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Grammar Drills - Oh, Fun!
by Nathalie Fairbanks
The mere mention of the word grammar may give you the shivers. You think of pages and pages of tables with endings, verb forms, pronouns and other lists to memorize. The thought of it makes you choke -- I don't blame you!
Before you start feeling sick, let me offer a different perspective on grammar. You already are a grammar expert in English, or whatever your native language is. I'm pretty sure I would never hear you say, "She give he yesterday the present." The fact that you automatically say, "She gave him the present yesterday" means that you know your grammar rules.
You might have no clue of how to describe which rules you're using, when you're using them and why. If you saw the collection of tables and rules in an English grammar textbook, you'd probably deny having any knowledge of them!
The trouble with memorizing all these tables is that you get into a habit of "calculating" what endings, verb forms, and pronouns are needed. That might work for filling out a grammar test in school, but it's not a viable strategy while you're having a conversation. You just don't have time to do that. Just imagine doing it in English. It would take you five minutes to figure out how to say, "and now let me throw that grammar book out the window!"
So, how is it done?
Let's say you're learning French.
"How are you?" in French is "comment allez-vous?" However, it varies depending on who you're talking to. If you didn't know better, you'd practice by rattling down every combination like this:
Comment allez-vous? (How are you? - formal)
Comment vas-tu? (How are you? - informal)
And then you'd add some more while you're at it:
Comment va-t-elle? (How is she?)
Comment va-t-il? (How is he?)
Comment vont-ils? (How are they?)
etc.
You can see how easy it is to practice this mindlessly, replacing the subjects and verb forms. It's just like memorizing a table of verbs. The unfortunate result is that when you need one of these forms during a conversation, you'll want to go through the whole list in your head until you find the appropriate one. By the time you found it, your conversation partner has left to take a nap...
What you need to do instead is to make up a little story that gets you and your imagination involved. Let's say your friend Corinne broke her arm and you go to check on her. You say, "Hi, Corinne, how are you? Are you doing better? How's your arm?"
Since you're a friend of Corinne, you'll need to consult your grammar book to find out what the informal "how are you?" is. Here it goes:
"Bonjour Corinne. Comment vas-tu? Tu vas mieux? Comment va ton bras?"
[Hello Corinne. How go-you? You go better? How goes your arm?]
Say this a few times in a row, out loud.
Then be curious. What if instead of Corinne breaking her arm, it was the lady selling bread at the bakery? You imagine going to get your baguette and asking:
"Bonjour madame Dupont. Comment allez-vous? Vous allez mieux? Comment va votre bras?"
[Hello mrs. Dupont. How go-You? You go better? How goes Your arm?]
Two things come into play here:
1.You imbed the part you want to practice into several sentences. It's harder to practice like a robot that way. You get emotionally involved and "see" the situation in your mind.
2. The little scenario above has several repetitions of the same verb with a few variations. It makes you practice both ways (allez-vous and vous allez.) Be sure to repeat it as often as you need to for several days. You know that you're done when it rolls off your tongue and you don't even have to think about it.
Then... go ask your colleague how his arm is doing:
"Bonjour monsieur Dupont. Comment allez-vous? Vous allez mieux? Comment va votre bras?"
[Hello Mr. Dupont. How go-You? You go better? How goes Your arm?]
and repeat that until it becomes part of you. Switch back and forth between the different scenarios, always pretending you're actually in this situation and what you say really matters.
If you practice all of your grammar points this way, you'll have the appropriate snippets at your fingertips when you need them. The more realistic the situation you imagine, the better they'll stick!
© 2008 Nathalie V. Fairbanks
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