5 English Grammar Rules You Should be breaking in an Informal Context

Some of you might adieu this blog without bothering to walk it thoroughly, but some who don’t, are promised to land on the less traveled planet where English language and Some of the grammar rules can be twisted in informal talk and in creative writing.

Well, I am not against ancient English grammar rules, which are indeed the foundation of the language, however, I don’t want to stick to all the grammatical rules of English language precisely when some of them can be tweaked as per the modern writing. Having said that, you should know those grammatical rules first, only then you will enjoy being reasonably playful with them.

If you are a movie buff or simply love English TV series, you must have been baffled a few times for the sentence structuring in their conversation. Besides, if you are learning English as a second language, you may have ended up condemning them for the odd sentence framing, wrong grammar usages or simply for their cool approach to speaking in the language. Just for your information, neither they are wrong nor you are because a language is also the culture of the place it is spoken; it does not only tell about its etymology but it also projects the evolution of the language with time and technology. Now without putting this subject for an open debate, let’s jump directly to the point.

5 English grammar rules, you can break without hurting the sentiments of Grammar Nazis.

1. A “Preposition” at the end of the sentence- Yeah, you can keep preposition all alone at the end of the sentence if it adds meaning to the sentence.

Here are the examples How:

What are you talking about?

Whom are you speaking to?

What are you looking for?

Try making these sentences like this,

About what are you talking?

To whom are you speaking?

For what are you looking?

These sentences don’t only sound odd but they also break the flow of conversation. If somebody still argues for that, here is a bombastic answer- Winston Churchill loved ending sentences with a preposition and you know who I am referring here, one of the finest speakers in the history.

2. “Conjunction” at the beginning of the sentence- This one is quite practical to experiment. Let’s examine it:

Mom: Why are you wearing too many clothes?

Son: Because, I am feeling cold.

Now imagine speaking without conjunction at the beginning or by putting it at the end. Awkward, isn’t it?

and, but, because, and a few other conjunctions are used in the modern writing so don’t be hesitant to update yourself.

3. “Commas” to separate two independent clauses- As I mentioned earlier, with time and innovation in technology, language adds and omits a few rules. you can certainly differentiate the writing style of Shakespeare and Amish Tripathi. Commas were earlier used only to separate the items and for special remarks but now in the modern writing, it is used as a breather to let the readers pause to understand and digest; Whereas in speaking commas are real pauses to emphasize.

4. “They” as a singular Pronoun- It is little tricky because the only case you can tweak the use of ‘They’ is by learning pronoun-verb-agreement in details. Though there is no conventional English Grammar rule which supports the idea of using ‘They’ as a singular pronoun, yet this is apparently more convenient to bring forth when the gender of the subject is unknown rather saying he/she every time.

For an Instance- “I have heard a lot about that novelist, they must be a good artist”, then saying, “I have heard a lot about that novelist, he/she must be a good artist”. It is accepted globally and in modern writing.

5. Avoid using double negative- Using double negative can appear confusing on the surface but apparently, it does wonder in an informal context. I would recommend you to use them mostly in the conversation to highlight your concern or to emphasize the negative. There are many movies where double negative has been used to reinforce the dialogue already consisting not or no in the sentence. You can simply remove anything with nothing, any with no and not just to emphasize more. Though I will not support its use in the formal settings yet I will not stop you from using it in an informal talk.

I don’t have nothing to do.

I don’t have no money.

There are a few more flexible English grammar rules which can be twisted as per the need of the writers. So, keep looking for them but be well aware of the conventional English grammar rules. To explore more topics on grammar don’t forget to explore English Grammar category from blog’s drop-down list.

      Cheerio,

Khushi Singh