The correct answers are affect, effect, affect, and effect.
"Affect" is typically a verb meaning "to influence" (temperatures influence migration). "Effect" is typically a noun meaning "result" (the result on polar bears). "Affect" is again the verb (pollution will influence ecosystems). "Effect" as a verb means "to bring about" or "to cause" — here, policies will bring about positive change. This is the trickiest usage!
Noun
- The cat sat on the mat. — concrete nouns (things you can touch)
- Happiness is important. — abstract noun (idea/quality)
- London is beautiful. — proper noun (specific name, capitalised)
- I need some information. — uncountable noun (no a/an, no plural)
A noun names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality. Nouns determine article choice, verb agreement, and pronoun reference. Types: common/proper, concrete/abstract, countable/uncountable.
Test: can you put the or a before it? Can you make it plural? If yes to either → it's functioning as a noun.
Verb
- walk → walk / walks / walked / walked / walking (5 forms, regular)
- go → go / goes / went / gone / going (5 forms, irregular)
- be → am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been (8 forms)
- can → can / could (modal: only 2 forms, no -s, no -ing)
A verb is the one word class every English sentence requires. Carries tense (when), aspect (duration), mood (attitude), and voice (active/passive). Regular verbs add -ed; ~200 irregular verbs have unpredictable past forms.
Key insight: fix your verbs and most grammar problems disappear. Wrong tense, wrong agreement, wrong form — verb errors account for the majority of grammatical mistakes.
Vocabulary
- A1: ~500–800 words (survival: family, food, numbers)
- A2: ~1,500–2,500 (routine: work, leisure, basic phrasal verbs)
- B1: ~2,500–4,000 (opinions, news, abstract topics)
- B2: ~4,000–6,000 (register precision, hedging, idioms)
- C1: ~6,000–10,000 (academic, register sensitivity)
- C2: 10,000+ (literary, rare, full style range)
Vocabulary covers word-level practice: individual words, collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms. Organised by CEFR level. Grammar tells you HOW to build sentences; vocabulary gives you WHAT to put in them.
B2 | Upper Intermediate
- ✅ If I had studied harder, I would have passed. — third conditional
- ✅ The report is being reviewed by the committee. — passive progressive
- ✅ Having finished the exam, she left. — participle clause
- ✅ He denied having taken the money. — complex verb pattern
These are B2 patterns — the CEFR upper-intermediate level. At B2 you handle mixed conditionals, all passive forms, participle clauses, and can argue a point clearly. This is the level most universities and employers require.
Marker: if you can write a structured essay and debate an abstract topic, you're B2.
Medium
- If I were you, I would apologise. — one rule (second conditional), but distractors like was tempt you
- Answers require active thought, not instant pattern recognition
- Vocabulary and context are realistic, not artificially simplified
- Usually tests one rule, but the wrong answers are plausible
Medium marks middle-difficulty challenges: A2–B1, one rule tested, but with realistic distractors that require genuine understanding.
Use "Medium" when Easy feels too obvious but Hard feels overwhelming. This is where most productive learning happens — the sweet spot of difficulty.