42%

You are emailing your terrifyingly strict literature professor to clarify the homework assignment before the weekend. You want to make sure your grammar is absolutely flawless.

Select ALL the grammatically correct ways to ask about the reading assignment.

Which specific chapters should we focus on?

On which specific chapters should we focus?

Which specific chapters should we focus?

On which specific chapters we should focus?

The correct answers are Which specific chapters should we focus on? and On which specific chapters should we focus?

The verb "focus" pairs with the preposition "on". In a question, you can place the preposition at the end of the clause ("Which... on?") or, in more formal writing, immediately before the question word ("On which..."). Both are perfectly correct!

The option without "on" is incorrect because "focus" requires the preposition to connect to its object. The final option is incorrect because questions require auxiliary verb inversion ("should we", not "we should").

Medium B2 | Upper Intermediate Questions Preposition Word order English Grammar Basics

To ChallengesPrevious Next

Questions

✅ Do you like coffee? — do-support (no existing auxiliary)
✅ Can she swim? — inversion (auxiliary before subject)
✅ Where does he live? — wh-question
✅ You're coming, aren't you? — tag question

Questions require inversion (auxiliary before subject) or do-support (add do/does/did). Types: yes/no (Do you…?), wh- (What/Where/When…?), negative (Don't you…?), tag (…isn't it?).

Rule: find the auxiliary. Move it before the subject. No auxiliary? Add do/does/did. Never use just intonation in written English (You like coffee? is not standard).

Preposition

✅ interested in — ❌ interested on
✅ good at football — ❌ good in football
✅ depend on — ❌ depend of
✅ arrive at the station — ❌ arrive to the station

Prepositions link nouns to the rest of the sentence: time (at 5pm), place (in London), manner (with care), abstract (afraid of). Most are idiomatic — the "correct" preposition must be memorised with each verb/adjective combination.

Rule: there is no universal rule. English prepositions are learned by combination: interested IN, good AT, depend ON, afraid OF. Your native language's equivalent will often mislead.

Word order

✅ She (S) eats (V) cake (O). — standard SVO
❌ Cake eats she. — SOV (not English)
✅ a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife — adjective order (opinion→size→age→shape→colour→origin→material→purpose)
✅ Never have I seen… — inversion after negative adverb

English word order = SVO (subject-verb-object) as default. Adjectives follow a fixed sequence (opinion→size→age→shape→colour→origin→material). Adverb placement varies by type. Deviations signal questions, emphasis, or literary style.

Rule: when in doubt, default to SVO. English position = meaning. Move a word and you change the grammar or the emphasis.

English Grammar Basics

She is a teacher. — verb be + noun complement
He runs every day. — present simple, third-person -s
They don't like coffee. — negation with do-support
I have two cats. — possession, countable noun, no article before plurals

These sentences demonstrate English Grammar Basics — the foundational patterns every other topic builds on: parts of speech, basic tenses, articles, and simple sentence structure.

If you can identify the verb, the subject, and count the noun correctly, you've nailed the basics that make everything else click.

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.