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Participle Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Grammar vocabularies

I happened to run across a discussion on this site that began with a question about the past perfect tense. The discussion got me to wonder how many people, other than grammarians and people who have just studied the subject, have such terms in their vocabularies. I don't; in fact, my monicker was chosen in remembrance of my lifetime struggle to remember such terms. I was always poor in my knowledge of grammar until I took an Online course in 2000 at a community college. That course succeeded doing what my entire school career had failed in doing: giving me confidence with my written English grammar. However, since then, there has been slippage, and I have been thinking of taking a refresher course, but I don't aspire to ever becoming familiar with the multitude of terms that grammarians have developed to deal with their craft. Do ordinary people know what participle, pluperfect, present perfect, etc., etc. and etc. mean? Do they need to know? By the way, I didn't know what "past perfect" meant when I noticed it today. but then I remembered that "perfect" in the grammatical sense, means "completed," so I was able to work my way through to the meaning. Anyway, my question stands: Do ordinary people know these terms at times when they are not actively engaged in studying grammar? Should they know?

  

Top answer

Do ordinary people know these terms . . No.

— Clive

  • Do ordinary people know these terms .
  • .
  • No.
  • Should they know?
  • That's a difficult question.
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3 Answers
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Do ordinary people know these terms . . . No.

Should they know? That's a difficult question. Do you think one can have good grammar without knowing the terminology?

Where I live, grammar is no longer really taught in schools.

Clive

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participleDo ordinary people know these terms at times when they are not actively engaged in studying grammar?

No.

participleShould they know?

Opinions differ on this. The whole topic is fraught with considerations of social status.

CJ

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participle Do ordinary people know these terms?

Probably not.

participleShould they know?

If they want to be a writer, or to write good English, yes.

participleThat course succeeded doing what my entire school career had failed in doing: giving me confidence with my written English gra
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