To perfect any language, English or otherwise, you need to know the rules. Rules can seem boring, and structure can seem rigid – so grammar can get a bad name. Don’t think this way, though. Grammar can be engaging, even exciting – as long as you remember why it is important, and consider what good grammar can do. And the problems bad grammar can cause. These 5 points will (hopefully!) help keep you interested in grammar:

1. Accuracy leads to more use

Clumsy grammar can be understood, but accurate grammar leads to more opportunities for discussion – that is, more opportunity to engage with native speakers. Consider this dialogue:

• A: Hello, pleased to tell me where the bank is?
• B: Excuse me?
• A: The bank?
• B: Oh, it’s that way…

This kind of conversation is unlikely to continue. Not comfortably, anyway. With clear grammar, it’s easier to keep going:

• A: Hello, please can you tell me where the bank is?
• B: Of course, it’s that way. And where are you from?

A fluid conversation can lead to further help and information, possible friendship or even love. Be it for conversation, or just to get a simple answer when asking for information, good grammar helps.

2. Mistakes can kill

Making mistakes with grammar can lead to completely incorrect meanings. Sometimes the differences are subtle, and errors are forgiveable. Sometimes it can cause serious problems. Even deadly problems. Consider this simple difference in tenses:

• I have a nut allergy.
• I had a nut allergy.

Believing your allergy is over, in the past simple, someone may think it is no longer a problem and put you at risk.

3. Vocabulary is for details; grammar is a tool

Learning vocabulary is great for expanding your range of English. It helps you describe things specifically.

• This is a grand old red brick house.

With four adjectives, here, you have a nice description – as long as you are describing grand, old, red and brick things.

• A nice red chair.
• A grand brick barbecue.

Different descriptive words are not enough to tell a different story though – grammar gives you structures for flexible times and events, even with a limited vocabulary. With four verb forms, you can describe completely different ideas.

• I build houses.
• I was building a house.
• I have been building a house.
• I will have built the house.

Each of these (reasonably!) simple sentences tells a different story.

4. Grammar rules can make life simpler

Learning various grammar structures makes it possible to explain things in simpler terms. This may be to show imagined time, specific sequences of events, or connected events. With grammar rules, extra information can be demonstrated without extra words. For example, using the present perfect to say “I have already eaten” explains that you no longer need to eat; in simple tenses, you would have to explain “I am not hungry, I ate before.”

5. When you know the rules, you can bend them

Native English speakers do not stick to the rules of grammar. You will hear many variations, and flexible uses, of specific grammar points – as simple as using two tenses, I have been running and I ran here, to describe the same event. This can add a lot of variety to the language, and make life easier. But before you can bend the rules, you have to fully understand them.