Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

by Gabriel Wyner

When kids learn languages, they follow a series of predictable stages. In English, for example, they begin with simple sentences that resemble our SLEEP EAT WORK stories from earlier: birdie go (The bird has gone), doggie jump (The dog is jumping). Shortly before they reach three years of age, they begin to use the -ing form of verbs (doggie jumping). Within six months, they’ve added the irregular past tense (birdies went) and is (daddy is big). Then, finally, come the regular past tense verbs (doggie jumped) and the present tense verbs in the third person (Daddy eats). Every English-speaking kid goes through these stages in the same order. According to researchers, you will never find a kid who learns to say “Mommy works” before “Mommy working.”