5 Grammar Rules You Should Not Be Teaching

Join a global community of over 200,000 TEFL teachers working throughout the world! Enrol me!

As teachers of English as a Foreign Language, we need to know grammar rules inside out and upside down. With English being the changeable language that it is, this can actually be quite difficult. What’s prescribed one year is abandoned the next. This is confusing for us so you can imagine how baffling it must be for our students!

Regardless of how we feel about grammar and grammar rules, we need to keep abreast of any changes that take place in the usage of English. To that end, here are a few grammar rules which you might have been taught in school but these days are better off forgetting.

Grammar rules you shouldn’t be teaching

What can you end a sentence with?

Traditionally, the question should be With what can you end a sentence? but these days that sounds pretty pompous. Your English teacher might have drilled the rule that you can’t end a sentence with a preposition into you because it was quite a hard and fast rule, but no longer. Nowadays feel free to end your sentences with anything you can think of.

And what about beginning a sentence?

Back in the day English language learners the world over, even those with English as a first language, were told not to start a sentence with a conjunction. But these days you are totally free to begin your sentences with and, but or because.

To be or not to be?

That might have been Shakespeare’s question but the question is now actually whether or not to split the infinitive. According to tradition, the base verb and to should never be split, but this rule has long since fallen by the wayside. Instead we are welcome “to boldly go where no man has gone before”, a la Star Trek.

Every teacher should

This is a controversial one. Using they to refer to a singular person has been frowned upon for a long time, but people seem to be tired of using s/he. Thankfully now we can happily use they when talking about a person to avoid issues with gender.

Less and less people know about this one

According to grammar books, we use few with countable nouns (books, people) and less with uncountable nouns (water, sand), but you’ve probably heard people say there were less people at the party than last time. We seem to have naturally relaxed this rule, though it might jar with any prescriptivists out there.

These are only a few grammar rules which have been left by the wayside with the changes of English. Of course there will be people who are adamant that these rules should be followed when using English, but for the most part the grammatically correct usage is dying out, to be replaced by more relaxed practices.

When teaching English as a Foreign Language, it’s important that we teach our students the language is used in everyday life rather than the language that is stipulated by grammar reference books that were published in the 1950s. After all, we’d rather they talk like David Beckham than Charles Dickens!

Comments:

I completed the 120 hr course 3 yrs ago. How does this relate to the 168 hr course I see is now offered?

Thank you

Cheryl Wuerch, 16th May 2019

Get Social

Follow us on social networks, join our newsletter - get the latest news and early discounts

Sign up to our newsletter

Follow us on social networks, sign up to our e-newsletters – get the latest news and early discounts

Accreditation Partners

The TEFL Academy was the world’s first TEFL course provider to receive official recognition from government regulated awarding bodies in both the USA and UK. This means when you graduate you’ll hold a globally recognised Level 3 (120hr) Certificate or Level 5 (168hr) Diploma, meaning you can find work anywhere and apply for jobs immediately.

Product added to your cart

You have added to your cart:

Request call back

    Please leave your details below and one of our TEFL experts will get back to you ASAP:

    captchaType characters on the left:

    Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

    Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

    Thank you! Your message has been sent!

    Download the TEFL World Factbook

      Please enter your details in order to download the latest TEFL World Factbook.

      Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

      Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

      Thank you for downloading the TEFL World Factbook!

      If the TEFL World Factbook did not download
      > Click Here To Download <

      Download the Online Teaching Guide

        Please enter your details in order to download our Online Teaching Guide.

        Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

        Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

        Thank you for downloading our Online Teaching Guide!

        If the Online Teaching Guide did not download
        > Click Here To Download <

        Download Prospectus

          Please enter your details in order to download our latest prospectus.

          Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

          Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

          Thank you for downloading our prospectus!

          We hope you enjoy reading our prospectus, we have tried to make it as useful as possible! Please get in touch if you have any questions.

          If the prospectus did not download automatically
          > Click Here To Download <

          $
          $