English for the Natives: Discover the Grammar You Don't Know You Know

Author(s): Harry Ritchie

Board Games | Language

'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 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 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.

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Product Information

A guide to the grammar you already know

Harry Ritchie was born in Fife in 1958. He was Literary Editor of the Sunday Times from 1993 to 1995. He is the author of THE LAST PINK BITS, FRIDAY NIGHT CLUB and THE THIRD PARTY and currently lives in London.

General Fields

  • : 9781848548374
  • : John Murray General Publishing Division
  • : John Murray Publishers Ltd
  • : September 2013
  • : 198mm X 153mm
  • : November 2013
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Harry Ritchie
  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • : 240