Abstract: The syntactic definition of a grammar for language statements is the basis for a method for automatically generating error messages and error recovery for the language statements. The grammar is used to produce a parser, an error message generator, and error recovery for the language statements. The error message generator is produced automatically along with a parser and provides an indication of alternative valid input symbols. The method also produces the automatic generation of expected symbols lists to achieve error message generation goals. The error recovery routines are also produced automatically along with a parser and provide an indication of where valid parsing continues in the event of error detection in the language statements. The method also uses the dynamic generation of sets of synchronization symbols to achieve error recovery goals.