I recently came across the Grammar pages of the Oxford Dictionaries Web site. They offer extremely useful tutorials on English grammar and usage, the kind of thing that used to be taught in elementary school, but is today often ignored. (It's humbling to read a 19th-century US college entrance exam on the English language. I'm willing to bet that most modern high school students of English couldn't even come close to passing it. For that matter, I consider myself a better-than-average student and practitioner of English, but I don't think I could answer all of those questions correctly!)
The Oxford Dictionaries adopt a straightforward, easy-to-follow approach to teaching the intricacies of our common language. Here, for example, is a screenshot from their tutorial on Sentences.
There's more at the link.
Despite having a thorough grounding in English and a University major in the language, I'm going to spend time refreshing my grammatical knowledge using these tutorials. I think many, perhaps most, of us can benefit from them. Grateful thanks to the Oxford Dictionaries for including them on their Web site.
Peter
If you ever go to your local community college library, look at the Reference section housing the dictionaries. When I first saw ours, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Go look. It is heartwarming to know they are still there!
ReplyDeleteWas it just me or was there a mistake in question 9?
ReplyDeleteScares me to think that that was expected at entry level, because I know that I would have done poorly.
Luan - Cairns, Australia
Was it just me or was there a mistake in question 9?
ReplyDeleteScares me to think that that was expected at entry level, because I know that I would have done poorly.
Luan - Cairns, Australia