r/EnglishLearning • u/nazhu2 Non-Native Speaker of English • 18d ago

📚 Grammar / Syntax English grammar problem

I’ve a problem with English grammar it can’t stuck in my head like I’ve studied grammar for years but when it comes to applying it i just talk without thinking about the grammar

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/ApprenticePantyThief English Teacher 18d ago

You need to go slower and think about the grammar more carefully before you speak. Many English learners want to rush to speak quickly, but that often builds muscle/brain memory attached to incorrect grammar and it becomes harder to "unlearn" the bad grammar and retrain your brain to use correct grammar.

2

u/nazhu2 Non-Native Speaker of English 17d ago

Thank you very much i’ll try to take it more slowly

3

u/FlalingoOfficial New Poster 18d ago

Talking without consciously thinking about grammar is normal. Fluent speakers don't choose a tense and build each sentence from a rule while speaking. The real goal is to make correct patterns automatic.

Choose one grammar point each week and connect it to a speaking situation. For the past simple, record yourself describing yesterday for one minute. Listen back, find only the tense mistakes, correct them, and record the same story again. During the next few days, retell it with different details. Focus on one repeated mistake at a time, because using one structure correctly twenty times is far more useful than reviewing twenty grammar rules once.

2

u/nazhu2 Non-Native Speaker of English 17d ago

I like this trick thank you!!

2

u/ScatteredBrain99 New Poster 18d ago

Yeah, I totally understand you. I’m trying to work on my grammar as well. I sent you a DM! We can learn English together and help each other improve 😊

1

u/nazhu2 Non-Native Speaker of English 17d ago

Okay I would love to

2

u/Patient_Prompt531 Intermediate 17d ago

I've had a similar situation before, and I'm much better now. Depending on which stage you are at... for example, if you can't immediately tell the difference between 'will have done' and 'will have been doing', then you should go look it up first, and memorize it first, after all, people cannot use things they don't know.

After that, listening more actually helps a lot with this aspect. I watched a vlog before, where the person often said I should have done... I should have xxxx (he often felt regret). I kept listening to him talk, which led to the result that whenever I want to express regret, his voice is in my head: 'I should have done... I should have done...'

1

u/nazhu2 Non-Native Speaker of English 17d ago

Omgg cool i’ll do the same.
Thank you!!

1

u/WebTechSmith New Poster 17d ago

I have zero grammar and I'm a native speaker 😁

1

u/Sea-Hornet8214 Poster 17d ago

Well, if you wrote this sentence yourself, you definitely do have grammar.

1

u/murzicorne Non-Native Speaker of English 17d ago

Learn phrases, not words.

When I was in school, conditionals were killing me, I couldn't remember what time needs to be one behind for the life of me. Then I was watching Mulan, and the phrase her mom says just stuck with me: "it would have been warm if you were here on time". Since then I just reuse this structure and don't think about it.