Report based on Martin Parrot’s book, Grammar for English Language Teachers,

Second Edition, Cambridge University Press.

WORDS

I. NOUNS

A learner may have problems about the grammar part of a word rather than with the
meaning of it. P.9.
The learner need to know to distinguish between a countable and an uncountable noun.
In addition, they need to be able to use nouns to modify other nouns and to build a possessive
form. p. 10
One more thing is that some words can be countable with a meaning and uncountable
with other meaning as wood, countable as in We got lost in a wood. and uncountable as in
Wood burns more easily than coal. P.11
Another problem that a learner might encounter is related to the regular and irregular
plural form. The more problematic is the person-people. p. 12
Therefore, the problem can be to remember which form is singular and which is
plural. Encouraging learners to use a dictionary to check and learn plural spelling and
pronunciation of words that they come across can solve that problem. p. 13.
Collective nouns are problematic because learners used to associate those with a
plural form. p. 14
Related to using nouns to modify nouns, learns have to check a dictionary to know
when they come separately (-) and when they are written together. P. 15
The possessive form of nouns create some difficulties, especially when the word is in
a plural form and it is end with a s that is also use to form the possessive. P.16

II. ARTICLES

Many languages have no articles system and learners who speak one of those find this
grammatical structure difficult to understand. P. 25
Learners who listen to a lot of spoken English more than read won’t understand how
the articles system function. If an article is missing from a sentence, it does not affect the
meaning of it. We as teachers can help learners by drawing attention to their functions in
materials they use. p. 25
A missing article in speaking do not affect the communication but if this mistake is
constant in writing, the reader will have problems to understand the message.
Learners can miss an article from a idiomatic or a fixed expression. For avoiding this
to happen, it can be learn as an item of vocabulary. P. 26
Learners make mistakes when they barrow from their own language the article system
or when they do not internalized the rule of using articles.
A mistake can also be that when learners have to add an indefinite article and the word
begin with h with a sound that is consonants. P 31

III. QUANTIFIERS

If a learner do not observe a quantifier can lead to misunderstanding. It quite easy for
learners to understand the meaning of quantifiers but it is difficult to remember the
grammatical restriction that they can have. p. p.36
Learners do not pay attention sometimes to the quantifiers as some and any and they
can miss it from a structure. p. 36
A confusion is common is that made by European speakers that may use another in
place of other. E.g. and another spots. Speakers of non-European languages tend to do the
opposite.
Learners tend to use any in affirmative sentences or they use more than one quantifier
together or a quantifier next to an article.
Pronunciation of some and any can damaging misunderstandings about attitude. M.
Parrot gives the fallowing example: in the sentence, I’ve got SOME time to spare. –the stress
is on SAME and that means that the speaker found hardly that time. In the second sentence,
Do you have ANY time? ANY in this structure means that the speaker ask for time.
However, learners with elementary level of English learn to use some in structure as I
have some..., there is/there are…, and they learn to use it as a subject Some people come to
see you. Learners learn about any that it can be use in questions and negative structure as a
negation of some.
 Much and many are sometimes use wrong because in the struggle with the countable
and uncountable nouns they forget about checking if the sentence is affirmative.
There are problems about singular-plural confusion when learners use plural nouns
after each and every. Moreover, the learners sometimes use a singular verb form with the
structure a lot of: A lot of animals is becoming extinct.
The final problem that M. Parrot mentions is that learners use all as a pronoun instead
of everybody, everyone, everything.

IV. ADJECTIVES

The problems that a learner can have related to adjectives are to put two or more
adjectives that occur together, grades of comparison, the structural order. p. 51.
A problem that learners may confront with is that referring to the adjectives that can
only come before a noun as entire.
The learners cannot understand the origin of an adjective because they are come from
verbs and nouns in general. p. 51
The difficulty for learners can be the comparative and superlative forms. First, they
have to distinguish between a short and a long word. After that they need to know the
irregular adjectives. p. 53

The place of an adjective in a sentence is also tricky because it come in two ways for
example before a noun and after a noun or pronoun or verb. p. 53
The big problem is that of the order of the adjectives (size, shape, color, origin,
material, use). p. 54
The learners can miss the punctuation. The come is use when the adjectives are before
the noun and the conjunction and is use to link to adjectives that come after noun, pronoun
and verb. pp. 54-55.
Furthermore, gradable and ungradable adjectives can be an abstract thing for
learners. They have to know about intensifiers and about downtoners and then can say if an
adjective is gradable or not. p. 56

V. ADVERBS

The main problem is that some adjective can be confused with the adverb. p. 63.
 Another problem is that related to position of the adverb in a sentence, it can stand
after a verb if it describe the verb or can be flexible if they are adverbs of time and place. p.
64
Sentence position can also be a difficulty.
The adverb of manner comes at the end of a clause but it can come in various places
according with what we want to emphasize.
Example:

a. After a subject: You spoke convincingly.

b. After an object: You described everything convincingly.
c. After an adverbial: You described everything to the board convincingly.
d. Before a subject: Carefully, she put it on the shelf.
e. Before a verb: She carefully put it on the shelf.
f. Before an object and an adverbial: She put it carefully on the shelf. P. 65

There are adverbs of frequency that indicate how often something happen and the
problem with those kind of adverbs is that can occur more than one position in a sentence as
the manner adverbs do. P. 66
Another difficulty is that when learners found a structure with two auxiliary verbs and
the do not know where to place it. The same problems is with the one-word form. p. 66.
The negative form of adverbs and word order can create some difficulties when the
adverb has itself negative sense as never, rarely, seldom. p. 67.
Special adverb as already, still and yet can be a difficulty just based on the context
meaning as in the fallowing example: the difference between fallowing sentences Is she here?
, Is she still here? , Is she here yet? , Is she here already? Is that still express that she might
leave before now, yet express that we know that she is supposed to com but I don’t know if
she arrived and already means that she arrived earlier than we expected. P. 68 In this cases the
intonation means very much because it can have a good connotation or not.
ADVERBS OF DEGREE
A learner have to distinguish between an intensifier and a downtoners or a
mitigators and to know what they want to express with it.
Moreover, they have to know that the intensifiers are used with gradable nouns. P. 70
 VI. COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

Some learners can found comparatives and superlatives forms awkward to grasp
because in many languages, those do not exist or they are not distinguishable. p. 79.
Comparatives are adjectives and adverb that are end in –er and the superlatives are
adjectives and adverbs that are end in –est. But learners need to learn not only should learn
not only when to use those forms but also when those should not be used. p. 79
Learners may have a problem with the adjectives and adverbs that have one syllable
and are associated with more and most as burnt, drunk, lost etc. p. 80
Learners have to know that some two-syllabus adjective and adverbs are accepted
both forms, either more/most or er/est. p. 80
The big difficulty for learners is that of irregular comparative and superlative forms as
good, well, bad etc. p. 81
When learners use an expression of quantity they have to know that
more/most/fewer/fewest are use with a noun. They might be wrong if they correlate with
adjectives and adverbs. P.81
The pronunciation can cause the problem at the level of the final consonant sound as
in bigger. Learners should pay attention to pronounce the sounds in a weak form. p. 82.
We as teachers should draw the attention on choosing the comparatives and the
superlatives. Moreover, we have to draw the attention to the context in which the students
have to use those forms and to ask questions about context focus on meaning. P. 85
Another problem that learners can meet with is that of using the before a comparatives
or a superlatives. p. 87
Learner have to distinguish between expressions in which the article is use as in do
your best and the structure that show a manner.

VII. PREPOSITIONS

Learners are afraid of propositions because there are so many prepositions in English
and they cannot associate each preposition with other preposition in their mother tongue and
one more thing is that sometimes the choosing of a preposition have nothing to do with the
meaning (p. 94but the mistakes in using prepositions do not affect the communication. p. 95.
 For teaching preposition, we as teacher have to use dictionary and to teach them based
on long sentences rather than using them as simple words and related with a verb, a noun, an
adjective. p. 92
A difficulty can be the using of prepositions in questions when they usually come at
the end. P. 95
Prepositions as at, to, in, into, on are frequently confused by learners because their
first language can affect the use of it. As in Portuguese and Spanish make no necessary
distinction on and in. p. 96
We can use diagrams to express the meaning of the prepositions and to associate the
preposition with the verb in can precede as go is normally fallowed by to or into. P. 96
A multi-meaning proposition can create some difficulties for learners because those
propositions can express more than one sense by that can express the meaning of near/along,
on or before. P.97
Moreover, after many adjectives, nouns and verb is use a particular preposition and
those are called dependent prepositions. An example of this of dependent prepositions that
learners can find difficult is to in expressions as look forward to, used to, etc. p97
The idiomatic prepositions phrases can also be a difficult for the speaker that are not
native and the learners have to learn those expressions as complete expressions, which include
prepositions. P. 98.
Some propositions can be use with the same meaning as Came and see me in/during
the weekend. P. 98
Another situation is that in which some propositions are used in formal or informal
context as till/until. P. 98

VIII. VERBS (INTRODUCTION)

Learners need to understand how a verb function in order to use tenses correct and in
order to use other basic constituents in the right order. P. 106.
Questions are a difficulty for learners before they are understand the rules of verb
position. Another problem can be distinction between modal verbs and main verbs because
many languages do not have any tenses and they do not use auxiliary verb in forming them. P.
106
 If the learner is not English, native speaker he may do not understand that in each
sentence should exist a verb that fallows the subject and precedes everything else. P. 107
When we teach main verbs, we have to say that it does not need a complementation
for its meaning and that it offer the meaning of a verb phrase. P.107
A confusion can be am and are even though they are forms of the same verb be.
Learners may confuse and form disagreement between subject and verb. p. 107
Main verbs can describe events and states. Those are also called dynamic and some of
them cannot be use in a continuous tense. P. 108
e.g.: I broke the nozzle.
Why aren’t you eating?
Some verbs can be both events and states as smell and have. As state verbs we use
them to describe and as event verbs we use them in a wide range or form. p.108
Learner can miss out the explanation for the verbs that need it, as verb as kill that need
an object and feel that need a complement. P.109
In addition, in opposition with those kind of verbs we can have verbs that cannot be
followed by an abject or a complement as slip and talk. P. 109
Auxiliary verbs are used to form tenses and we as teachers have to make clear for
learners that the same verb can act as an auxiliary and as a main verb. p.110
Furthermore, to formulate questions and for negate sentences can be a difficulty for
learners because they have to know which an auxiliary is and which is a main verb and the
order they might be put. P. 111
In addition, they have to know how to emphasis and contrast auxiliary. P. 111
In relation with the tenses, learners may have a problem with use of it and with the
meaning of them. Moreover, the main problem is that of irregular verbs that have to be learn
by heart. P. 113
Learners can also have a problem with the question tags that is based on knowledge
about tenses and affirmative and negative sentences. This grammatical part is hard to
understand by learners and have to be introduced little by little by teachers. P. 115
At the level of pronunciation, learners may have problems with the past tenses
pronunciation. P. 116

IX. COMBINING WORDS

 Idiomatic expressions can cause some problems to the learners because those do not
allow any change of the items and that mean that learner have to learn as individual ‘chunks’
of languages. P. 125
Collocation may be a difficulty just if the learner do not distinguish between a noun,
an adjective etc. because it is represent the pattern of a grammatical structure. P125
Multi-words expression can cause a difficulty just if the expression contain in
prepositions. P. 126
The confusion related to frame is that it can be confused with an idiomatic structure.
p. 127