4 English grammar hacks for easier conversations

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Every language student has experienced this: you’re attempting to convey a concept when all of a sudden you become preoccupied with concerns about your grammar. Your listener waits for you to pause, but now you’re nervous 😖

However, you may simplify 🙌. When a simpler sentence would do, there are strategies you may use to avoid using complicated structures.

Here are four strategies to instantly improve your English grammar and talk with assurance!

Hack 1: Correct

Hacking English tag questions is undoubtedly worthwhile. Phrases like “don’t you” are tags. or is it? that confirm information and come at the conclusion of sentences. They’re common and helpful, but the regulations are intricate!

However, there’s a solution that makes creating a tag question really easy: the amazing word correct. You may add a tag question to any affirmative statement by adding it exactly at the conclusion of the phrase, pronouncing it like an English question, and raising your voice at the end:

Your sister is a doctor, right?
Zari likes romance novels, right?
They’ve been to Thailand before, right?

And you don’t have to worry about making a mistake as you would with other English tag questions. concur with the word that came before it: right? is always in the correct!

Hack #2: a lot of

Knowing when to use “much” or “many” in English grammar is another problem. Saying “I didn’t buy much bread but I didn’t buy many things” is an example of using the English language.

The distinction is whether the word (such as bread or objects) may be numbered separately, but when you’re attempting to talk naturally, it takes experience to think of that on the spot! That’s where the second hack comes in 👀 Any kind of noun, countable or not, can be used with the expression a lot of!

They didn’t ask a lot of questions.
Bea has a lot of work this week.
Did Junior eat a lot of chips?

An further benefit is that many are applicable to all kinds of structures—question, affirmative, and negative. It genuinely fits into every job. (Consider it the Meryl Streep of the realm of grammar!)

Hack #3: please

Learners of English must memorize a great deal (a lot of) of phrases in order to make polite requests. You may say, “Can I get a large coffee, please?” at the coffee shop. or Would you kindly hand me another napkin?

However, in informal interactions, using whole structures isn’t always essential. Because of this, the third tip is to just say “please.” Please make these shorter sentences seem kind when said with a smile:

Hi! A large coffee, please!
Another bag, please!

A longer request could be more acceptable in more complex situations, but in simpler ones, you just need to say “pretty please.”


Hack #4: really

English can be strange in this regard: we can state that a structure is large, but not that it is enormous. Similarly, we can describe a building as completely vast, but not as extremely enormous.

This is because it depends on whether the adjective refers to a “normal” property, like bigness, or a “extreme” quality, like enormousness. When you are conversing in the language you are learning, there is a slight difference like that. Rescued by hack #4!

Really, when in doubt, use the always appropriate adverb. It sounds natural almost usually and functions before a variety of adjectives:

That’s a really big building.
Wow, that building is really enormous!
Vikram’s sandwich looks really good.
Oscar’s pasta looks really amazing!