useful. The cat or dog on your coffee mug looks nice, but its neither practical nor useful.

Your mug will work just as well without the graphics. I wanted to write a book that would help clear up questions you may have about grammar but also give you opportunities to practice using grammar in real everyday situations. Applying what you learn is key to remembering and mastering anything. You have to just do it , as a certain sportswear company says. You can read all about swimming and spend hours watching swimming videos on YouTube, but to become a swimmer, you have to actually jump in the pool. So, welcome to your new swimming area! So, what actually is grammar? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grammar as the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence.

This definition really describes everything you need to know about grammar in order to write and speak English with proficiency. The classes of words are the parts of speechnouns, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, etc. Inflections refer to the way we use words to account for tense (past, present, future), mood, gender, voice, etc. And functions and relations are how words work together in a sentence. Theres a saying that you dont need to know how a clock works in order to tell time. The same goes for grammar.

The different sections of this book are categorized by name so they can be presented in an organized way, but dont get caught up in the terminology. You dont need to remember the term countable noun you just need to know that some nouns are countable, like dogs or cars, and that uncountable nouns refer to nouns that cannot be counted, like air. Learn the rules, practice with the exercises provided here, and keep this book on hand for easy reference! How to Use This Book This book is divided into two parts. The first part is a collection of the most practical and commonly used English grammar patterns. Each section is designed to give you a concise review of that grammar pattern, including its structure, meaning, and, most importantly, usage. At the end of each lesson, youll find an exercise to give you some practice.

You can check your answers with the answer key at the back of the book. Once you feel comfortable with the grammar lessons, you can move on to part two. There, youll find real-world scenarios in which you can apply what you learned in part one. These scenarios cover everything from social situations, school, and work life to creative writing. This book is not a complete guide to English grammar. There are lots of those kinds of books on the market.