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).

Negation

• ✅ I don't see anything. — ❌ I don't see nothing. (double negative in standard English)
• ✅ She never goes out. — never already negates (no doesn't needed)
• ✅ He doesn't like coffee. — do-support for negation
• ✅ Nobody came. — negative subject (no auxiliary needed)

Negation uses not after an auxiliary/modal, or do-support when there's no auxiliary. One negative per clause in standard English — never, nobody, nothing already negate without adding not.

Rule: one negative element per clause. I don't see anything or I see nothing — never both together in standard English.

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.

Auxiliary verb

• ✅ Do you know? — ❌ Know you? (English requires do-support for questions)
• ✅ She has finished. — ❌ She finished has. (auxiliary before main verb)
• ✅ They are leaving. — ❌ They leaving. (progressive needs be)
• ✅ He doesn't smoke. — ❌ He smokes not. (negation needs do)

Auxiliary verbs (be, have, do, and the modals) combine with main verbs to build questions, negatives, tenses, aspects, and passive voice.

Pattern: if you need to ask a question, negate, or stack tense/aspect — you need an auxiliary. The main verb carries meaning; the auxiliary carries grammar.

Verb tense

Verb tense = time (past/present/future) × aspect (simple/progressive/perfect) = 12 forms. Each slot has a specific job — not just "when" but "how the action relates to its time frame."

Key insight: most learners don't need all 12 at once. Simple covers 80% of communication. Add perfect and progressive as needed.

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.