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Master English Grammar! Dr. Byrnes' Course "English Grammar for Composition"
Sneak Peek — Launching Early This Fall! 

Dr. Nanhee Byrnes’ Personal Journey to Mastering English Grammar

Are you a non-native English speaker who feels stuck in your progress? You're not alone. Many believe that pronunciation is the only hurdle, but you'll likely need to retool your English grammar as much as your pronunciation. Without a strong grasp of grammar, you'll find it incredibly difficult to make progress in your reading and writing, and you'll eventually hit a wall in your listening and speaking skills too.

Think about it: to truly understand and speak English with its natural rhythm, you need to be able to hear the almost inaudible "grammar words." In natural native speech, many grammar words like "of," "to," "have," "the," and "a" often reduce to a mere "schwa" sound. Without a deep understanding of grammar, you won't be able to decipher what you're hearing. Truly, grammar is the very foundation of English.

This grammar course is based on my grammar book, which has been in development for decades. While many non-native speakers aim to speak like a native, as a student of philosophy, my personal goal has always been to write like a learned native. The discipline of philosophy demands precision in language above all else. As a Ph.D. student at an American university, I quickly realized that the English grammar I learned in Korea was simply inadequate for crafting graduate-level philosophy essays.

Despite my grammar knowledge, which impressed native speakers (who often aren't explicitly taught grammar in school), I struggled with how to truly utilize that knowledge, especially in terms of syntax and semantics. It's incredible how a tiny change in a word can dramatically alter the meaning of an entire sentence. This realization fueled my desire to write a grammar book from a syntax and semantics perspective.

The AI Revelation: Why Expertise Still Matters

Just as my grammar book neared completion, AI changed everything in English learning, making it seem as if grammar had become dispensable. I questioned the worth of my work; after all, couldn't one simply ask AI any grammar question?

However, after using AI for some time, I ironically discovered something crucial: AI's grammar knowledge is often inadequate and easily confused. This made me realize that AI is simply a large language model that imitates, not an expert system like a seasoned grammarian. This understanding reinvigorated my passion, and I've since reworked this material into a comprehensive grammar course.

This course isn't just about knowledge; through lectures and interactive questions, it provides the key to unlock your full potential in English.


Introducing Dr. Byrnes’ English Grammar Course

Welcome to Dr. Byrnes’ English Grammar for Composition! Forget the overwhelming maze of grammar rules you've encountered in traditional textbooks. This course isn’t about drilling countless rules into your head only to immediately list all the exceptions—as many grammar books do. After all, no rule truly sticks if exceptions are treated as just as valid.

Instead, this course teaches grammar based on seven inviolable principles of agreement—such as subject-verb agreement in number—and shows how these principles function when you actually compose sentences. Yes, exceptions exist, but they make sense once you understand the logic behind them. That logic begins with these three key branches of grammar:

  • Morphology: How words are formed and change.

  • Syntax: How words are arranged to form proper sentences.

  • Semantics: What those sentences actually mean.

Syntax vs. Semantics: The Real Story

Think of syntax as the blueprint of a building—its foundation, walls, and roof. Semantics, on the other hand, is the purpose of the building. Is it a home? An office? A museum? The building's function determines whether it’s being used "correctly."

Likewise, a sentence’s correctness depends on whether its meaning aligns with our understanding of the world.

For example:

  • "She scratched her noses" is incorrect—even though the syntax is fine—because humans have only one nose. Our mental model of reality flags the sentence as wrong.

  • "Galileo said that the Earth moves around the sun" is correct, even though it technically bends a tense rule. Its meaning coheres with our accepted scientific model of the universe, and that truth overrides the minor grammatical technicality.

In English, meaning often trumps strict rule-following. That’s why so many "exceptions" exist: the message matters more than rigid adherence to form.


Why This Course Is Unique

Dr. Byrnes’ grammar course stands apart because it was developed by a non-native English speaker whose sole mission was to master English grammar with syntactic sophistication—enough to write and speak fluently at the American college level and beyond.

Most grammar books are written by native speakers who often overlook the struggles non-natives face. For instance, native speakers might confuse "your" and "you’re," or write things like "must of" instead of "must have." But they almost never struggle with article usage ("a," "an," "the") or verb tenses the way non-natives do. Why? Because they absorb those grammar patterns by ear—through years of listening to the rhythm of spoken English. But to non-native ears, these grammar words often sound like a mumble.

This course reconstructs English grammar by focusing on what really matters for non-native speakers to communicate clearly and effectively. For example:

  • Why is "I like chicken and fish" correct, but "I like dog and horse" sounds wrong?

     To answer this, we teach how nouns are used: whether they refer to things as discrete items or mass concepts.

In short, this course teaches grammar through the lenses of syntax and semantics, making the rules not only memorable but meaningful.

Course Organization

This course provides a comprehensive and practical understanding:

  • Part I: English Foundations

    • An in-depth look at the eight parts of speech.

  • Part II: Agreement Rules

    • How sentence elements align, guided by both structure and meaning.

  • Part III: Writing Style

    • Beyond "correctness," we focus on the sophistication needed for academic and formal writing.

This structure moves you from basics to core syntax and semantics to finally advanced style, ensuring a deep and practical grasp of English grammar.

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English Skills Courses

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Blog Topics 

TOEFL Reading
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TOEFL vocab: A words
TOEFL vocab: B-C words
TOEFL Vocab Meaning inferable from roots and prefixes: exercise review
TOEFL Vocab questions: meaning inerrable from roots and prefixes
TOEFL inference questions needing contrapositive
Summary questions
Summery questions based on clues
Easiest clue: absolute vs qualified
Integrated Roman Empire
Integrated: Power companies

Vocabulary

A-Z Vocabulary

Ab- words Ab- words
Ac- wordsAc- words
Ad- words:Ad- words
Ae-, Af, Ag- wordsAe-, Af, Ag- words
Al-, Am- words:Al-, Am- words


Roots and affixes


Roots Greek and Latin roots with the same meanings

Prefix from DE to EX
Prefix from FOR to ISO
prefix from MACRO-OVER

Suffixes for nouns from AC to ER
Suffixes for nouns from ESS to URE

Pronunciation

Prosody


Grammar

1 minute grammar

  1. Use the definite article correctly

  2. Five noun types for noun countability: https://youtube.com/shorts/Y0lcoVS17sk?feature=share

  3. Use countable nouns correctly: https://youtube.com/shorts/s6XVICbNFwg?feature=share

  4. Three types of countable nouns: https://youtube.com/shorts/EENBQxEJTZs?feature=share

  5. Three types of uncountable nouns: https://youtube.com/shorts/UuCDCRmMDM4?feature=share

  6. How to talk about quantity with uncountable nouns: https://youtube.com/shorts/WpsqHMATes0?feature=share

Long grammar lectures

  1. Rule 1: Noun-determiner agreement: https://youtu.be/vlJtsxBUbVc 

  2. Distinction of countable and uncountable nouns: https://youtu.be/SesnD3ymTAQ 

  3. Use “the” for specific things: https://youtu.be/3yLJssZHb9o 

  4. Singular countable indefinite quantifiers:https://youtu.be/GJXgto8e3Do

  5. Plural countable indefinite quantifiers: https://youtu.be/VCchH-W1yiM

  6. Nationality of a person and people: https://youtu.be/dhVGpGIJS6A

  7. Uncountable indefinite quantifiers: https://youtu.be/ripAqfYlK_Y

  8. Plural and uncountable indefinite quantifiers: https://youtu.be/x6a9vsf5gQg

  9. Types of Determiners: https://youtu.be/86wM27qxxnM

  10. Determiner order (pre-main-post):https://youtu.be/D-9oF2MBwzw