Don't Study Grammar Rules, Learn Phrases

Learning grammar doesn’t have to involve memorizing lists of often confusing rules. I’ve always found that the best way to learn the grammar of a new language is through exposure to vocabulary, words and especially phrases, in the language. I get this exposure through lots of reading and listening. The more exposure you get the more you will notice the patterns and rules of the language.

[reemjoueuse]

I agree with you ...
I can notice the grammar of each language without the need of studying "the grammar rules of French language " for example..
Thank you Steve ~♡

[juliautifran]

I think it's the same way like infants and toddlers are learning languages. I never learned languages in school. It was boring at school.
I learned them by useing and listening to them. By traveling and talking to the people in this language for example or writing with my American pen pal.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world. I love to listen to you.

[LiamPorterFilms]

You're quite right - grammar knowledge becomes real knowledge when you /notice/ it, not when you merely accept that it exists and has some label

[nelsonventura]

I`m from Brazil, and i see your videos 3 times, at the first time i saw in english without subtitles, the second time i put the english subtitles, and the last time i put the subtitles in portuguese, this has helped a lot to understand the words, Thank You Sir Steve.

[anthonyboul]

My method for learning Spanish and English is a kind of "wise mix" of Steve Kauffman and AJ Hoje's advice. Using mini stories for language learning is great, but I repeat these stories at least 50 times, instead of learning a large number of words in a few time. But each one has his own method I guess. Fun is the most important ingredient.

[Basdower.]

I remember when I started learning english with a teacher. The teacher did a good job, but I used to check a lot of content in english, which made me always be a little bit ahead of my classmates. I didn't notice it at the begining, but after a couple of years I realized how big of a change it means to learn the way you say.

[tuvidaahora]

Gracias Steve, me fascina, me encanta LingQ!!!! Hace un par de semanas que lo descubrí y no he podido dejar de leer y escuchar. Mil gracias por esta herramienta tan fantástica! I'm your newest lingQ "fanaddict" :)

[juniorferreira]

Vou começar a usar ling para melhorar meu ingles espanhol e frances. Sempre vejo teus videos para manter a motivação. Bom trabalho e até o proximo video.

[alanmoraes]

You tell us what most language schools don't

[アイス熊]

This is the second time I watched this video, and this time around it makes much more sense. When I first watched it probably over a year ago, I understood phrase to mean the kind of sentence or saying you would find in a phrasebook. Which really doesn’t help. But now that I realize you’re talking about grammatical phrases and I see how that would help a lot. I want to start trying this more

[annettemcnabb]

I think this is one of the best video's I've seen of yours Steve, at least in explaining how you go about seeing the grammar within what your reading and being able to notice structure and points.

[simetyph]

You are a very smart man, I absolutely love your videos please comment if you heard this

[gregorio]

I think its good to at least be familiar with the basics of the language but once you have that down, exposure like you said to authentic material of the language is what will perfect the grammar

[thenaturalyogi]

This method is exactly how I learned the 2 languages I speak at home. The Philippines where I'm from we have 2 official languages English and Filipino so these are taught in school and since my ancestors are from China I studied in a Chinese school so we learned English, Filipino, and Chinese for 13 years. However my parents grew up in a different province that spoke Cebuano and my Chinese ancestors are mainly from the Fujian province so we also speak Hokkien (similar to Taiwanese) so my Cebuano and Hokkien I acquired purely from hearing my relatives speak and repeating these phrases my entire life. I'm using this method to learn European Portuguese and so far it's working especially for pronunciation just listening to Portuguese with Leo and Practice Portuguese and my Lingq stories.

[adrianaa]

Hola Steve, pasaba por aquí para decir que me ha ayudado mucho LingQ para prepararme para el IELTS, me encanta recomendarla a mis amigos que también están aprendiendo otro idioma. Gracias 😊

[valentina_fantasy]

MANY THANKS! VERY INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING

[naufalmujadid]

i feel the same when i study grammar without immersing myself into more listening, reading and learn phrases. because as time goes by, the rule of grammar that I remember would be wiped out from my memory because i rarely recall it.

[dro]

Always interesting information.
Thanks Steve.

[angelxxsin]

Wow that was some very nice pronunciation in Spanish. I’ve been around expats in Peru who after many years surrounded by the language still sound terrible.

[pesahson]

How do I volunteer to translate those mini stories? I'd be interested in Polish.