What are rules of grammar?

Answer 1

Rather than hard-and-fast rules, the 'rules of grammar' are guidelines which attempt to help us write or speak in such a way that we come close to a uniform way of communicating.

For example, we might say, 'The boy wanted to get a closer look at a bird so he climbed the tree but it flew away.'

This sounds amusing because the way the sentence is written it suggests the tree flew away. Our commonsense tells us it means the bird flew away, but rules of grammar tell us it's better not to rely on commonsense when it comes to interpreting what we read and hear.

This is sensible, because sometimes it really matters whether people understand our words properly.

In the case of the above sentence, we could change it to read, 'The boy climbed the tree to get a closer look at a bird, but it flew away.' We might even make the sentence run more smoothly by saying, 'The boy climbed the tree for a closer look at the bird, but it flew away.'

A similar theme might say, 'The girl wanted a better look at the truck, so she sat in the front seat of the car, but it drove off.' We really can't be sure, in this case, whether what drove off was the truck or the car the girl was in. We need to think how to rephrase the sentence so it's clear which vehicle drove away, and so it will read smoothly.

Take whatever you've written and look hard at it: see whether it can be taken to have a different meaning, like the boy in the flying tree, or the girl in the car. If so, move the words around, or change them, or alter punctuation, so that the meaning can't be mistaken.

Sometimes you'll say something in a particular way, for a certain effect, and to do this you might need to work outside the rules of grammar. This is fine; everyone does it in one way or another. Just make sure what you're writing has a clear meaning (unless you deliberately intend the meaning to be obscure).

You'll always encounter people who have their own ideas about grammar. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they aren't, and sometimes their idea of rules is really just their own opinions.

There probably isn't a rule of grammar that isn't, or hasn't been, subject to debate at some time or another.

There are style guides you can check, but even these are written by ordinary human beings who can get it wrong sometimes. At the end of the page, if it looks right, sounds right and feels right, it probably is. If in doubt, get a friend to read it aloud, and you can both share opinions on how it reads.

Remember, it's all about communication.

Grammar and spelling do matter; if you're writing to ask for a job interview your letter won't get you very far if the grammar is bad and the spelling is worse, so get in the habit of regularly checking your writing - not just when you really need to make a good impression, but all the time, so that you get into good writing and speaking habits and keep improving them, just as you'd learn, practise and develop skills such as piano playing, or computer games, or Skateboarding.

One link below gives excellent information about grammar, the second is a great dictionary reference, which you can customize if you like.

The third link is to the results page of the dictionary reference: you can put the search facility on your toolbar if you like: just click on 'link to us' at the bottom of the page.

Answer 2

Rules of grammar are guidelines that dictate how words and sentences should be structured in a language to ensure clear communication and understanding. These rules cover various aspects such as sentence structure, punctuation, word usage, and verb agreement. Following grammar rules helps to avoid misunderstandings and effectively convey meaning in writing and speech.