Is Grammar Important?

Grammar is not important. As long as you understand what I say, it's enough.

The text above represents a comment that I sometimes hear from English learners -- odds are you have heard this kind of utterance as well. However, does this statement hold true? Is grammar not important?

The quick answer is yes. Grammar is important indeed. Let's use two different approaches to answering this question.

We can be sure that grammar is important by looking around and realizing how many grammar books there are and how diverse they are on the market. ELT (English Language Teaching) publishers such as Cambridge, Oxford, Longman, and Collins have collectively produced numerous grammars, which are aimed, without a doubt, at English learners. These include the classic Understanding and Using English Grammar and Fundamentals of English Grammar by Betty S. Azar and Stacy A. Hagen and COBUILD English Grammar, which I am about to order a copy of. The existence of such books demonstrates how important grammar is in communication. This is not to mention that most, if not all, non-grammar-focused ELT books also discuss grammar, albeit not comprehensively and thoroughly.

Now, let's take a look at this mini-conversation between two old friends, Paul and Karen, which takes place at a subway station:

1. Paul: Hi Karen! Long time no see! How are you?
2. Karen: Hi Paul! I'm good. And you?
3. Paul: I'm all right. It's been 5 years. By the way, what do you do after you graduated from university?
4. Karen: You mean what I do now?
5. Paul: No, that time after we graduated from university.
6. Karen: Oh, I see. I worked as a salesperson for a kitchenware company for about two years. I was getting bored, so I decided to leave the job. Now I teach chemistry in a high school in my hometown. How about you?
7. Paul: ...

This made-up dialog illustrates how our use of grammar can affect the effectiveness of our communication. Paul doesn't use the right auxiliary verb, "did", (line 3) and it leads Karen to ask for clarification (line 4). This means Paul needs to give Karen clarification (line 5). Although Karen finally understands what Paul intends to know, this series of unnecessary actions takes (and wastes) some time and, therefore, reduces communication efficiency.

It is sometimes argued that grammar is important only when it comes to speaking, not writing. The example above shows that grammar matters whether you are speaking or writing -- the only difference is that people are more likely to get embarrassed by what they write because writings tend to be recorded or stored and making corrections is not always possible, while on most occasions once you speak, it is gone.

I always believe that when you love something, it is going to be easy. This has resulted in me coming up with an unpublished, Bible-referencing quote: "The love of grammar is the root of English proficiency". This may not be wholly true, but it will certainly boost your English skills more than you would without such passion.

If you find it hard to learn grammar (or, more generally, English) and think that grammar is too complicated to master, you might want to read my other articles How to Be Good at English (Part 1) and Language Is an Illusion. I wish you the best of luck on your grammar-learning journey!