An ELT Glossary Prescriptive grammar and Descriptive grammar



  • Definition : Prescriptive grammar refers to grammatical rules based on someone’s idea of how the language should be used.

  • Example : “You should never end a sentence with a preposition”; "You should never split an infinitive"; "You should never use a double negative".

  • This contrasts with descriptive grammar which looks at real instances of how the language is used, and formulates rules based on those.


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