Let’s look at the two different approaches to learning grammar.

Say you’ve just decided to learn a new language, Turkish. With the first approach, you would open a grammar book and encounter something like: 

“Turkish, unlike English, is an SOV language.” 

If you are an experienced language learner you might recognize that this refers to word order. The standard word order in Turkish is Subject – Object – Verb.
However, if you are new to learning languages, there’s a good chance that this won’t ring any bells.

Now let’s look at the second approach.

I give you a sentence in Turkish.

“Ben su içerim.“

If you ask me what this sentence means, I’ll give you the translation, “I drink water” 

You might ask me the meaning of the individual words, or you might simply accept that “Ben su içerim” in Turkish is equivalent to “I drink water” in English.

If you don’t ask anything I will just move on and give you another sentence.

“Ben bira içerim.“

This time you recognize that the only new word is ‘bira’, which is similar to ‘beer’ and you guess that the sentence means “I drink beer”.

Maybe you realize that you’ve already heard ‘ben’ and ‘içerim’ before. So you ask what they mean and I tell you that ‘ben’ means ‘I’ and ‘içerim’ means ‘I drink’.

As your brain starts to process this information, you notice that in Turkish, the sentence is ‘I water drink.’ This sentence structure is curious. Why do they say ‘I water drink’ instead of ‘I drink water’?

I can see the wheels turning in your head but I don’t jump in with an explanation. Instead, I wait for the question.

You look at the two sentences again and ask, ‘Why is the word drink at the end of the sentence?’

And there you have it, you have just assimilated (but not studied) your first grammar rule in Turkish. And you have just discovered that there’s another way to learn grammar, apart from boring grammar lessons.

The standard sequence of words in a simple Turkish sentence is:

• Subject (the person performing the action); 
• Object (in this case ‘beer’ or ‘water’); and
• Verb (the action).

The second approach is not only more natural but it’s also more meaningful.
First, I give you a little bit of information. Then, I present you with an obstacle. The obstacle should make you curious and this should lead you to ask a question.

This is by far the best way to learn grammar. Turkish grammar but English grammar too, as well as German grammar, Italian grammar… the grammar of any language.

Only when we ask questions we are ready to learn. It’s easier to remember it another way:

We are ready to learn only when we ask questions.

This is the entire philosophy behind discovery learning and this is how I tackle grammar. And, in my opinion, the best way to learn grammar fast.

I never study grammar deliberately. However, I do pay attention to and recognize patterns, as early as possible. I learn grammar without deliberately studying it.
Sometimes grammar patterns are more complex and we need more information, in other words, more examples. From this, we can ask better questions and understand how the language works. 

So now that you know how it works, let me give you an example in Russian:

You know that the word ‘sister‘ in Russian is sestra. §
You hear a native speaker say, ‘I saw my sestru this morning.’ You assume that the speaker mispronounced sestra and ignore it.

But then you hear a native speaker say, ‘I love my mamu.’ You know the word ‘mom’ in Russian is ‘mama’. So maybe there is more to this than a simple mistake.
Now you are genuinely curious and have a concrete question, ‘When do ‘sestra’ and ‘mama’ turn into ‘sestru’ and ‘mamu’ and why?’ 

Only now is the right time to look it up in a grammar book because the information will be both useful AND meaningful. Grammar books should not be studied but used as a tool to answer questions that naturally arise as you use the language.

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So how can you use the discovery method to learn a language?

 First, pay attention to patterns

• What order do the words come in? 
• What endings do the words have?
• What sounds do certain letter combinations make?

Second, be curious about the language

• Don’t just let the information wash over you. Ask questions.
• What is the pattern?
• How is the pattern formed?
• When is the pattern used?

Last, consult your tools judiciously and make sure you get a meaningful answer. 

If your grammar book explanation isn’t working for you, ask your tutor or look for more information online.

Are you skeptical? Read how Jan became conversational in Thai in just 21 days!
And watch the video below to discover what the world’s best polyglots think about the best way to learn grammar.

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Becoming fluent in a language with a difficult grammar like Russian is not impossible! Here’s Lucas from LanguageBoost speaking fluent Russian.

We showed you how to learn grammar easily. We showed you how it is possible to make language learning a meaningful experience.

Now, it’s your turn. Do you have a question on language learning that you’d like answered? Put it in the comments below and watch for it in an upcoming video or blog post!

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