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English Grammar for Teaching, a free language course on Tomo

English Grammar for Teaching

Build the foundational language awareness needed for Cambridge TKT Module 1. Learn to analyze English structures, separate form from function, and diagnose real learner mistakes.

Like Duolingo, but for English Grammar for Teaching. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Analyzing Word Roles and Meaning and Verbs, Time, and Learner Slips. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Gabi the Owl, the guide who teaches the English Grammar for Teaching course
English Grammar for Teaching
with Gabi the Owl
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in English Grammar for Teaching

  • A word's part of speech depends on its job in that specific sentence, not its default dictionary entry
  • Words cannot be categorized accurately in isolation without looking at how they interact with nearby words
  • Content words (nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs) carry the core meaning of a message
  • Open classes easily expand with new coinages (like 'to google' or 'selfie'), while structure words do not
  • Determiners (e.g., 'the', 'those', 'every') signal and limit following nouns
  • Prepositions (e.g., 'under', 'during') locate elements in time or space
  • Pronouns (e.g., 'they', 'it') replace nouns to avoid repetition
  • These structural categories form a closed system that rarely accepts new words
  • Conversion allows an unchanged word form to move between classes (e.g., noun to verb)
  • The presence of auxiliary verbs or direct objects marks 'booked' as a verb, while determiners mark 'book' as a noun
  • Looking at neighboring cues (like 'to' or determiners) reveals the part of speech faster than analyzing the word alone
  • Following an infinitive marker 'to' and taking a direct object ('the park') signals an action/main verb
  • Grammatical form labels structural building blocks like verb tenses, parts of speech, and word order patterns
  • Communicative function labels what the speaker aims to achieve socially with the utterance
  • TKT exam tasks routinely require classifying descriptions into either form or function categories
  • The grammatical form remains identical (a negative present simple question)
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives English Grammar for Teaching the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

How Words Do Their Jobs

Someone shows you the single word 'round' on a blank card. Why is it hard to name its part of speech?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

Where English Grammar for Teaching takes you

  1. 1

    Analyzing Word Roles and Meaning

    • Parts of Speech in Action
    • Form Versus Function
  2. 2

    Verbs, Time, and Learner Slips

    • Tense, Aspect, and Time
    • Diagnosing Common Grammar Errors

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

New

Tomo is in ChatGPT

Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.

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How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

English Grammar for Teaching is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start English Grammar for Teaching today.

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