'My first English lesson was grammar with the terrifying Mrs Petrie. She spent t
he entire time marching up and down the classroom, thwacking various items of sc
hool furniture with a ruler while she banged on about the ING part of the verb.
I sat there, vibrating with fear, desperately trying to figure out what on earth
she could mean.
Irregular Negative Gerund? Intransitive Nominative Genitive?
It was only years later, when I was teaching English to foreign students, that
I realised that English grammar wasn't obscure and wilfully difficult but a fasc
inating subject which I was already brilliant at - and this book will prove that
you are too.' Forget the little you think you know about English grammar and st
art afresh with this highly entertaining and accessible guide. English for the N
atives outlines the rules and structures of our language as they are taught to f
oreign students - and have never before been explained to us. Harry Ritchie also
examines the grammar of dialects as well as standard English and shows how non-
standard forms are just as valid.
With examples from a wide variety of source
s, from Ali G to John Betjeman, Margaret Thatcher to Match of the Day, this esse
ntial book reveals some surprising truths about our language and teaches you all
the things you didn't know you knew about grammar.
