"My first English lesson was grammar with the terrifying Mrs Petrie. She
spent the entire time marching up and down the classroom, thwacking
various items of school 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 w hat on earth she could mean. Irregular Negative
Gerund? Intransitive Nominative Genitive? It w as 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 fascinating 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 start
afresh with this highly entertaining and accessible guide. "English for
the Natives "outlines the rules and structures of our language as they
are taught to foreign 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 sources, from Ali G to John
Betjeman, Margaret Thatcher to "Match of the Day," this essential book
reveals some surprising truths about our language and teaches you all
the things you didn't know you knew about grammar."
