Grammar Palette Review: Quick Grammar Tips and Word-Usage Guides

Grammar Palette is a free reference site built around short articles on common grammar and word-usage questions. It covers four broad areas:

• Grammar — past-tense choices (cost vs costed, tear vs tore), article use, subject-verb agreement
• Language devices — metaphor vs simile, idiom vs proverb, connotation vs denotation
• Plural nouns — buses vs busses, syllabus vs syllabi, software plurals
• Writing tips — spelling differences (ageing vs aging), hyphenation, quit vs resign

The articles follow a consistent structure: the question, the short answer, then 3–5 example sentences. Most are 300–500 words. No videos, no quizzes, no interactive content. The site is essentially a blog with a clean WordPress-style layout.

For ESL teachers, the value is in the kind of question being answered. Grammar Palette targets the small confusions that students keep asking about and that most grammar textbooks skip — exactly the questions you end up fielding during speaking practice or written feedback.

Grammar Palette works best for these specific classroom situations:

• 5-minute warm-ups: pick one article, project it, have students read and decide which answer is correct before you reveal it. Good for the start of class when attendance is being taken.
• Writing feedback companion: when a student writes 'much students' or 'I am agree', send them the relevant Grammar Palette article instead of writing the explanation yourself.
• Spot-the-error homework: delete the answer paragraph, ask students to research the question on Grammar Palette, and explain the rule in their own words.
• Vocabulary extension: use the language-device articles (metaphor, simile, synecdoche) as a basis for a 15-minute writing task.
• Reference shelf: bookmark the site for yourself — when a student asks 'is it buses or busses?' mid-lesson, you have a quick answer.

Yes — as a reference companion. Grammar Palette is not a teaching platform; it is a question-and-answer blog. If you treat it as a replacement for a structured curriculum, you will be disappointed. If you treat it as a quick-reference shelf for the awkward word-usage questions that keep coming up, it does the job well.

The articles are accurate and clearly written. The lack of exercises is the main limitation — students read the explanation but cannot immediately practise it on the site. You will need to build the practice component yourself.

Honest recommendation: add Grammar Palette to your bookmarks bar. Use it for personal reference and as a source of short reading-comprehension snippets. Do not expect it to replace a quiz platform or a lesson-plan library — pair it with one of the alternatives below for that.