Question for the over 65s!

[lightlights]

Not an AIBU exactly, but I have been having this discussion with someone. When you were at school, did you learn all verbs, all tenses, by rote, for example:
I am
You are
He/she is
We are
You are
They are

Schools stopped teaching grammar in the 70s apparently and some grammar teaching re-started sometime in the 90s, but before the 70s formal and strict grammar was taught, is that right?
Thank you!

I have another question about the conditional tense. I was taught the conjugated conditional present and past, so would vs would have for example, in the 1980s. Is this how you were taught?

I have googled and found references to the zero conditional, first conditional, second conditional etc. I am pretty certain we were not taught verbs in this way. Were you taught like this? Is this how it is taught in school in English speaking countries now, or is this just how it is taught to people learning English as a second language?

All the sources I found online were to do with teaching English as a second language. I couldn't find references to learning the conditional at all in websites relating to the national curriculum in years reception to 13 which I am quite confused about - is it not taught in schools at all in those years does anyone know?

Thank you!

I went to a grammar school from 1968 to 1975. I wasn’t taught any formal grammar lessons. At primary, we learnt our times tables by rote and I have never forgotten them. I remember learning about verbs, nouns and adjectives at primary school but no recollection of anything else.

I am now helping a year 6 girl with practice stats English and am amazed at what they are expected to know. Google helps, but some things are so difficult to work out and explain to her. I think a lot of my knowledge is just instinctive to be honest.

I was never very good at French but only took CSE. My younger siblings have a good knowledge, probably because they studied languages to A level.

I remember learning about verbs, nouns and adjectives at primary school but no recollection of anything else.
Exactly the same. Some of the grammar rules my children had to know were like a foreign language to me (I left a selective private school in 1981).

I went to a grammar school from 1968 to 1975. I wasn’t taught any formal grammar lessons. At primary, we learnt our times tables by rote and I have never forgotten them. I remember learning about verbs, nouns and adjectives at primary school but no recollection of anything else.

Me too. My dates were 1964 to 1971. Using grammar correctly was the important thing.

I went to school from about 83 to 94.
We did nouns, verbs and adjectives. We also did full stops and commas.

In french I did all the rote learning of verbs by tense.

I'm 69 and it was like this. We didn't learn English grammar in lists but it was part of everything we did - essays in History , Geography etc had to be grammatically correct.

A lot of people learnt Latin verbs etc in lists but my Latin teacher was very modern and we wrote funny stories.

Born in 1966 and no, not taught tenses by rote. A lot of emphasis on spelling, handwriting and creative writing.
Times tables by wrote-absolutely terrifying teacher at junior school who threw a wooden board duster at your head if you made a mistake-I kid you not!

I am 68 and was never taught formal grammar at school. My grandchildren do much more grammar at school than I did. They use grammatical terms that I've never heard of. And they are still at primary school.

We didn't learn much more than verbs, nouns, adjectives at Primary school - no 'fronted adverbials' - but we did a lot of parsing sentences at secondary which involved separating classes and sub clauses in sentences, identifying subject and predicate etc. I've forgotten most of the terminology now.

69 and we had English grammar lessons - all I can recall from that is parsing sentences i.e subject and object. We didn't learn English grammar by rote but French definitely - we used to chant the verbs in class then have a quick fire with the teacher going round the room asking you first person present of etre? third person plural past tense suivre?

no, not for English grammar, as there really is very little. Only for grammar in other languages, German, Latin, etc.

It isn't necessary in English, having so few verb endings, and no future tense, etc.

The English grammar taught in primary schools now is a stupid, unnecessary waste of everyone's time

I was taught how to parse sentences and how to identify word classes, verb tenses etc. It has actually stood me in good stead, and I enjoyed doing it at the time.

I'm 75 and we were taught English Grammar and English Literature as separate subjects at school (late 50s/60s).

I'm 65 and yes was taught that way.

I'm 66 and had very formal and frequent grammar lessons at primary school. When I started at my grammar school, we still had formal grammar lessons in English for the first couple of years, as well as for French and Latin. I learnt all of my times tables at my infant school and then when I went to junior school, I found it difficult because I had been taught to say them the other way round to the way most schools taught them. Things like fronted adverbials and some of the other strange terms hadn't been made up in those days😆😆

Same

Like many posters, I wasn't taught English grammar as a topic beyond the obvious. All the grammar came via French, Latin and German. But every piece of written work submitted would correct grammatical errors, regardless of subject.

What is a fronted adverbial BTW? No, don't bother: I Googled it!

I'm 66 this year and this was exactly my experience, too.

Yes, most of it is useless and taught in far too great a quantity and much too early, It means very little to the children and doesn't stick.

As an aside: I remember blithely telling our nicest, most approachable tutor on my English degree course during a tutorial discussion on tenses , (a lovely Brummie guy - totally unlike all the super posh upper class types elsewhere in the department), that we didn’t have the subjunctive in English, only in Latin.

He actually put his head in his hands and theatrically groaned at the stupidity of the younger generation!