---
product_id: 84284890
title: "Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar"
brand: "david crystal"
price: "A$37"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/84284890-making-sense-the-glamorous-story-of-english-grammar
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar

**Brand:** david crystal
**Price:** A$37
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar by david crystal
- **How much does it cost?** A$37 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/84284890-making-sense-the-glamorous-story-of-english-grammar)

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- david crystal enthusiasts

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- Trusted david crystal brand quality
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## Description

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## Images

![Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81S65rEbqKL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Title Sums it Up
  

*by A***S on Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2017*

This book very effectively demolishes the traditional approach to English grammar, then replaces it with something  less precise, and more difficult to grasp.  That's unavoidable, since Crystal's emphasis is on the evolution of the study of grammar., which has changed radically over the last 50 years.  He defines grammar as "the study of the way we bring words together in order to make sense".  He traces the evolution of the study of grammar from the Greeks and Romans through the medieval period, up to the effort to codify English grammar in the early modern era.  And here, Crystal argues, is where the study of English grammar went off track.  The grammarians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries based their analysis of English grammar on the workings of Latin grammar, and the two are very, very different.  The result was a rules-based, highly artificial system which pulled against much of the underlying tendency of the language.  In the 1960's and 1970's, this became clear, and the formal study of English grammar went out the window.  Now, Crystal shows, it is coming back, but in a far less rigid and regular form.The book is far more down to earth, and readable, than this lightning tour would suggest.  Crystal uses language acquisition in children (one child, to be precise, chatty little Suzie) to explore the structures of English grammar.  He looks at the was grammar has been taught, and the wars between prescriptivists and descriptivists.  He looks at how English functions in various contexts and various countries.  It is all very interesting, at least to anyone who is interested in the way our language works.  It does not leave the reader with a firm sense of where grammar stands at present, which is a bit of a disappointment to one who grew up in a rules-based grammatical world.  But is does show the richness and subtlety of English grammar.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    You'll enjoy language more for reading this
  

*by W***N on Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2017*

Who would have believed it?  Grammar is interesting, and fun.  David Crystal cycles through a number of approaches to the subject -- how children acquire the ability to communicate (truly a remarkable achievement), the history of grammar and the remarkable centuries when the field was totally dominated by "experts" flogging an entirely wrong-headed insistence that English grammar should be just like Latin grammar, the battle between prescriptive grammar (don't split that infinitive) and descriptive grammar (everyone else does, so I will if I want to), and evolving trends in usage in the 21st Century.  Gracefully written, and detailed enough to provide real information without outliving the welcome of any single subject.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good natured, very clear, very step-by-step.
  

*by L***E on Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2017*

Good natured, very clear, very step-by-step.  You have to be a grammar/language fan, and have to be willing to be taken along from the beginning (on every point) but he moves quickly.  Informative, often fascinating.

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*Product available on Desertcart Australia*
*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-03-11*