A Concise English Grammar for foreign students (Book + Key)

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Re uploaded by DE on 25-Feb-2015

A Concise English Grammar for foreign students (Book + Key)

In this new edition the text has been completely reset and a few minor corrections have been made.
The chief criticism that readers made of the earlier edition was that there were too few exercises. In the present edition the number of pages has been increased from 128 to 160 and the whole of this extra space has been devoted to exercises.

In this book an attempt has been made to give concisely all the essentials of English grammar, and though it is hoped that the English student, too, may profit from its pages, the main purpose in the writer's mind has been to approach the subject from the standpoint of the foreign student learning English. For that reason those parts of grammar, e.g. the preposition, in which foreign students find many difficulties, have been given considerably fuller treatment than is usual in a book for English students only. It will be found, too, that the mistakes in the sentences given on pages 113 to 118 for correction, are ones that English students would not generally make; but all the sentences there were actually written in exercises and compositions by foreign students in my classes, and are therefore practical illustrations of the errors to which the foreign student is naturally prone.

WHAT IS GOOD ENGLISH?

Every teacher of English, particularly if he is teaching foreign students, must have been asked the question "What is the correct pronunciation of ____?" or "Is it good grammar to write ____?” and on giving his answer must have been con¬fronted with the reply "But I have heard many Englishmen pronounce it differently" or "But this very eminent novelist breaks that rule; who is finally to decide which is right?" The answer, of course, is "No one". There is no Academy or other body In England to determine the correct form. The chief criterion of correctness is established usage.

Correctness in spoken English is conformity to the speech usages of the majority of educated people; correctness in written English is conformity to the usages of the best modern writers. The rules of grammar are like the laws of Nature. The laws were not made for Nature to obey, but are simply a few facts which wise men have observed as to the way Nature acts. So the grammarian merely examines the language of the best speakers and writers, and deduces rules from their use of it.

Custom is the basis of these rules, and custom is always changing. Pronunciation changes from generation to generation, words decay and become obsolete, and newcomers thrust their way in; words acquire new meanings, sentences are constructed on different lines, and even the syntax of the language undergoes modifications.

It often happens that different forms are in use at the same time, differences due to regional or class dialect, though owing to the modern ease of communication and consequent a intermingling of people, the spread of popular education, and the hearing of the "Standard English" of the B.B.C., dialect differences tend to disappear.

Again, there is a difference between the language used in writing and that used in speaking. In written composition, the words will naturally be chosen with more care and used with greater precision than is possible in rapid familiar conversation, and the sentences will tend to be longer, more elaborately constructed and more conservative in their avoidance of "colloquialisms" and slang.

To write as we talk would be slipshod; to talk as we write would sound pedantic and unnatural. It is the business of the grammarian to observe and record these changes and differences and to decide as far as he can what is the form of language used by the majority of educated speakers and writers; and their usage is his only authority for saying what is "good" and what is "bad" grammar.

Student's Book 14.00MB & Answer keys 1.70MB:

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