Drill English Reading.
We do not read words, one by one. Meaning is contained not so much in individual words as in collections of words conveying broader or more specific ideas.
Readers thus make sense of a sentence by breaking it into meaningful chunks and examining their interrelationships. Skillful writers focus not so much on individual words, as on creating and rephrasing larger phrases and clauses.
The topics of ReadEx describe the "meaningful chunks" of English sentence structure.
Speaking Constructions, Not Words.
When we speak, we do not really speak "one word at a time." We break the flow of words into chunks. And we do not do this randomly, simply to take a breath now and then. We insert pauses to break the flow into meaningful chunks.
We do not say
I left my/ raincoat on the /chair.
We say:
I /left my raincoat /on the chair.
When we break a sentence into portions, whether by pauses or intonation, we are actually doing grammatical analysis. We break the sentence into chunks to facilitate understanding.
Reading and Writing Constructions, Not Words.
Words appear on a page one word after another. As with speech, we find meaning by grouping words into larger units.
As with speech, we find meaning by grouping words into larger units.
It makes little difference whether we call these units chunks or use more technical terminology (such as phrases and clauses , or the more general term constructions ), the point is the same: We read chunks, not individual words.
Now, how we break a sentence up?