Hi, I’m James Terban, and Linguistics Guide is my little corner of the internet for anyone who has ever stared at a sentence and thought, “Wait, is that right?”
I’m a teacher by training and a grammar obsessive by nature. Over the past five years I’ve worked with students of all ages and backgrounds, from young kids getting their first feel for how sentences work, to adults learning English as a second or third language. The same frustration kept coming up in every classroom: the resources out there were either too dumbed-down to be useful, or so textbook-heavy they put people off before they even started.
So I built Linguistics Guide to fill that gap.
Why I Started This Blog
Three reasons, honestly.
First, I kept watching ESL students struggle with resources that were clearly never written with them in mind. English is a genuinely tricky language when it isn’t your first one, and most grammar sites don’t acknowledge that.
Second, I worked with a lot of kids who thought grammar was boring. Some of that is unavoidable. But a lot of it comes down to how it’s taught, and I wanted to try a different approach.
Third, I was tired of searching for a clear answer to a simple grammar question and landing on pages that were either vague, contradictory, or just plain wrong. Linguistics Guide exists to give straight, honest answers that people can actually use.
What Linguistics Guide Covers
The blog focuses on three areas:
English grammar rules and tips for everyday writers. The commas, apostrophes, tenses, and subject-verb headaches that come up constantly, explained without the jargon.
Grammar for ESL learners who are building their English from the ground up. No assumed knowledge, no skipped steps, and no talking down to readers who are doing something genuinely hard.
Grammar for kids and students who need explanations that are clear and approachable without being condescending. The goal is to make grammar feel manageable, not like a punishment.
My Background
I hold a degree in Education with a focus on language instruction. My teaching experience spans primary school classrooms, one-on-one tutoring, and ESL programs, which means I’ve had to explain the same grammar rule in ten different ways to ten different types of learners. That range directly shapes how I write on Linguistics Guide.
Everything published here is written and reviewed by me. There’s no content farm behind the curtain, no outsourced articles, and no AI filling in the gaps. Just someone who has spent years in classrooms thinking carefully about how to explain language well.
A Word on Accuracy
Grammar has rules, but it also has exceptions, grey areas, and real debates among linguists. On Linguistics Guide I try to reflect that honestly. When something is clear-cut, I’ll say so plainly. When there’s genuine disagreement or regional variation between British and American English, for example, I’ll flag it rather than pretend one answer fits everyone.
If you ever spot a mistake or think I’ve got something wrong, please reach out. I’d rather update a post than leave something misleading up for the next person who lands on it.
Say Hello
Linguistics Guide grew from the questions real students asked me. If there’s a grammar topic you can’t find a clear answer on, or something you’d like me to cover, the contact page is right there.
Thanks for reading.