ungrammatical

Everyday

Ungrammatical means not following the rules of grammar of a language, like «She go to school yesterday.» tree →

In the lessons

In English lessons: spotting and correcting ungrammatical sentences in SPaG tests. Teachers note that many dialect forms («we was», «I ain't») follow their own rules and are not mistakes in the dialect, but they are counted as ungrammatical in Standard English. In linguistics, an ungrammatical sentence is marked with a star (*).

Examples

• «Him and me goes to school» is ungrammatical in Standard English. tree →
• Circle the ungrammatical sentence. tree →
• The robot's sentences were ungrammatical and funny. tree →
• Poets sometimes write ungrammatical lines on purpose. tree →
• «We was» is usual in some dialects but ungrammatical in Standard English. tree →
• My little brother's speech is ungrammatical but cute. tree →

Note

Opposite: «grammatical». Spelling: «-mm-» and «-ical». «Ungrammatical» does not mean «meaningless»: «Me want cookie» is ungrammatical but clear.