Youtube Exercise » English Grammar Homework

B2-C1

3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

TED-Ed

20K views 2 weeks ago

Warm-up Questions

When you learn English, which grammar rules feel the most confusing or unnecessary?
Have you ever been corrected for your grammar in your language or in English? What happened?
From the title, which “grammar rules” do you think the video might argue are not necessary anymore?

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Start With: Word Definition

Order: Alphabetical Random

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3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

Why grammar rules cause outrage + rule 1: prepositions at the end (00:00 – 02:04)

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1. What was people’s main complaint about the 1954 cigarette advertisement?

It promoted a dangerous product
It used too much Latin
Its grammar used “like” in a controversial way
It was too expensive to broadcast

2. According to the speaker, the “no sentence-ending prepositions” rule became widespread because many rules were taken from ____.

Greek used by philosophers
French used by nobility
Modern American English
Latin used for written scholarship

3. How did later writers treat the original idea about prepositions?

They turned it into a strict rule
They rejected it completely
They limited it to poetry only
They kept it as an optional stylistic choice

3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

Rule 2: “fewer” vs “less” and the push to codify English (02:04 – 03:37)

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1. In the rule described, which word is said to be used with countable nouns (e.g., water bottles)?

More
Over
Less
Fewer

2. Why did Robert Baker prefer “fewer” over “less” with countable nouns?

He believed “less” was inelegant in that use
He wanted to copy French grammar
He thought “fewer” was older and therefore correct
He was following a rule from classic literature

3. What does the speaker say motivated many grammarians’ efforts to codify English?

A need to simplify English for children
A lingering insecurity about English’s status compared to French
A desire to make English more like Latin for science
A plan to replace English with French in schools

3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

Rule 3: singular “they,” real-world consequences, and how grammar changes (03:37 – 05:34)

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1. What is presented as having real-world consequences compared to other grammar debates?

Whether to distinguish “over” from “more than”
Whether to use Latin plurals like “fungi”
Rules about pronouns, especially singular “they”
Whether to end sentences with prepositions

2. What did 19th-century grammarians argue should replace singular “they” in some cases?

“You”
The generic “he”
“He or she”
“One”

3. Which example does the speaker use to show that a pronoun can change from plural-only to also singular?

It
They
We
You

3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

Transcript will load here…

1. What is the main point about where some grammar rules come from?

Rules are created mainly by modern dictionaries
Many rules began as social preferences and later became treated as strict rules
Most rules were discovered scientifically through experiments
All rules come directly from how people spoke in Old English

2. How does the video describe grammar overall?

Something people build together to reflect its users
A hard science with fixed laws
A set of rules that never changes
A system controlled entirely by academies

3. Which idea best matches the speaker’s stance on modern usage (like singular “they”)?

Usage should be ignored because only old rules matter
Only rules based on Latin are valid
Grammar debates are always pointless
Usage choices today can be meaningful even if a rule’s origins are strange

Discussion Questions

Discuss the ideas from this video

3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore – Arika Okrent

Which of the three grammar rules in the video do you think causes the most unnecessary judgment of other people’s language? Why?
Do you think schools should teach “rules” like sentence-ending prepositions and “fewer vs less” as strict rules or as style guidelines? Explain.
How should language authorities (teachers, editors, dictionaries) balance tradition with real-world usage?
In your language (or another language you know), is there a grammar rule people argue about a lot? What are the social reasons behind it?