English grammar resources for a native speaker
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:22 pm
I'm on a mission to improve my writing. As a native English-speaker, I'm comfortable with complex constructions, but my grammatical theory is sorely lacking.
By learning advanced grammar--things like sentence structure, noun clauses, adjective clauses, etc--I'm hoping to equip myself to deal with those awkward times where something about a sentence sounds off, but you're not quite sure what it is. I'd like to get to the point where I can dissect the sentence and either pinpoint the error, or try a different construction. But I can't do this if I don't know what constructions are possible on more than an intuitive level.
There is a lot of useful information out there. I've had no issues finding the theory (this channel has been very useful, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SrEEPt4MQA. I'm not affiliated with them, btw). But so far, all the practice questions and resources I can find are geared towards non-native speakers, and therefore emphasise intuitive understanding. For example, they might give two clauses and ask you to join them using an appropriate conjunction.
"Jane was upset, She received a B- on her english exam."
This isn't useful to me because I know intuitively that "Jane was upset because she received a B- on her english exam." without knowing that "because" is a subordinating conjunction in this context (something I just learned). It would be more useful if they offered the complex sentence first and then asked me to identify the conjunction, or to identify which type of conjunction it is. There's a subtle difference between the two approaches. The ideal resource would be a dense paper that asks you to dissect the text completely, identifying subject, predicate, clauses, conjunctions, etc, etc. But crucially, it would have to have an answer sheet.
I realise that this may be a niche ask, but I would love it if anyone could suggest any resources that take a similar approach.
By learning advanced grammar--things like sentence structure, noun clauses, adjective clauses, etc--I'm hoping to equip myself to deal with those awkward times where something about a sentence sounds off, but you're not quite sure what it is. I'd like to get to the point where I can dissect the sentence and either pinpoint the error, or try a different construction. But I can't do this if I don't know what constructions are possible on more than an intuitive level.
There is a lot of useful information out there. I've had no issues finding the theory (this channel has been very useful, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SrEEPt4MQA. I'm not affiliated with them, btw). But so far, all the practice questions and resources I can find are geared towards non-native speakers, and therefore emphasise intuitive understanding. For example, they might give two clauses and ask you to join them using an appropriate conjunction.
"Jane was upset, She received a B- on her english exam."
This isn't useful to me because I know intuitively that "Jane was upset because she received a B- on her english exam." without knowing that "because" is a subordinating conjunction in this context (something I just learned). It would be more useful if they offered the complex sentence first and then asked me to identify the conjunction, or to identify which type of conjunction it is. There's a subtle difference between the two approaches. The ideal resource would be a dense paper that asks you to dissect the text completely, identifying subject, predicate, clauses, conjunctions, etc, etc. But crucially, it would have to have an answer sheet.
I realise that this may be a niche ask, but I would love it if anyone could suggest any resources that take a similar approach.