grammar
n. C / Un. the rules about how words change their form and combine with other words to make sentences. You study this to speak and write a language correctly.
n. the whole system and structure of a language, encompassing syntax and morphology. It dictates how words are formed, modified, and combined to produce coherent sentences.
We are learning English grammar in class today.
The teacher corrected my essay because I made several mistakes with my grammar and spelling.
While native speakers acquire the grammar of their mother tongue intuitively, adult learners often rely on explicit instruction to master complex syntactic structures.
From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.
Uncountable when referring to the abstract system of rules; countable when referring to a specific textbook or a particular linguistic framework.
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grammar Nazi
A person who habitually criticizes the grammar and (often) usage in others' speech or writing, often in ways that are sometimes not even linguistically accurate.
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grammar police
One or more people who make negative comments, which are usually unsolicited and unwanted, concerning the correctness of someone's English usage.