It has always been said around here that people who are learning English, as well as people who are learning how to teach it, need to learn to talk about the grammar problems that they face in teaching and learning a language (in this case, English), and learn how to talk about how it is used, why things are done the way they are done, etc.
In this weblog we open up a conversation about these issues. The value of weblogs is as follows: You can link to various explanations of the problem; you can link to previous posts; the most recent entries are seen first, but you can follow a thread all the way back; you can access various grammatical sources on the side as you work. The possibilities are obvious.
To those of you who are new: welcome. Feel free to ask questions, any questions. Whether you are a learner, a teacher, or just someone who would like a clear explanation of what happens and why, give it a shot. We hope someone will answer you to your satisfaction. If not, your question will hang there until they do!
Please reply to questions in the comments. That will help people refer to it, and scroll up for the original query.
For reference, we live in southern Illinois, USA, on the seam of several dialects, where it is interesting to point out dialect differences and the difference between what you might hear and what your grammar book says.
The first step is to ASK. Go to Blogger.com (at the top of the page). Login: grammartalk Password: fanerhall Welcome!
Thanks...Tom Leverett, CESL, SIUC, Carbondale, IL USA
