For most of you “grammar” is a scary word. At least, for a lot of students it is. You may recall bad memories trying to learn different rules of French grammar. Or, reciting by heart the irregular verbs in different tenses. Or even worse; your French teacher scolding you! Just because you had the audacity of mixing feminine and masculine articles. You may also have heard bad things about French grammar. Hence, the title of this article.
“Should you be afraid of French grammar?”
French grammar may be difficult to learn and use. It is also very different when you compare with the English grammar. So, you can’t copy and paste English sentence structures directly to French.
But, before getting more into this question, let’s understand what is Grammar. Collins says “Grammar is the ways that words can be put together in order to make sentences”. I see Grammar, as the glue that holds the words together. However, to use that glue you need to know “words”. That’s why, when I teach beginners I always focus on getting to learn and use as many words as they can. Of course, they’re making grammar mistakes when they make their sentences with new words. But that’s okay. My point is; you can and, will be understood in a foreign language even if you make grammar mistakes. But, you won’t be understood if you don’t have the right vocabulary.
As a French teacher and a polyglot, I believe that a beginner’s goal in any language, should always be getting others to understand them. Once you get more acquainted, more comfortable with the language itself, then you should start improving your grammar. Of course, I’m not saying to not learn grammar when you’re a beginner. But, start little with grammar and a lot with vocabulary.
But how? You can read my blog about Top 10 Ways to learn French vocabulary
That brings us to the question we asked earlier. French grammar can be very scary if you make the mistake of trying to speak perfectly, even though you’re a beginner. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot of students studying, spending a lot of time on French grammar. But, they weren’t even able to make two sentences in a row without checking a dictionary. So why, people who want to learn a language on their own, make this mistake? In my opinion, it is because that’s how they saw it in school. In traditional schools, when you have language classes you mainly focus on grammar rules. It is unacceptable to make grammar mistakes.
At least, that’s how it went in my English classes. Because of this approach, I wasn’t a very good student in English until I was 15. I travelled a few times in English speaking countries and I couldn’t use anything that we learnt in school. So, what happened later? Well, I decided to learn it differently. Instead of trying to focus on grammar I focused on using phrases and, learning new words. I tried to chat with English speakers even though I probably sounded as a retarded at first. But doing that, helped me to understand better the English language so I felt more comfortable later improving my grammar as well.
To sum up; You shouldn’t be afraid of French grammar when you start learning French. Yes, it is different, in some ways it can even be hard to grasp. But, with a good learning method as I’ve briefly mentioned, grammar shouldn’t be a problem.
