Developer English — Grammar Course

A practical grammar course built around the real writing mistakes you make, so your commits, PRs, and messages read clearly and professionally.

Why this course exists

This course is not a generic grammar textbook. It’s built around your actual recurring mistakes — the ones that show up in your day-to-day writing. Instead of teaching you rules you’ll never use, we focus on the handful of patterns that trip you up again and again:

• Spelling typos (reaseach, grammer)
• Lowercase “i” instead of capital I
• Run-on sentences with no punctuation
• Texting style (u instead of “you”) in work writing
• much vs many, and matching plurals
• Missing question marks and full stops

Here’s the real before/after that started this whole thing:

Before: “can u do reaseach on grammer for me and teach me i already know but as of now i am making so much mistake”

After: “Can you do research on grammar for me and teach me? I already know it, but right now I’m making so many mistakes.”

Look at everything that got fixed in that one sentence:

What changed	Before	After	Why
Spelling	reaseach, grammer	research, grammar	Common typos — spell-check catches these
Texting style	u	you	”u” is fine in texts, not in work writing
Capital I	i	I	The word “I” is always capitalized
Punctuation / run-on	one long line	split into clear sentences with ? and .	A question needs a ?; separate ideas need separate sentences
much → many + plural	so much mistake	so many mistakes	”mistakes” is countable, so use many and make it plural

Every lesson below targets one of these patterns directly.

Your top 7 mistakes

Mistake	Example you wrote	The fix	Lesson
Texting style in work writing	can u do...	”Can you do…“	10-professional-dev-writing.md
Lowercase “i”	i already know	”I already know”	07-punctuation-and-capitalization.md
Spelling typos	reaseach, grammer	research, grammar	11-spelling-typos.md
Run-on sentences	...teach me i already know but...	Break into separate sentences	08-sentence-structure-run-ons.md
Missing end punctuation	...teach me (it’s a question)	“…teach me?“	07-punctuation-and-capitalization.md
much vs many	so much mistake	”so many mistakes”	02-countable-uncountable-much-many.md
Plural agreement	mistake (should be plural)	“mistakes”	05-plurals-and-possessives.md

The lessons

1. Articles: a, an, the (and no article) — when to use a, an, the, or nothing at all.
2. Countable vs uncountable: much / many / few / less / fewer — fixes the “so much mistake” pattern for good.
3. Subject–verb agreement — making the verb match the subject (he runs, they run).
4. Verb tenses & keeping them consistent — past, present, future, and not switching mid-sentence.
5. Plurals, apostrophes & possessives (its vs it’s) — when to add s, ‘s, or just ’.
6. Prepositions (in, on, at, to, for, with) — the small words that are easy to get wrong.
7. Punctuation & capitalization basics — full stops, question marks, commas, and always capitalizing I.
8. Sentence structure: run-ons, fragments & comma splices — one idea per sentence, joined the right way.
9. Commonly confused words — their/there/they’re, your/you’re, then/than, and more.
10. Professional dev writing: commits, PRs, Slack, comments — clear, no-texting-style writing for work.
11. Spelling & typos developers get wrong — the words that trip up engineers (and how spell-check helps).
12. Master mixed review — one big drill covering everything.

How to study

Don’t rush all twelve lessons in one sitting. Spread them over four weeks — about 20-30 minutes a day, a few days a week. Here’s a plan:

• Week 1 — the fundamentals. Lessons 01, 02, and 03. These cover articles, the much/many fix, and subject–verb agreement.
• Week 2 — verbs and words. Lessons 04, 05, and 06. Tenses, plurals/possessives, and prepositions.
• Week 3 — structure and clarity. Lessons 07, 08, and 09. Punctuation, run-ons, and confusing word pairs.
• Week 4 — make it professional, then review. Lessons 10, 11, and the master mixed review.

How to use the drills: Each lesson ends with practice drills. Do the whole drill first — write your answers down or say them out loud — and only then check the answer key. Don’t peek early; the value is in trying, even when you get it wrong. A wrong answer you then correct sticks far better than one you just read.

Spaced-repetition tip: Memory fades fast. A few days after finishing a lesson, come back and redo the same drills. If you still get them right, great — that knowledge is locked in. If you slip, that’s exactly the lesson to review again. Redoing drills a few days later is the single highest-value habit in this course.

Daily habit

Small habits beat big study sessions. Pick these up and your writing improves automatically:

• Always capitalize “I” — the word “I” is never lowercase.
• End every sentence with a full stop (or a ? for questions). No naked line endings.
• Read your message once before you send it — one quick pass catches most mistakes.
• Turn on spell-check in your editor, browser, and chat apps. Let the computer catch typos like grammer.
• No texting style in work writing — write “you” not u, “are” not r. Save the shortcuts for texts with friends.

Progress checklist

• 01 — Articles: a, an, the (and no article)
• 02 — Countable vs uncountable: much / many / few / less / fewer
• 03 — Subject–verb agreement
• 04 — Verb tenses & keeping them consistent
• 05 — Plurals, apostrophes & possessives (its vs it’s)
• 06 — Prepositions (in, on, at, to, for, with)
• 07 — Punctuation & capitalization basics
• 08 — Sentence structure: run-ons, fragments & comma splices
• 09 — Commonly confused words
• 10 — Professional dev writing: commits, PRs, Slack, comments
• 11 — Spelling & typos developers get wrong
• 12 — Master mixed review

You already know more grammar than you think — the goal here is just to stop the small, repeated slips. One lesson at a time. You’ve got this.