Adjective

An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving more information about its qualities, state, or identity. Adjectives are one of the core parts of speech in English, and you use them constantly — to describe people, objects, feelings, and ideas.

What adjectives do

Adjectives typically answer questions like What kind?, Which one?, or How many? They can appear in two main positions:

• Before a noun (called attributive position): a tall building, fresh coffee, three students
• After a linking verb (called predicative position): The soup is hot, She seems tired

Some adjectives work in only one position. For example, main is almost always attributive (the main reason), while asleep is almost always predicative (The baby is asleep).

Examples

• ✅ She wore a red dress. (red modifies dress)
• ✅ The exam was difficult. (difficult follows the linking verb was)
• ❌ She wore a redly dress. (Adverbs like redly don't modify nouns.)
• ✅ He gave me useful advice. (useful modifies the uncountable noun advice)

Adjective order

When you stack multiple adjectives before a noun, English follows a conventional order: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose. For example, a lovely small old round brown French wooden serving table — though in real life you'd rarely pile up that many.

Self-check: If your sentence sounds awkward with two adjectives before a noun, try swapping their order. The version that "sounds right" usually follows the standard sequence.

Adjectives vs. determiners

Words like the, this, my, and some were historically grouped with adjectives, but modern grammar classifies them as determiners. Unlike true adjectives, determiners don't have comparative forms (bigger works, but *more the doesn't) and occupy a fixed slot before any adjectives.

Comparatives and superlatives

Most adjectives have comparative and superlative forms used to compare things:

• tall → taller → tallest
• expensive → more expensive → most expensive

To practice these, try Comparatives and Superlatives. You can also build a foundation with Basics. Adjectives and Adverbs. and Basics. Word Order..

Gerund

The gerund takes the same form (ending in -ing) as the present participle, but is used as a noun (or rather the verb phrase introduced by the gerund is used as a noun phrase). Many uses of gerunds are thus similar to noun uses of the infinitive. Uses of gerunds and gerund phrases are illustrated below:

As subject or predicative expression:

• Solving problems is satisfying.
• My favorite activity is spotting butterflies.

As object of certain verbs that admit such constructions:

• I like solving problems.
• We tried restarting the computer.

In a passive-type construction after certain verbs, with a gap (zero) in object or complement position, understood to be filled by the subject of the main clause:

• That floor wants/needs scrubbing.
• It doesn't bear thinking about.

As complement of certain prepositions:

• No one is better at solving problems.
• Before jogging, she stretches.
• After investigating the facts, we made a decision.
• That prevents you from eating too much.

It is considered grammatically correct to express the agent(logical subject) of a gerund using a possessive form (they object to my helping them), although in informal English a simple noun or pronoun is often used instead (they object to me helping them).

Noun

A noun (from Latin nōmen, literally meaning "name") is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. Linguistically, a noun is a member of a large, open part of speech whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.

Lexical categories (parts of speech) are defined in terms of the ways in which their members combine with other kinds of expressions. In English, nouns are those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase.

Phrasal Verbs

In English, a phrasal verb is a phrase such as turn down or ran into which combines two or three words from different grammatical categories: a verb and a particle and/or a preposition together form a single semantic unit. This semantic unit cannot be understood based upon the meanings of the individual parts, but must be taken as a whole. In other words, the meaning is non-compositional and thus unpredictable. Phrasal verbs that include a preposition are known as prepositional verbs and phrasal verbs that include a particle are also known as particle verbs. Additional alternative terms for phrasal verb are compound verb, verb-adverb combination, verb-particle construction, two-part word/verb, and three-part word/verb (depending on the number of particles), and multi-word verb.

Examples

There are at least three main types of phrasal verb constructions depending on whether the verb combines with a preposition, a particle, or both. The phrasal verb constructions in the following examples are in bold:

Verb + preposition (prepositional phrasal verbs)

When the element is a preposition, it is the head) of a full prepositional phrase and the phrasal verb is thus a prepositional phrasal verb. These phrasal verbs can also be thought of as transitive and non-separable; the complement follows the phrasal verb.

• Who is looking after the kids? – after is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase after the kids.
• They picked on nobody. – on is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase on nobody.
• I ran into an old friend. – into is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase into an old friend.
• She takes after her mother. – after is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase after her mother.
• Sam passes for a linguist. – for is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase for a linguist.
• You should stand by your friend. – by is a preposition that introduces the prepositional phrase by your friend.

Verb + particle (particle phrasal verbs)

When the element is a particle, it can not (or no longer) be construed as a preposition, but rather is a particle because it does not take a complement. These verbs can be transitive or intransitive. If they are transitive, they are separable.

• They brought that up twice. – up is a particle, not a preposition.
• You should think it over. – over is a particle, not a preposition.
• Why does he always dress down? – down is a particle, not a preposition.
• You should not give in so quickly. – in is a particle, not a preposition.
• Where do they want to hang out? – out is a particle, not a preposition.
• She handed it in. – in is a particle, not a preposition. *

Verb + particle + preposition (particle-prepositional phrasal verbs)

Finally, many phrasal verbs are combined with both a preposition and a particle.

• Who can put up with that? – up is a particle and with is a preposition.
• She is looking forward to a rest. – forward is a particle and to is a preposition.
• The other tanks were bearing down on my panther. – down is a particle and on is a preposition.
• They were really teeing off on me. – off is a particle and on is a preposition.
• We loaded up on Mountain Dew and Doritos. – up is a particle and on is a preposition
• Susan has been sitting in for me. – in is a particle and for is a preposition.The aspect of these types of verbs that unifies them under the single banner phrasal verb is the fact that their meaning cannot be understood based upon the meaning of their parts taken in isolation: the meaning of pick up is distinct from pick; the meaning of hang out is not obviously related to hang.

Phrase

In everyday speech, a phrase may be any group of words, often carrying a special idiomatic meaning; in this sense it is synonymous with expression. In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words (or possibly a single word) that functions as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence, a single unit within a grammatical hierarchy. A phrase typically appears within a clause, but it is possible also for a phrase to be a clause or to contain a clause within it.

Preposition

Prepositions form a closed word class, although there are also certain phrases that serve as prepositions, such as in front of.

A single preposition may have a variety of meanings, often including temporal, spatial and abstract. Many words that are prepositions can also serve as adverbs. Examples of common English prepositions (including phrasal instances) are of, in, on, over, under, to, from, with, in front of, behind, opposite, by, before, after, during, through, in spite of or despite, between, among, etc.

A preposition is usually used with a noun phrase as its complement.

A preposition together with its complement is called a prepositional phrase.

Examples are in England, under the table, after six pleasant weeks, between the land and the sea.

A prepositional phrase can be used as a complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in the man in the car, the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in deal with the problem, proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase.

English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (fronted), leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English.

For example:

• What are you talking about? (Possible alternative version: About what are you talking?)
• The song that you were listening to ... (more formal: The song to which you were listening ...)

Notice that in the second example the relative pronoun that could be omitted.

Stranded prepositions can also arise in passive voice constructions and other uses of passive past participial phrases, where the complement in a prepositional phrase can become zero in the same way that a verb's direct object would: it was looked at; I will be operated on; get your teeth seen to.

The same can happen in certain uses of infinitive phrases: he is nice to talk to; this is the page to make copies of.

Verb

A verb is a word that expresses an action, a state, or an occurrence — and it's the engine of every English sentence. Understanding how verbs work is foundational to everything else in English grammar, from forming questions to building complex sentences.

Verb Forms

Most English verbs have five inflected forms:

• Base form (go, write, climb) — used as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative in all persons except third-person singular.
• -s form (goes, writes, climbs) — used for the present tense, third-person singular (she writes).
• Past tense (went, wrote, climbed) — also called the preterite.
• Past participle (gone, written, climbed) — identical to the past tense for regular verbs, but often different for irregular verbs.
• -ing form (going, writing, climbing) — serves as the present participle and gerund.

The verb be is a special case with more forms than any other English verb (am, is, are, was, were, been, being). Modal verbs like can, must, and should have fewer forms than typical verbs.

Main Verbs and Auxiliaries

Verbs in English often appear in combinations: one or more auxiliary verbs paired with a main verb.

• The dog was barking very loudly.
• My hat has been cleaned.
• Jane does not really like us.

The first verb in the combination is the finite verb (it carries tense and agrees with the subject). The rest are nonfinite (infinitives or participles). Notice that these verbs don't always sit next to each other — as in does not really like.

Tense, Aspect, and Mood

English expresses tense (time reference), aspect (how an action unfolds over time), and mood (the speaker's attitude toward the action) mostly through verb combinations rather than word endings. That's why you'll encounter labels like "present progressive" or "conditional perfect" — these are specific tense–aspect–mood combinations built with auxiliaries.

Self-check: If you can change the time of a sentence by swapping one word (She runs → She ran), that word is the verb.

Keep Practising

To build your verb skills from the ground up, try these challenges: Basics. "To be" in Present Tense, Basics. Common Uses of Auxiliary Verbs, and Transitive and Intransitive Verbs.

Progressive

The progressive or continuous aspect is used to denote a temporary action or state that began at a previous time and continues into the present time (or other time of reference). It is expressed using a form of the auxiliary verb to be (conjugated appropriately for tense etc.) together with the present participle (-ing form) of the main verb: I am reading; Were you shouting?; He will be sitting over there.

Certain stative verbs make limited use of progressive aspect. Their nonprogressive forms (simple or nonprogressive perfect constructions) are used in many situations even when expressing a temporary state.

The main types are described below.

• The copular verb to be does not normally use progressive forms (I am happy, not I am being happy). However its progressive aspect is used in appropriate situations when the verb expresses the passive voice (We are being followed), and when it has the meaning of "behave" or "act as" (You are being very naughty; He's being a pest).
• The verb to have does not use progressive forms when it expresses possession), broadly understood (I have a brother, not I'm having a brother), but it does use them in its active meanings (I'm having a party; She's having a baby; He was having a problem starting his car). Other verbs expressing a state of possession or similar, such as possess, own, belong and owe, also do not normally use progressive forms.
• Verbs of mental state, sense perception and similar (know, believe, want, think, see, hear, need, etc.) are generally used without progressive aspect, although some of them can be used in the progressive to imply an ongoing, often temporary situation (I am feeling lonely), or an activity (I am thinking about a problem).
• Verbs denoting positional state normally do use the progressive if the state is temporary: He is standing in the corner. (Compare permanent state: London stands on the banks of the Thames.)

Perfect Progressive

The perfect and progressive (continuous) aspects can be combined, usually in referring to the completed portion of a continuing action or temporary state: I have been working for eight hours. Here a form of the verb have (denoting the perfect) is used together with been (the past participle of be, denoting the progressive) and the present participle of the main verb.

In the case of the stative verbs, which do not use progressive aspect, the plain perfect form is normally used in place of the perfect progressive: I've been here for half an hour (not I've been being here...).

Collocations

Collocations are combinations of words that are frequently used together in a particular order, forming a natural-sounding expression. These word pairs or groups often sound more natural to native speakers than other possible combinations of the same words. Understanding collocations is important for language learners because they help you sound more fluent and natural when speaking or writing.

B1 | Intermediate

B1 is the intermediate level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It marks the point where you move beyond survival English and start expressing yourself with real independence — describing experiences, explaining opinions, and handling everyday situations without a script.

What a B1 user can do

At this level, you're expected to:

• Understand the main points of clear, standard speech and writing on familiar topics — work, school, travel, hobbies.
• Handle most travel situations in English-speaking environments.
• Produce simple connected text on topics you know or care about.
• Describe experiences, events, hopes, and plans, and give brief reasons and explanations for your opinions.
• Communicate in routine tasks that require a straightforward exchange of information.

What B1 grammar looks like

B1 is where grammar starts to get more layered. You're not just forming basic sentences anymore — you're combining ideas, using different tenses with more precision, and starting to handle structures like the passive voice, modal verbs for necessity and possibility, and gerunds vs. infinitives. You're also expected to build complex sentences with linking words and dependent clauses.

Typical B1 grammar areas include:

• Future tenses — distinguishing will, going to, and the present continuous for future plans
• Passive voice — The report was written yesterday.
• Modal verbs — You should apply early. / She might be late.
• Used to — I used to live in Berlin.
• Verb patterns — knowing whether a verb takes a gerund, an infinitive, or both (I enjoy reading vs. I decided to leave)

What B1 doesn't mean

B1 speakers still hesitate, make grammatical errors, and sometimes struggle with less familiar topics. That's normal. The key difference from A2 is that you can keep a conversation going and get your point across even when things aren't perfect. The step up to B2 involves handling more abstract topics, understanding nuance, and producing more complex, accurate language.

Self-check: Can you tell a friend about a recent trip — what happened, what you liked, and what you'd do differently — without switching to your native language? If yes, you're likely operating at B1 or above.

Ready to find out where you stand? Try Are you B1/Intermediate? Test your English CEFR Level to figure out!, then build your skills with challenges like Basics. Passive Voice, Basics. Modal verbs, and Used to.

Difficulty: Medium

Medium difficulty. Difficulty levels represent author's opinion about how hard a question or challenge is.