When I was six

Question

Hello everyone. Which one is correct?When I was six, I moved to London.While I was six, I moved to London.?

David Hatton · Accepted Answer

It's normal to use 'when' in this sentence.

Sunny123 · Answer

Thank you David. Are you a native British English speaker or a native American English speaker?

David Hatton · Answer

British English - I therefore seem to encounter quite a lot of local differences in the way people speak from our American friends, probably because of the total lack of grammar teaching in Britain over the last few decades!

Fivejedjon · Answer

David Hatton probably because of the total lack of grammar teaching in Britain over the last few decades!

I doubt it. I was taught old-fashioned grammar very thoroughly from the early 1950s to the mid 1960s. when the differences between the two varieties were greater (in my opinion) than they are today. I speak and write a moderately conservative BrE, but many of the things I say and write today would have been corrected as 'substandard Americanisms' by my teachers.

David Hatton · Answer

I remain shocked by just how little we got taught compared to American friends and, as a result, how adamant British children are that what I now teach them (since the change to a grammar-laden curriculum) cannot be correct.  They say 'we never hear it said like that' so dismiss the correct form that my American friends say is natural to them.  Perhaps the dearth of grammar teaching in the '70s onward is not the root cause but I feel it must have had an effect.

Fivejedjon · Answer

I have never regretted the time spent on the formal grammar I was taught over half a century ago, and English grammar has been a personal and professional interest all my life. However, I doubt if 90% of my peers enjoyed the tedious task of identifying the nine or ten different types of adverbial clauses, or being criticised for not following grammar 'rules' that were already observed in real life by none but a very small minority of people. Much of what we learnt then was of no value in the real world, unless we learnt a foreign language by the then still common grammar-translation method.

The recent 'raising of standards' by re-introducing formal grammar into British schools is going to bore schoolchildren today as much as it always did. Below are three questions of the type eleven-year-olds will be (or are now) expected to answer - with my comments.

In this sentence, is the word "after" used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition? -- Entry is free after 5pm in the evening.

Oops! '5 pm in the evening'? As opposed to '5 pm in the morning'? See also my comment on the next question.

Indicate whether the word 'before' is used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition.

a. We left the cinema before the end of the film. _____
b. The train ticket is cheaper before 9:00 in the morning. _____
c. I brush my teeth before I have breakfast. _____

The answers expected for (a) and (b) are 'preposition' and for (c) for 'subordinating conjunction', which are probably the answers many members here would give. However, many students at British and American universities today are learning that 'before' is a preposition in all three sentences, albeit a 'conjunctive preposition' in (c). So, if they go on to study English grammar at university, they they are likely to be told that what they learnt at school was incorrect/old-fashioned. If they don't follow that path, the information will probably never be of any practical value to them in the very short time that they remember it.

Which option completes the sentence below so that it uses the subjunctive mood?

I wish I ____ free to come to your party tomorrow, but I'm afraid I will be busy.

Were, Could be, Was, May be

Hmm. 'Were', the answer they want, is clearly a subjunctive form (to those who know about subjunctive forms), but 'could' could also be, so there are two correct answers. Furthmore, as https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=I+wish+I+was%2C+I+wish+I+were&year_start=1968&year_end=2008&corpus=18&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CI%20wish%20I%20was%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CI%20wish%20I%20were%3B%2Cc0 shows, 'Was' overtook 'were' as the preferred form in BrE in about 1983. so why are they asking this question? And since 'were' is the only recognizable form of the past subjunctive, and then only in two persons, and since the present subjunctive is practically dead in modern English, except in a few fossilized phrases, is there any point at all in teaching the subjunctive mood to British youngsters?

5. In the sentence below, what word class is the word 'her'?
Luckily, Alison saw where the squirrel had taken her purse.
Noun
Determiner
Adverb
Adjective

It was a possessive adjective when I was at school. Now it's a determiner, possessive determiner, or possessive. Who knows what it will be by the time they leave school. Who cares?

David Hatton · Answer

I have to teach the teachers how to teach the content of this test to children who have to be taught the reason why they are taking it. Meanwhile I have to check with people such as you to ensure my instincts and self-learning are as right as they need to be!
The up side for me is that it has reignited my own interest in language and I have been constantly learning as I have been teaching. It's now reached the stage where I'm editing market-leading online content to teach this while scratching my head at the inaccuracies of the hard copy that is in most primary classrooms. What makes it worse is that some issues - such as the role of 'her' in the example you quote - are prone to debate as they have changed name over time. The main thing that I am finding is that it is turning children off language in a major way as they aren't daft enough to think that this is really going to be helpful at age 10 / 11.
I like grammatical detail in teaching but the abstract naming of parts of speech serves little purpose and the shock I frequently encounter in the classroom when I explain how 'everything you thought you knew was wrong' is frustrating. Less because it highlights ignorance, more that it highlights just how few rules really need to be taught as people get by using language that we all understand despite its 'inaccuracies'. I used to concentrate on grammar that made a difference to things and to the understanding of texts; now I have to name everything for little perceptible purpose.
Oh well, there will be a change next time a different colour of government gets into power...

Sunny123 · Answer

David HattonBritish English - I therefore seem to encounter quite a lot of local differences in the way people speak from our American friends, probably because of the total lack of grammar teaching in Britain over the last few decades!

Thank you David. My question led to a long discussion between you and fivejedjon. Of course even this long debate teaches us many things. However if you added some information in your profile such as "Native speaker: British English"
Probably I never asked my last question!

When I was six

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