How to Improve Your Grammar and Vocabulary

Basic Grammar

Study foundational grammar rules. Even if you’re a native language speaker, it never hurts to go back to the start and re-learn some of the basic grammar rules. Getting a grasp of technical rules can enhance your speech and writing while avoiding common mistakes. Either use an old textbook or look online for pages about grammar basics and study a bit every day to improve your grammar skills. Books and online manuals like Purdue OWL and Chicago Manual of Style have information on all of the foundational grammar rules. Use them for the best information. Finding out which textbooks are used in college courses is another helpful way to find good resources.

Review the rules of punctuation. Misuse of punctuation marks is a very common grammar mistake. While reviewing your grammar rules, pay attention to the correct usage of each punctuation mark to avoid mistakes in your writing. Semicolons and dashes are often used incorrectly. Semicolons separate 2 independent sentence clauses that can stand on their own, but are related enough to make them part of the same sentence. Dashes connect groups of words in a sentence to emphasize a point, and are usually in the middle of a sentence. Remember that apostrophes show possession or indicate a missing letter in a contraction.

Identify basic sentence structures to avoid mistakes. At a basic level, a sentence is a set of words or phrases that convey a complete idea. Typically, sentences contain a subject, verb, and object. There are many ways to construct a sentence, so review all of these building blocks to use them correctly. Correct sentence order is usually subject, verb, and object. A simple sentence that follows this structure is "John opened the door." Watch out for sentence fragments. These lack a key part of the sentence structure. For example, "Opened the door" is a fragment because it's missing a subject. Make fragments complete sentences by adding another clause or word that fills in the blank. Make sure your subjects and verb tenses agree with each other. For example, "They was running fast" is incorrect. "They were running fast" is the correct subject/verb agreement.

Learn the prefixes and suffixes of words to figure out their meanings. In English, most words have Greek or Latin roots. Often, the beginning (prefix) or ending (suffix) of a word tells you something about that word’s meaning. Study prefixes and suffixes so you can work out the meanings for words you’ve never seen before. For example, you might not know what predisposition means. But because you’ve studied roots, you know that the prefix “pre-“ means before, so you can at least get a basic grasp of the word’s meaning. Suffixes work similarly. The suffix “-oid” means resembling, so you can tell that the word spheroid means something similar to a sphere. The nonprofit Center for Development and Learning has a comprehensive list of prefixes and suffixes.

Eliminate the passive voice from your writing and speaking. The passive voice means that the subject of the sentence is not doing the action. For example, “The door was opened by him” is the passive version of “He opened the door.” While it’s not a grammatical error, the passive voice does make your writing wordy and much less clear. In most cases, avoiding it is best. The easiest way to identify the passive voice is by asking yourself “Who or what is doing the action?” in this sentence. If it’s not the subject, then you’re probably using the passive voice. The passive voice is much more common in fiction writing as a stylistic choice. There are situations where it works for dramatic effect, so in these cases it’s more acceptable.

Say words and sentences out loud to identify mistakes. Sometimes, we can tell if a sentence or word is incorrect without actually knowing why. Something just sounds “off” about grammar mistakes. Get into the habit of saying your writing out loud while proofreading. This can help you identify potential problems and correct them. Note that this doesn’t always work. Some sentences may be entirely correct but sound strange. This tool is more of a guideline to identify potential mistakes.

Analyze how other authors use grammar and punctuation. Reading widely is a great way to build your grammar and vocabulary. Look at different books, magazines, and websites to see how other authors construct their writing. Use their techniques in your own life. Try to read things that have passed some kind of editorial process rather than unedited websites. Blogs, for example, may use incorrect grammar if no one is checking them, whereas magazines have editors that check for grammar accuracy. If you do read unedited things, try to identify and correct improper grammar as an exercise. Remember that reading older work may be less helpful because grammar rules change over time. A book from the 19th century, for example, will probably use grammar that you don’t recognize, and using that grammar nowadays might be incorrect.

Vocabulary

Find new vocabulary words by reading different subjects. Just like with grammar, reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary. Read widely, in many different genres, to encounter as many words as possible. Then keep track of the words you don’t know to learn new ones. Before looking up unfamiliar words, try to figure their meanings out by looking at prefixes, suffixes, and the sentence context. Try to focus on more advanced books and periodicals as your grammar improves. A higher-brow publication like The Atlantic will use more complicated words and grammar than the New York Post, for example, and you’ll learn more vocabulary.

Look up words you don’t know in the dictionary. As you read, write down all the words you can’t figure out and look them up later. Write down the word and its definition. Keep a journal of these new words and study them as you amass more. This will build your vocabulary in no time. Either keep a dictionary near you or do an internet search for the word. Look up the other words on the page as well to learn even more.

Use a thesaurus to find words related to the original word. In addition to simply defining the words you find, learn all the other words that mean the same thing. A thesaurus gives you all the synonyms of a given word. Looking up new words expands your vocabulary to include all the words that are related to the original word, building your knowledge more than just defining new words. You can use a physical thesaurus, or look for one online and type the word in. A thesaurus also contains antonyms, or words that mean the opposite of a word. Looking at the antonyms builds your vocabulary even more.

Incorporate the new words into your daily speech. Practice is the best way to enhance your vocabulary. As you learn more words, put them to use. Incorporate them into your daily speech to get used to using more advanced words. Once easy way to do this is pick a new word each day and look for situations where you can use it. Try to use that word as much as possible throughout the day. When you get better, you can pick multiple words that you’d like to use throughout the day. Over time, you’ll get very good at effortlessly using more advanced words in your normal speech.

Eliminate nonspecific or filler words from your speech. Words like “umm” or “like” delay your speech and make you sound unsure of what you’re saying. Try to eliminate them altogether. Also, general words like “good” and “bad” aren’t very descriptive. Replace these words with more descriptive ones like “ecstatic” or “inconvenient.” These make you sound more intelligent and confident in what you’re saying. Instead of using filler words, try to pause instead. This makes it look like you’re thinking carefully about your responses. Always try to use the most descriptive words possible. General words don’t say all that much, and make your vocabulary seem much smaller.

Learning Aids

Enroll in a college course to review the rules of grammar. If you really want to improve your grammar, there are many courses you can choose from to refresh your skills. Local community colleges usually offer weekend or night classes for non-matriculated students who just want to learn new skills, so see if there are options in your area. There are also many online choices for you. YouTube has many free instructional videos to improve your skills. For more in-depth, paid options, a site like Udemy has many courses that might appeal to you. If you don’t want to take a whole course, get a textbook or test review book and work in it in your spare time.

Pay attention to spell check while you're writing to catch mistakes. Most word processors now have a built-in spell check feature that highlights misspelled words and grammar mistakes. Pay attention to this feature to correct any mistakes. But also review why certain mistakes are wrong. If spell check identifies a sentence fragment, for example, look at what made that phrase a fragment. Then you'll expand your knowledge of grammar to avoid similar mistakes. Remember that spell check doesn't catch everything. Don't rely on it completely. Proofread your work in addition to using spell check.

Do crossword puzzles in your free time to learn new word definitions. These puzzles give you tons of new word options. Subscribe to a local newspaper and do the crossword puzzle every day. For more practice, get a whole book of crossword puzzles. Keep track of the new words you learn doing these puzzles to grow your vocabulary. For an added exercise, pick one of the new words you learn in a crossword puzzle and use it in your everyday speech.

Play word-based board games like Scrabble. These games are a fun way to grow your vocabulary with friends and family. Play for entertainment, but also keep track of the new words you see. Then write them down to use later on. Add a challenge to your friends or family to use some of the words they learned while they talk. Include everyone on your mission to improve your vocabulary.

Use vocabulary apps to learn new words. There are tons of free apps that will help you grow your vocabulary. The most common ones are “word a day” apps that give you a new word to use every day. Download a few of these apps and use them regularly. Over time, you can build a much larger vocabulary without a lot of effort.