10%

Choose the correct word to complete the sentence.

🎸 After three months of daily practice, Jamie is finally getting good ___ the guitar.

to play

at playing

to playing

at play

The correct answer is at playing.

After the adjective "good" + the preposition at, use a gerund (-ing form). The pattern is: be good at + gerund.

Medium B1 | Intermediate Gerund Infinitive Preposition

To ChallengesNext

Gerund

✅ I enjoy reading. — ❌ I enjoy to read.
✅ She's good at swimming. — ❌ She's good at to swim.
✅ He avoids making eye contact. — gerund after avoid
✅ Running is good exercise. — gerund as subject

A gerund is the -ing form of a verb functioning as a noun. It follows verbs like enjoy, avoid, finish, mind and ALL prepositions. Never use an infinitive where a gerund is required.

Rule: after a preposition (at, in, of, about, without) → always gerund. After enjoy, avoid, finish, mind, suggest, deny → always gerund.

Infinitive

✅ I want to go. — to-infinitive after want
✅ She can swim. — bare infinitive after modal
✅ Let me help. — bare infinitive after let
❌ I enjoy to read. — wrong (enjoy takes gerund, not infinitive)

The infinitive has two forms: to-infinitive (to go) after verbs like want, decide, plan, hope; bare infinitive (go) after modals and causatives (let, make, help).

Rule: after want, need, decide, plan, hope, expect, agree, refuse → to-infinitive. After can, will, must, let, make → bare infinitive. After enjoy, avoid, finish → gerund, NOT infinitive.

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.

B1 | Intermediate

✅ If I had more time, I would travel more. — second conditional
✅ The bridge was built in 1920. — passive voice
✅ She said she was tired. — reported speech with backshift
✅ Although it rained, we enjoyed the trip. — complex sentence with concession

These are B1 patterns — the CEFR intermediate level. At B1 you link ideas, use passive voice, handle reported speech, and manage second conditional — enough for travel, work basics, and everyday independence.

Marker: if you can explain why something happened and follow a news story, you're B1.

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.