Did YOU learn English grammar at school? Me no.

perhaps I should have said different from

Who knows and does anyone worry about it? Apart from DD2 who teaches English

At my Scottish school in the 1950s, English ( both language and literature) was the most important subject. Analysis and parsing had to be mastered to pass the qualifying exam at age 11-12 to enter the Senior Secondary school and Higher English was required at age 16, 17 or 18 to matriculate at any of the four ancient Scottish Universities. When I left school Scotland had not had a new university for five hundred years. Higher English was required for all undergraduates, whether they were studying English, history, foreign languages, mathematics, science, theology, engineering or any other subject.

I'm not sure I could now do the analysis and parsing exercises I did when I was nine or ten, but I do think we were given a good grounding in our native language.

We had a book called "Fundamentals of English". I never understood where the fun came into it!

Like varian I am grateful for the benefits of a Scottish education in the 50’s and 60’s . And for a father who taught me to spell and value the right word in the right place.

The native speaker knows that we say he is doing something, while he is actually doing it, where he does it, means that he is in the habit of doing such and such.

One can also use the present continuous to mean future eg I am going on holiday to France.

I understand what are you talking about. But that does not mean that you did not learn grammar, it means that you did not learn it as a foreigner. There was no need for analogy sampling as, for instance, for the East Europeans. My granddaughter raised in Bulgaria and I also had to spend much time to explain her grammar on the comparison with another language (with help of my daughter, of course.). But I think that that's not the main problem of the modern education. As with the negative impactgrowth of the media and communication, students now try to find easy ways for the problem-solving. For instance, instead of any attempts to generate by yourself the original idea, it is much preferable to find the list of narrative essay topics that are on the trend. I mean that the authentic fresh ideas are a kind of unique case for the current generation of the students.

went to school in 60's and early 70's
in the USA we had grammer lessons all thru.
dont know where or when your collegue went to school but i couldn't have gone to uni if i didn't have grammer.
a large part of enterance exams were based on languge and reading.
as a retire teacher i am called on to help grandbabies with grammer lessons.
and yes, i do better than when writing on forums.
and jess i agree i see it all the time.
english as a second language is a completely different thing.sentence structure is totaly different .for example spanish.

lots of spelling mistakes, sorry

Devils advocate here. I know pedants get annoyed by the wrong use of apostropes.
I wonder how many British educated people could not actually understand what message that even an inept user of apostropes is trying to convey.

The context of what is being said can usually be easily understood despite the correct or incorrect use of the dreaded apostrophe. (Too late to think of examples.)

I don't remember being taught it as something in its own right. Now I'm worrying whether I've missed an apostrophe.

Nelliemoser, “Residents refuse to be put in bins.”

In British usage, we do not use an apostrophe in pluralizing dates:

This research was carried out in the 1970s.

American usage, however, does put an apostrophe here:

(A) This research was carried out in the 1970's.

I teach English as a second language (intermittently at the moment) and when I was doing the training for my TESOL Certificate very few of the student teachers could identify even the basics of English grammar at the start of the course. Even though it was an expensive course there was a very high drop out rate and several students who did manage to get to the end still failed the course.

Yes I did. We did two separate English lessons , literature and language.
In language we learnt parsing, rules of grammar, precis, etc. I am a pedant where correct grammar in speech or writing is concerned

We did literature and language separately too (1950s and 60s). I loved literature and got an A at A level. I also loved writing and filled exercise books with 'novels' and stories all with almost perfect spelling, punctuation and grammar. However I hated 'Grammar' where it was all analysis of what I did quite naturally. I managed a B at A level Language probably because of the comprehension and writing aspects. I think I am likely to have dropped marks on the parsing bits!

I had to do Latin too which again involved a lot of grammar so I did not like it. It had to be done to get into university to study English. However I have to admit, it has been useful in learning other languages and as Cherry, I think, said "making educated guesses in quizzes".

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201801/medium-942814-screenshot-2018-01-31-032601.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201801/medium-904426-screenshot-2018-01-31-032629.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201801/medium-179818-screenshot-2018-01-31-032639.jpg

I don't remember learning parsing at school in the 60s and 70s in Scotland then England, but we did learn what certain words were like noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, etc. and punctuation. In Scotland we also had a text book called First Aid in English and it was full of exercises to learn sentence composition. It was a great book and we used to use it for quizzes at home. I still remember the name for a herd of buffalo used to be called an obstinacy of buffalo!

Reading a lot of these posts I have no clue about some of the things mentioned and yet I passed both Language and literature in my GCEs I also did Latin but gave that one up remember it as better than a French though
Reading through posts on social media I realise how awful a lot of people spelling is ‘I hope this is aloud’ I would never do it but I so much want to correct them ?

Wilma I have those books. Old and battered now but loved by the GDs . They love to play Fish, fruit, flower . and other pencil and paper games Both GDs learn punctuation at school , verbs, nouns etc. But not parsing, as in clause of reason, time etc.

Lessons in English Grammar were common throughout my education in 10 different schools. I was good at the other things that went with the nitty gritty of specifically grammar lessons: precis, essay, comprehension and spelling and my written work was grammatical and correct.

I actually couldn't see much point in grammar beyond the basics, and managed to do very well at O level English Language without actually completing the grammar question. Good at applied grammar but not pure grammar.

Bluebell, spelling in GN posts is no guide to the posters
spelling capabilities. I can spell very well, unfortunately my fingers navigating the key board are less certain, particularly at present where numbness in my thumb and first two fingers caused by carpal tunnel syndrome mean I only use my ring and little finger of my right hand when typing.

Yes, if I slowly and carefully proof read everything I wrote I would pick most of my errors up but I will happily admit that I only do a quick and cursory proof read and, of course, miss things. Very different to the very careful proof reading I do before handing in essays to my tutors.

8 23:32:38 Residents refuse to be put in bins.

Took me a minute or two NanaMacGeek but then made me smile!

Who worries about different from?
I do! Drummed into me by Miss Round, circa 1963.
Very thankful for the excellent grammar teaching I received in the 1950s and 60s, tried to replicate it through the 'grammar doesn't matter' era in the eighties and nineties.

I worry about different from because it was drummed into me by my mother. I'm always surprised when apparently well educated (and often expensively educated) people come out with different to.

"Residents refuse to be put in bins." Well without any other sign of a context to the original remark that is not un-grammatical. Many people would choose not to be put in a bin .

However some people may really enjoy being in a bin and for them that is also a valid lifestyle choice.
To be fair there should be a philosophical debate on this issue. Where are all these former university debating society bods.

"Waiting for Godot" comes to mind.
I assure you I have not yet succumbed to a Damson Gin.

BBbevan when I was still living at home with my parents, we moved to a house that was owned by a long retired headmistress who had died. Her family didn't clear out the loft and we found a copy of First Aid in English!

For some reason I kept hold of it when I moved out (perhaps it was in my bookcase) and years later I used it when I was teaching Adult Literacy classes. I've looked on Amazon and there's a whole range of First Aid in books and judging by the price and reviews the revised version of First Aid in English is very popular with parents who have children being tutored for entrance exams and the 11+ (tutors recommend it). Reading the reviews, the book was used all over the world and its popular here with people whose first language isn't English. I can definitely see how it would be helpful for an ESOL student. Used paperback copies go for about £30!