The oven was too hot, but the cake wasn't baked long enough.
Use too + adjective (too hot) to show a negative excess. Use adverb + enough (long enough) to talk about having the necessary amount of time or action. Never put "enough" before an adjective or adverb!
Adjective
Adjective vs adverb: both describe things, but adjectives attach to nouns while adverbs attach to verbs. A quick answer (adjective → noun) vs answered quickly (adverb → verb).
An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun — telling you what kind, which one, or how many: a red car, something useful, three heavy boxes.
Diagnostic test: if the word describes a thing or person, use the adjective form. If it describes an action, you need the adverb (-ly) form instead.
Adverb
Adverb vs adjective: adjectives describe things; adverbs describe actions, qualities, or degrees. The mix-up usually happens after action verbs — she sings beautiful (wrong) vs she sings beautifully (right).
An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb: incredibly fast, she spoke softly, we go often.
Diagnostic: ask what word is this describing? If it's a verb (an action) → adverb. If it's a noun (a thing) → adjective. Exception: linking verbs (be, seem, taste) take adjectives, not adverbs.
Word order
English (SVO) vs other patterns: English relies on word ORDER to show who does what (Dog bites man ≠ Man bites dog). Inflected languages (Latin, Russian, German) use case endings and can scramble order freely. In English, changing order changes meaning or requires special constructions (inversion, cleft sentences).
Word order = how English marks grammatical relationships. SVO is the default; fixed adjective order; adverb placement varies by type.
Diagnostic: does your sentence sound "off" even though all word forms are correct? → probably a word order issue. Try moving the element back to default SVO position.
A2 | Elementary | Pre-intermediate
A2 vs B1: A2 handles routine transactions and simple past narration. B1 handles connected discourse, explaining reasons, and understanding main points in clear standard speech. If you can tell what happened but not why it matters, you're still A2.
A2 is the elementary level of the CEFR: past simple, present perfect, first conditional, basic modals, and routine communication about familiar topics.
Diagnostic: can you link ideas with because, although, so that and hold a conversation beyond scripted topics? No → A2. Yes → moving into B1.
Medium
Medium vs Easy: Easy has one obviously correct answer and clearly wrong distractors. Medium has one correct answer but plausible distractors — you need to actually know the rule, not just guess from sound.
The Medium tag filters for A2–B1 challenges with realistic difficulty: one rule per question, plausible alternatives, everyday contexts.
Diagnostic: if you're scoring 90%+ on Easy, move here. If you're below 60% on Medium, go back to Easy for that topic. Target 70–80% accuracy for maximum learning.