Why you first need to get it

You won't understand until you get it, whether it's Maths or English. This post looks at an ancient strategy game and - inevitably - at SvVOPT.

Before mass tourism flooded its seaside villages and beaches, I spent a gap year travelling around the Mediterranean. Working my way up the Turkish coast on my way to Istanbul, I stumbled upon the village of ?lüdeniz with its breathtakingly beautiful pebble beach.?

You can't be on the beach at ?lüdeniz without picking up some of its perfectly smooth, oval pebbles. They're like jellybeans - grey, black, red and yellow jellybeans. So before long, you'll find yourself playing pebble games like Tic-tac-toe and Nim.

At the time, I had never heard of the mathematical strategy game called Nim. After a couple of rounds of Tic-tac-toe, a friend named Dave introduced me to Nim. That's to say: he turned my heavenly spot on the beach into mental hell. I've never been one for maths and I'm not even sure that it would have helped me much. No matter how I tried, I kept losing.

It was only after several days of Nim-induced frustration that Dave finally took pity on me and shared the secret of Nim. As it turned out, there's a simple trick to it. Once you know the trick, you just can't lose. The math behind Nim was a mystery to me, but I quickly mastered the game by memorising its winning combinations.

The game seems simple enough: two players take turns removing stones, matches, or whatever is at hand from three or more piles or rows. Dave started with piles of three, five and seven pebbles, but there is no real limit. You can take as many pebbles as you like from one row at a time. Whoever has to take the last pebble loses. Stones are great for playing Nim. So are matches, coins, bottle caps - anything, really.

Over the following weeks, I travelled around Turkey and up to Istanbul armed with stone jellybeans. Wherever I went, I played the game and I never lost. It was great fun, even though it also made people experience the same kind of bewilderment and frustration that I had known on the beach at ?lüdeniz.

Nim is an ingenious game. It's terrible and wonderful at the same time. If you can't figure it out, it'll drive you crazy - not unlike English grammar. But once you know the trick, it becomes easy. It's like Dutch soccer legend and self-appointed know-it-all Johan Cruyff used to say: you'll only understand once you get it.

Cruyff was right, of course. You first need to grasp the essential pattern underlying Nim before you can understand the game. Once that's out of the way, you can be in control and win.

I know that there must be mathematical formulas, schematics or equations that scientifically define the theory behind Nim. Those are completely lost on me. But who needs intricate maths if there's a shortcut? That's not cheating. It's a blessing - for me and all other mortals who just don't get the math.

If I had needed maths to figure out Nim, I'd have been lost. Instead, Dave showed me the shortcut: underlying patterns that let you stay in control of the game. Once I got that, I could play without needing complicated maths.

Similarly, there's a basic pattern in English that explains its most important grammar: SvVOPT. It rules and defines basic word order, tenses, modals, conditionals and passive voice. Once you know SvVOPT and get it, English grammar becomes easy. Without the shortcut, grammar can be as bewildering, frustrating and near-impossible as a game of Nim.

Nim or English, students only understand once they get it. For English, SvVOPT is the key. SvVOPT rules.

If you look up the game of Nim on Wikipedia, you'll find an example of the game in which one of the players is named... Bob. Coincidence? Maybe, but he wins!

If you enjoyed reading this GrammarBob post, leave a like and share it in your network. Do you use SvVOPT in your teaching?