To not want to be called "thick"

[WickedEmoji]

I am quite annoyed. DS's who are teens at the stage where they are always right and know everything just called me thick because I didnt know some obscure grammar that is now taught to year 6.

I am of the generation that was never formally taught grammar at school. I acheived all A and B grades, went to uni, had a career and achieved managerial status. All without knowing what a subjunctive clause, adjective noun phrase or whatever they are calling them, are.

Children use grammar, such as the use of I, me, you, we, with out knowing the technical terms of subject and object case or first person or second person perspectives.

A lot of the angst about teaching grammar is about the notion that if a child learns the technical terms it will improve their language use. It doesn't, as a general rule. (And on rules, there are things like bever start a sentence with never, I before e, which always have "exceptions") Generally language comes from immersion.

There are writing techniques that need to be taught, absolutely, but writing is more "artificial" than speech as you do not have the tone and body language context to draw on.

Language is not a recipe and its usage changes. The ability to communicate is more important than being able to name the technical term of the sentence type you just wrote.

So AIBU to be annoyed that I am considered "thick" because I do not know the technical terms?

(And yes, I have probably made grammatical errors in this post, and will have pedants pick them up, but I feel I have been fairly clear -as is the point if communication- so engaging in my grammar mistakes rather than the discussion says more about them than me)

@SneakAttackDamage

Just because you didn't learn the names of these things in school doesn't mean you can't learn them now. I find it really sad that so many people think that learning stops when they finish their mandatory education.

Set an example for your kids. Admit you don't know the technical terms for specificpartsof English grammar, even mention that it was not a topic taught when you were in school, but most importantly - go and look them up.

It's unlikelyproper grammar is going to cease being taught in school any time soon.If it makes you feel bad that a whole generation, starting with your kids, is soon going to be more educated than you, do something about it.

Not knowing what a fronted adverbial is doesn’t make you thick, and OP doesn’t need to learn obscure bits of English grammar terminology in order to be treated with respect by her own children.

If she wants to learn it, fine, and if it is irrelevant to her daily life and she has better things to do, that is also fine. Her children need to speak to her politely either way.

Your children are incredibly rude, but one of the reasons a good knowledge of grammar is important is to learn second languages. I went to a secondary school where lots of the pupils didn't know what a noun or verb was, let alone SVO order or subjunctive clauses, various tenses etc. It makes it harder to learn the system of another language, you only learn to repeat things/set phrases which means you can never speak creatively or fluidly in the second language. I always found other languages very easy because I was lucky to have very good primary teaching, however that doesn't mean my grammar is always perfect, it's ok to be casual in conversation!

@WickedEmoji

And to make it worse, when I was explaining why i was annoyed, i was told I was given a right of reply, but my reply was "invalid"

The issue is your rude kid, not your 'ignorance ' of the rules of grammar.

(Which are quite important/useful actually. Nouns, adjectives, verbs are all 'technical ' terms and I assume you know them)

@irregularegular

Which generation is it who weren’t taught grammar at school? I was, my parents were and my 11 year old is being taught it. When did they take a break?

I was taught about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs at primary school. That was about it! I've picked up a bit more since then through learning foreign languages (eg object v subject) but not much!

I was born in 1971.

My DC born in early 80s. Not taught then

Mmm my knowledge of grammar from school was verbs and nouns and adjectives but not subjunctive clauses etc etc and I managed a modern languages degree in 2 languages and lived abroad!
The subjunctive clauses and all other things never came into it

@IdblowJonSnow

I've got a degree in English Literature but know very few grammatical terms. My 6 year old asks me questions I don't know the answers to!

So do you not look them up?

Most of us "know" the rules, in that then they are not used properly you "know" something is wrong, but the lack of explicit teaching of them means we struggle to explain why. My dc's SPAG homework looks like a foreign language on the surface and then as soon as I read the explanations I think, oh, right, yes, I know that rule, I just didn't know how to describe it.

I wonder what we were taught that they aren't?

*in that when

NannyOgg: My DC born in early 80s. Not taught then
..........
Mine started school in 1983 and was definitely taught very good grammar.

Totally agree with @RedMarauder
We were only taught basic grammar in secondary school, still got A's in English Language and Literature. I also studied French and German and got A's so really didn't affect my learning.
Probably knew more about grammar in those than I did in English

I think it depends on the school and on individual teachers.