Basics. What, Which, and How Questions with Nouns
What, Which, and How Questions with Nouns
When asking questions in English, we often combine question words directly with nouns to get specific details. For example, we ask "What color is it?" when there are endless possibilities, "Which shirt do you want?" when choosing from a limited menu, and "How many cups?" to ask about a specific quantity.
This challenge tests your ability to choose the correct question word before a noun. You will practice deciding between what and which based on the number of options available, and choosing between how much and how many for countable and uncountable nouns. The scenarios are fun and varied—ranging from ordering at an alien diner and buying wizard wands to interviewing a new roommate and catching a train.
You'll work through 11 questions featuring single-choice, multi-choice, drop-down, and drag-and-drop formats. Try the quiz to check your knowledge!
Adverb
If you've ever written she sings beautiful when you meant beautifully, you've hit the most common adverb mistake. The fix sounds small, but it's the kind of detail that signals fluency at a glance — and once you see the pattern, you stop second-guessing it.
An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, telling you how, when, where, how often, or to what degree: she sings beautifully, unbelievably fast, we go there often. Most form with -ly (quick → quickly), but a stubborn group don't change shape at all: fast, well, hard, late.
Countable and uncountable
If you've ever written informations, an advice, or furnitures — and only learned later that none of these exist in English — you've hit the countable/uncountable divide. The trap is that English's choice of which nouns count individually and which don't is partly arbitrary: information is uncountable; fact is countable; bread is uncountable; loaf is countable.
In English, nouns are either countable (chair, book) or uncountable (water, furniture, advice). Countable nouns take a/an, form plurals, and pair with many/few; uncountables don't pluralise and pair with much/little.
Determiner
If you speak a language without articles or demonstratives — Mandarin, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Korean — determiners are likely the most stubborn topic in your English. The rules feel small but the wrong choice (I went to home instead of I went home) immediately marks you as non-native. Mastering determiners is the highest-leverage move you can make for sounding natural.
A determiner comes before a noun to clarify which one, how many, or whose. Categories include articles (a/the), demonstratives (this/that), possessives (my/your), and quantifiers (some/many).
Indirect speech
If you've ever tried to retell what someone said and ended up with a verb-tense mess (She said she will come — wait, would come?), you've hit indirect speech. The rules look intricate but reduce to one move: when the reporting verb is past, shift everything in the reported clause one step into the past. Master that and reporting other people's words stops being a guessing game.
Indirect speech reports what someone said without quoting them: "I like apples" → He said that he liked apples. The core mechanism is backshift — tenses retreat one step into the past — plus pronoun and time-expression shifts.
Noun
If you've ever frozen mid-sentence wondering whether to say an information or some information, child or children, they or them — you've hit the core of how English uses nouns. Nail this down and articles, plurals, possessives, and pronoun choice all stop feeling like guesswork.
A noun is a word that names something: a person, place, thing, idea, action, or quality. Nouns are the building blocks every other part of speech bolts onto. Spot one in a sentence and you can usually predict the article, the verb form, and the pronouns that follow.
Questions
If you've ever asked You like coffee? with rising intonation and gotten a confused look — you've felt the gap between casual and grammatical English questions. Many languages form questions with intonation alone, but English usually requires inversion (Are you ready?) or do-support (Do you like coffee?). Skip the structure and your questions sound like uncertain statements.
Questions in English use inversion of subject and an auxiliary (Can she dance?) or do-support when no auxiliary is present (Does the milk go in the fridge?). Yes/no questions, wh-questions, negative questions, and tag questions all share this machinery.
Word Order
If your first language has flexible word order — Russian, Latin, German, Japanese — English can feel rigid. You can't just rearrange words for emphasis the way you would at home; the grammar tracks position, not just inflection. Get the order wrong and the sentence either changes meaning or stops making sense.
Word order is the sequence of words in a sentence. English is an SVO language — subject, verb, object. The order of adjectives and modifiers in a noun phrase also follows fixed patterns. Get this right and your English instantly sounds more natural.
A1 | Elementary | Beginners
If you can say your name, ask Where is the toilet?, and read a simple bus sign — but freeze when someone speaks at normal speed — you're at A1. That's not a problem to fix; it's the level where most learners actually live for a while, and recognising it lets you pick the right material instead of drowning in advanced grammar that wasn't meant for you yet.
A1 is the starting level of the CEFR framework, covering basic everyday communication: greetings, introductions, simple personal questions, present-tense forms of be/have/do, and core determiners and prepositions.
Difficulty: Easy
If a textbook leaves you confused, sometimes the issue isn't the topic — it's that the practice material is layered with extra complications. Filtering by Easy strips that away. You get one rule at a time, in plain everyday language, with no trick questions. It's how you make a shaky foundation solid before stacking more on top.
The Easy difficulty tag marks beginner-level questions and challenges — typically A1 or early A2. Single-rule focus, short sentences, common vocabulary, one clear correct answer.