longer. They’re more difficult and they are more interesting.
But this is a simple
example to help you understand the concept.
So now you’ve read or heard Bill’s story in the present and the past. Ideally, you
have audio versions and you listen to that story in the past many times. When you
listen, don’t think about the grammar rules. You don’t need to analyze, “Oh, this is
the past tense” or “Oh, ’paid’ is an irregular verb.” No, no, no – no need to think
about that. Just listen to each story version and understand the meaning. That’s all
you need to do. Listen to the first story – understand the meaning.
Listen to the
second story – understand the meaning. That’s all. It’s easy, effortless grammar
learning.
After that, you would listen to the future version of the story:
Imagine there will
be a boy. His name will be Bill. He’ll go to the store, and buy a bottle of water. He’s
going to pay two dollars for the water.
That’s the end
of our short example in the
future.
Again, all you do is just listen to this little easy story. You listen to the present
version. You listen to the past version. You listen to the future version. Every day for
seven days or more, you listen to each one.
We can even add more versions. We can practice any kind of grammar with this.
For example, I might say:
There was boy. Since last year, he has gone to the store
every day. He has bought a bottle of water every day. He has paid two dollars for the
water.
You don’t need to know the name of the grammar or the verb tense that I’m
using. It’s called the present perfect, but you don’t need to know that. I don’t want
you to think about that. All you need to do, again, is listen
to this version of the
story.
Of course, I’m using extra phrases to help you understand the meaning. I said,
“Since last year,” so now you understand that these verbs change because something
happened in the past and it has continued for a while, but you don’t need to think
about that. That’s why these stories are so easy and powerful. You just listen. You
listen to story number one. You listen to story number two, and you listen to story
number
three and to story number four, and you learn the grammar like a native
speaker. Like a child.
When you learn grammar like this, using these kinds of stories, you are training
like an athlete and you are freeing yourself from the hidden curriculum. This is the
difference between learning grammar as abstract knowledge and acquiring the skill
of using grammar in real speech. You want the skill. You want to use correct
grammar without thinking about it.