I think the problem is that English grammar is not widely taught i nschools, so people in general have very little sense of what English grammar is all about. I remember once being shocked when a good friend of mine - a man who read all the time, mostly fiction and history - didn't know what a verb was. I assume most people have more knowledge of grammatical words than that, but maybe not a lot.
I wish I could say I'm surprised at your comment about English grammar, but I'm not.
Among the items I remember about my teenage years were the few times we dealt with English grammar. Case in point: while I had learned about the four main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) by or before Grade 6, I was in Grade 9 (!) before I understood the meanings of subject, predicate and object -- and their roles in a normal sentence. Likewise, I did not learn the difference between "subjective" and "objective" till about that same time.
They covered grammar rather thoroughly still when I was in public school. I don't remember getting any grammar at all in high school. I knew about phrases, clauses, subjective, and objective, but it didn't really acquire significance till I started learning languages in which it mattered - Esperanto probably being the first.
Not long ago I was talking about Latin with several friends, and one of them had no idea what a 'case' was. No reason she should, I guess, but we were talking at cross-purposes for a bit.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 04:41 am (UTC)Among the items I remember about my teenage years were the few times we dealt with English grammar. Case in point: while I had learned about the four main parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) by or before Grade 6, I was in Grade 9 (!) before I understood the meanings of subject, predicate and object -- and their roles in a normal sentence. Likewise, I did not learn the difference between "subjective" and "objective" till about that same time.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-12 12:22 pm (UTC)Not long ago I was talking about Latin with several friends, and one of them had no idea what a 'case' was. No reason she should, I guess, but we were talking at cross-purposes for a bit.