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Complete the sentence.
The weather _________________________ today.

The correct answer is "is warm," which uses the verb "to be" and the adjective "warm" to describe the weather.

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Adjective

  • a tall building — ❌ a tally building
  • The soup is hot — ❌ The soup is hotly
  • a lovely small old table — ❌ a small lovely old table
  • She seems tired — ❌ She seems tiredly

These bolded words are adjectives — words that describe nouns or pronouns. They sit before a noun (a tall building) or after a linking verb (The soup is hot).

Pattern: if a word can slot between a/the and a noun (a ___ thing) and can take -er/-est, it's almost certainly an adjective.

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.

Be

  • I am tired. / She is tired. / They are tired. — present
  • I was tired. / They were tired. — past
  • She is running. — auxiliary for progressive
  • It was broken. — auxiliary for passive

Be has 8 forms (am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been) — the most irregular verb in English. Two jobs: copula linking subject to complement (She is a doctor) and auxiliary for progressive and passive.

Trap: be changes for person AND number in both present and past. No other English verb does this. Learn the grid: I am / you are / he is / we are + I was / you were / he was / we were.

Adjective and adverb

  • a quick response — ❌ a quickly response
  • she spoke quietly — ❌ she spoke quiet
  • the food tastes good — ❌ the food tastes well
  • he runs fast — ✅ a fast car (same word, both roles)

Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Most adverbs add -ly to the adjective (slow → slowly), but some words — fast, hard, late — serve as both without changing form.

Rule: if the word describes a noun → adjective. If it describes an action or degree → adverb.

A1 | Elementary | Beginners

  • My name is Anna. — present simple of be
  • Where is the station? — basic *wh-*question
  • I have two brothers. — possession with have
  • She likes coffee. — third-person -s

These are A1 sentences — the starting level of the CEFR framework. At A1 you can introduce yourself, ask and answer simple personal questions, and handle basic everyday transactions using present tense, be/have/do, and core vocabulary.

If you can say these but freeze at normal speaking speed, you're solidly A1 — and that's exactly where to start.

Easy

  • She is a teacher. — one verb form, one rule
  • I have two cats. — basic possession, short sentence
  • He doesn't like coffee. — simple negation with do-support
  • Only one answer is clearly correct; distractors are obviously wrong.

Easy marks beginner-level challenges: A1–early A2, one rule at a time, everyday vocabulary, no trick questions.

Use "Easy" when you want to build confidence on a specific rule without interference from other grammar or tricky contexts.