跟读练习: 3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore - Arika Okrent - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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In 1954, Winston Cigarettes launched an ad so controversial broadcasters refused to say it on the air.
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34 句
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In 1954, Winston Cigarettes launched an ad so controversial broadcasters refused to say it on the air.
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But the uproar had nothing to do with the dangerous product being advertised— people were appalled by the ad’s grammar.
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Specifically, using “like” as a conjunction instead of “as.” Grammatical incidents like this have caused outrage in various regions and languages for centuries.
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But while we know people take grammar seriously, what’s less clear is, why?
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Where do these seemingly random rules come from?
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And which, if any, actually matter?
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The answers to these questions vary from rule to rule, so let’s look at three particularly famous English examples.
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First up, the idea that you should never end a sentence with a preposition.
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Prepositions are small, common words like with, on, for, or to, that often come before nouns.
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So, for example, a grammar stickler would consider “where does this rule come from?” incorrect, preferring instead, “from where does this rule come?” This rule comes from 18th century England, when etiquette was all the rage.
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And amidst countless guides on how to act properly, grammarians flooded the market with books on how to speak properly.
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Many of the rules in these guides were taken from Latin— a language that was commonly used for written scholarship.
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But no one had spoken Latin conversationally in 1,000 years, and imposing its rules on speech was awkward to say the least.
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The rule to never strand a preposition without a noun was one such revived relic.
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And while the scholars who proposed it presented the idea as a stylistic choice, subsequent writers turned their suggestion into a hard rule.
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Other rules have origins that are perhaps less arbitrary, but significantly more petty.
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Consider the idea that you should use “fewer” when referring to countable nouns— like water bottles— and “less” when referring to nouns we don’t count— like water.
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This rule comes from another 18th century grammarian called Robert Baker, who, for reasons unknown, believed “less” was inelegant when used with countable nouns.
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This might seem strange, but people today wage similar wars on so-called lesser language, such as “like” or “literally.” Besides, Baker's preference was part of a larger craze for codifying English.
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For centuries after the Norman Conquest in 1066, French was the language of nobility in England, while English was seen as the language of commoners.
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While the English had long reclaimed their kingdom by Baker’s time, this insecurity lingered in the hearts of many English grammarians.
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In fact, Baker also wanted King George to establish an Academy of Letters with 50 officials to protect the English language.
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That’s ten more officials than were employed in France’s grammar guard— L’Académie Française.
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Many English grammar rules have similarly silly origins, such as efforts to distinguish “over” from “more than,” or our attachment to Latin plurals like fungi and formulae.
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The stakes of all these grammatical debates are mostly academic.
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But one frequently discussed rule does have some real-world consequences.
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For centuries, “they” has been used in classic literature and everyday speech as both a plural and a singular pronoun.
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And today, many non-binary and transgender individuals prefer to use “they/them” as singular pronouns to refer to themselves.
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19th century grammarians, however, believed that “they” should be an exclusively plural pronoun.
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Furthermore, in cases where “they” could be used as a singular pronoun, they argued the word should be swapped for the generic “he.” This was an obviously patriarchal decision, and during the 1970s, activists eventually convinced some usage guides to begin using “he or she.” But today, this quibble continues to cause confusion, even though most official grammar guides have accepted “they” as both a singular and plural pronoun.
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This isn’t the first time we’ve had this kind of pronoun predicament.
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For centuries, “you” was also considered an exclusively plural pronoun, and yet today it's completely accepted in singular situations.
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And that’s because grammar isn’t a hard science— it’s something we all build together to reflect the people using it.
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So however strange a rule's origins may be, the usage we choose to respect today is far from arbitrary.
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Shadowing English
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为什么通过这个视频练习口语？
在学习英语的过程中，口语表达是最重要的技能之一。本视频探讨了几个不再严格遵循的语法规则，帮助学习者了解现代英语的使用变化。通过观看并模仿视频内容，您可以提高英语发音技巧，感受如何在实际交流中灵活运用这些规则。使用shadow speech（影子说话）的方法来进行练习，可以让您在无意识中掌握语调和节奏，并增强自信。
语法与表达在语境中的运用
- 以介词结束句子: 视频提到，许多人认为不应该以介词结束句子。但是其实这种说法源于18世纪的传统，可以灵活对待。在实际交流中，像“Where does this rule come from?”这样的表达是完全可以接受的。
- 使用“fewer”和“less”: 根据视频，老旧的语法规则要求在谈论可数名词时使用“fewer”，而不可数名词时使用“less”。然而，现代英语使用中并不存在这样的严格限制，自信表达更为重要。
- 单复数代词的使用: 代词“they”可以同时作为单数和复数使用，这一变化反映了社会对语言的接受度。在练习时，您可以用“they/them”来指代任何性别，帮助自己适应多样化的交流方式。
常见发音陷阱
在该视频中，有一些可能会让学习者困惑的发音和口音。比如，句子中的连音（如“does this”变成“d’s this”）可能会影响理解。此外，提到的“grammatical incidents”中的“grammatical”和“incidents”发音可能对非母语者构成挑战。练习时，请注意这些句子的连贯性和流利度，将其作为您的shadow speak练习的一部分，帮助提高您的提高英语发音能力。
什么是跟读法？
跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。