4 Ways To Improve Your Grammar Fast v1.03

4 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GRAMMAR FAST
Copyright © 2019 by Lee Y. H.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

or used in any manner without written permission of the
copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book
review. For more information, address: lee@smoothwriter.com
VERSION 1.03
www.smoothwriter.com
2
Copyright © 2019 by Lee Y. H. www.smoothwriter.com
Table of Contents
What This Guidebook Will Do For You....................................................................................4
My Story Of Failing And Learning Grammar...........................................................................6
1—Know What A Sentence Really Is........................................................................................ 8

What is a sentence?............................................................................................................................................ 8
Exception: Imperative sentence......................................................................................................................8
Exception: Interjection....................................................................................................................................... 9
Bonus: What is a phrase?..................................................................................................................................9
2—Learn The Difference Between An Adverb And Adjective.............................................10

Adjective in a sentence................................................................................................................................... 10
Adverb in a sentence....................................................................................................................................... 11
Why know this?.................................................................................................................................................. 12
3—Learn A Common Trap That You May Face When Using Plural Or Singular Verbs......13
Prepositional phrase.........................................................................................................................................13
Prepositional phrase and plural/singular verb.......................................................................................13
4—Learn Sentence Diagramming!.........................................................................................16
Afterword................................................................................................................................. 18
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What This Guidebook Will Do For You
Welcome, and thank you for downloading my free guidebook 4 Ways to Improve Your
Grammar Fast!
As the name of this guidebook suggests, you will learn 4 ways you can use to improve your
grammar immediately.
You will learn:

1. What a sentence actually is
2. The difference between an adverb and an adjective (it is not what you think!)
3. A common trap students face (including you) when using singular or plural verbs
4. A little-known technique that will improve your grammar fast
I sincerely hope that you will get the most out of these tips to improve your grammar fast.
They were vital in helping me to understand grammar more deeply as I studied more
advanced grammar concepts.
You may wonder why you are learning such basic grammar concepts, as you think to yourself,
“I know what a sentence, adjective, and adverb are”. But do you really know?
Yet we are expected to know all these basics, when we are actually relying on our intuition to
know if a sentence or phrase is grammatically correct.
But our intuition is not very reliable. So why not rely on a solid understanding of grammar
instead?
Knowing these fundamentals will help you understand deeply how English grammar works,
giving you the flexibility to write beautiful sentences without fear of getting them wrong
grammatically.
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You write better. Your essays improve. You get better grades in English. You achieve the goals
you want.
All these are possible when you have a solid grasp of grammar.
If you don’t improve your grammar, you will continue feeling frustrated and confused when
you write. You will continue to avoid writing. And you will continue to have poor English
grades.
But fret not, these 4 tips that you’re learning will start your journey towards better grammar,
fast!
5
My Story Of Failing And Learning Grammar
I was brought up from young thinking that grammar is hard. In primary school, I did lots of
grammar exercises and memorized grammar rules.
I thought doing those would help me ace my English exams. Indeed, I did well in my primary
school exams.
But ever since I entered secondary school, I felt lost. I got B to C grades for my essays.
When I read my essays, I could feel that a few of the sentences I wrote were wrong, but I
could not pinpoint what those mistakes were.
By then I hated memorizing those complicated rules about ‘proper English expressions’.
In an important English exam, I got a D. From that moment, I accepted that it was a clear sign
I would never be good at English.
I completed my first 2 years of university writing essays filled with grammar errors, which my
tutors tirelessly corrected.
I still did not know exactly if most of the sentences I wrote were grammatically correct.
Sometimes they looked correct, but they were wrong. Other times, they seemed wrong, but
were actually correct.
I felt inadequate about my level of English and resigned to that fate.
But in the middle of my university years, I chanced upon an obscure grammar-learning

technique that was no longer taught in school after the 1960s.
I learnt and practised it for a couple of months. I had fun with it too!
6
The best of all, I could finally understand how the English language work at a deep level. I
could pinpoint exactly what was grammatically wrong about the sentences I wrote in essays.
My essay scores improved. My teachers marked me with fewer grammar mistakes as well.
In my final year thesis, I got an A, which was given only to the top 10% of students. It was a
rare feat accomplished, in no small part, by better writing.
From this experience, I realized I was being lied to the entire time.
I thought learning grammar should be difficult.
I thought I need to memorize a whole bunch of rules to communicate in English properly.
I thought being good at English demands lots of hard work and many years of practice.
All these are MYTHS. There is a simpler and much more effective way to master English
grammar.
Now, I want to teach you 4 essential ways to improve your grammar.
Let’s get into it right now!
7
1—Know What A Sentence Really Is
What is a sentence?
Once you understand what a sentence is, you will never make the mistake of writing
incomplete sentences when you don’t mean to ever again.
Or you can choose to deliberately break the rules so that you can create a stylistic effect.
What is a sentence? Well, a sentence is a statement that contains a subject, which is a noun,
and a verb. With a few exceptions, every sentence must have a subject and a verb.
But let me pause a bit here and explain what a subject is. A subject is the doer of an action, or
a person, place, or things that is being discussed.
Examples of a sentence:
John (noun) runs (verb) in the park every day.
By then, Mary (noun) was (verb) a teenager.
As you can see, a sentence contains a subject and a verb.
Remember this when you are checking if something you wrote is a sentence or not.
Exception: Imperative sentence
One exception is the imperative sentence (e.g. “Go to this place”), where no subject can be
found.
In this case, the subject is implied. The sentence “Go to this place” actually means “(You) go to
this place”.
8
Exception: Interjection
An interjection is a sudden remark that reveals a feeling or reaction at the moment.
It is neither a part of a sentence, nor a sentence on its own. But it stands alone like a sentence.
These are a few examples of interjections.

Stop!
No way!
Wow!
Interjections are more often said than written. They most often appear in dialogues and
informal communication. They are rarely used (if at all) in formal essays.
Bonus: What is a phrase?
In contrast, a phrase contains only a subject, a verb, or neither subject nor verb. Just
remember, if a statement that is at least 2 words long is not a sentence, it is a phrase.
When you need to know if you have written complete sentences in your essays, check if each
of your sentences contains a subject (or implied subject) and a verb.
Simple? Do keep in mind what a phrase is, because it is important in understanding grammar
in a deeper level as well.
9
2—Learn The Difference Between An Adverb And

Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a noun.
An adverb is a word that describes a verb (remember ad-verb), adjective, and other adverbs.
Contrary to what you may think, an adverb is not any word that ends with -ly!
An adjective describes a noun only, while an adverb describes a word that’s not a noun!
So this is the difference between an adjective and an adverb.
Adjective in a sentence
Here is an example of an adjective in a sentence.
Jane is a clever girl.
Clever is an adjective. Notice that the adjective must be placed next to the noun for the
sentence to make sense.
However, an adjective may be placed near the noun if other adjectives have taken all the
available spots.
Let’s look at another example.
Jane is a young clever girl.
Young is an adjective describing the noun girl, but another adjective clever is already beside
the noun, so young takes the next best spot, beside clever.
10
Note: There is another exception to this placement rule. For example, in the sentence “The
dress is beautiful”, the adjective beautiful is not beside the noun dress, which it is describing.
Instead, the sentence implies that the dress is ‘equal’ to beautiful.
Adverb in a sentence
Now, let’s look at an example of an adverb in a sentence.
Tom is a really capable person.
Really is an adverb. It is describing the adjective capable. From what we learn from the
sentence, Tom is not just capable; he is “really capable”.
Also notice that an adverb is placed beside the adjective when it is describing that adjective.
Similarly, an adverb that describes another adverb is placed beside that adverb.
But if the adverb describes a verb, things differ.
Let’s look at this sentence below.
Tom really is a capable person.
The adverb really is describing Tom’s state of being, represented by the verb is.
Also notice from the sentences below that the adverb can generally be placed at any part of
the sentence if it describes the verb.
Really, Tom is a capable person.

Tom is really a capable person.
Tom is a capable person really.
11
Still, note that this is not always the case.
By default, if it is obvious that an adverb is not describing an adjective or adverb, then it is

‘describing’ the verb.
In other words, the adverb is describing the verb if it doesn’t seem to be describing anything
else.
Why know this?
Once you find out (from a dictionary) if a word is an adjective or adverb, you will be able to
place this word in a sentence correctly.
You will know to only use an adjective when describing a noun, and place it beside this noun.
You will also know to use an adverb when describing an adjective or adverb, and place it
beside the described word.
Finally, you will know to use an adverb when describing a verb. Sometimes, with the freedom
to put an adverb in multiple suitable places in a sentence when describing a verb, you will be
able to choose the most optimal one.
12
3—Learn A Common Trap That You May Face When Using

Plural Or Singular Verbs
This common trap has to do with a concept called prepositional phrase.
Let’s start with learning what a preposition is.
You might have heard that preposition is a word that gives direction or something.
You are not far off.
A preposition is a word that tells you the relationship between words or phrases, usually in
the form of time and space.
Examples of prepositions include to, from, of, in, and at.
Prepositional phrase
A prepositional phrase contains both the preposition and an object (a noun) that usually
comes after this preposition.
Examples include at (preposition) home (object of the preposition), in New Zealand, from the
afternoon.
Prepositional phrase and plural/singular verb
Now, let’s look at this sentence.
This truck with eight wheels travel speedily.
13
Now let me ask you. Which is correct in the sentence above, travel or travels?
We’ve to find out what travel refers to, the truck or the wheels.
If you think that the sentence above is grammatically correct, then you are tricked by the word
wheels.
Instead, match the verb travel with the singular subject truck at the start of the sentence! The
noun wheels just before travel is an object of the preposition (“with eight wheels” is a
prepositional phrase), not a subject.
This is the correct sentence.
This truck with eight wheels travels speedily.
Remember, don’t get tricked by the plural or singular noun just before the verb; look at the
subject instead!
Here’s another example.
Many people in the park under the cheerful sunny weather is enjoying the concert performance.
Do you see if there’s anything wrong?
If you say yes, then you are correct!
There’s something wrong. The verb is is pointing to the subject ”Many people”, not the word
weather!
There are 2 prepositional phrases, “in the park” and “under the cheerful sunny weather”.
Weather is the object of the preposition for “under the cheerful sunny weather”.
14
Here is the correct sentence.
Many people in the park under the cheerful sunny weather are enjoying the concert
performance.
This knowledge is worth its weight in gold, don’t you agree?
15
4—Learn Sentence Diagramming!
Let me introduce you a powerful technique that will speed up your understanding of grammar
and sentence structure fast.
Wait for it… It’s sentence diagramming!
What is it? Basically, you draw grammatical relationships between words in a sentence. This
allows you to understand grammar using the power of pictures. After all, a picture speaks a
thousand words!
This is the secret technique that improved my grammar and writing dramatically during
university, after I learnt and practised it.
This is how a sentence diagram looks like.
“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King
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It may look complicated now, but representing grammar concepts with a picture is much
simpler and more fun than learning technical definitions and memorizing them.
If you want to improve your grammar and writing significantly in the fastest way possible,
consider learning sentence diagramming and other writing secrets from my guidebook: 30
Days to Great Grammar and Writing.
17
Afterword
Thank you for reading this guidebook 4 Ways to Improve Your Grammar Fast!
I hope that learning these 4 ways to improve your grammar helps you in your journey to
master English grammar and writing.
I sincerely wish you the best in all your writing and grammar-related endeavours. :)
If you have any questions related to this guidebook, please feel free to email me at
lee@smoothwriter.com.
P.S. If you are interested in a comprehensive step-by-step programme to improve your

grammar and writing, consider getting my new guidebook: 30 Days to Great Grammar and
Writing. For a limited time, you get a bonus 2-month email consultation with me, where you
can ask me any grammar-related questions!
18

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4 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GRAMMAR FAST

Copyright © 2019 by Lee Y. H.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

What This Guidebook Will Do For You....................................................................................4

My Story Of Failing And Learning Grammar...........................................................................6

1—Know What A Sentence Really Is........................................................................................ 8

2—Learn The Difference Between An Adverb And Adjective.............................................10

4—Learn Sentence Diagramming!.........................................................................................16

What This Guidebook Will Do For You

You will learn:

My Story Of Failing And Learning Grammar

I felt inadequate about my level of English and resigned to that fate.

But in the middle of my university years, I chanced upon an obscure grammar-learning

I thought learning grammar should be difficult.

I thought I need to memorize a whole bunch of rules to communicate in English properly.

Now, I want to teach you 4 essential ways to improve your grammar.

Let’s get into it right now!

1—Know What A Sentence Really Is

As you can see, a sentence contains a subject and a verb.

Exception: Imperative sentence

An interjection is a sudden remark that reveals a feeling or reaction at the moment.

These are a few examples of interjections.

Bonus: What is a phrase?

2—Learn The Difference Between An Adverb And

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

So this is the difference between an adjective and an adverb.

Here is an example of an adjective in a sentence.

Jane is a clever girl.

Let’s look at another example.

Jane is a young clever girl.

Now, let’s look at an example of an adverb in a sentence.

Tom is a really capable person.

But if the adverb describes a verb, things differ.

Let’s look at this sentence below.

Tom really is a capable person.

Really, Tom is a capable person.

Still, note that this is not always the case.

By default, if it is obvious that an adverb is not describing an adjective or adverb, then it is

Why know this?

3—Learn A Common Trap That You May Face When Using

This common trap has to do with a concept called prepositional phrase.

Let’s start with learning what a preposition is.

You are not far off.

Examples of prepositions include to, from, of, in, and at.

Prepositional phrase and plural/singular verb

Now, let’s look at this sentence.

This truck with eight wheels travel speedily.

This is the correct sentence.

This truck with eight wheels travels speedily.

Here’s another example.

Do you see if there’s anything wrong?

If you say yes, then you are correct!

Here is the correct sentence.

This knowledge is worth its weight in gold, don’t you agree?

4—Learn Sentence Diagramming!

Wait for it… It’s sentence diagramming!

This is how a sentence diagram looks like.

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” — Stephen King

P.S. If you are interested in a comprehensive step-by-step programme to improve your

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