Adverb

• ✅ She sings beautifully; ❌ She sings beautiful
• ✅ He drives carefully; ❌ He drives careful
• ✅ They arrived late; ✅ a late train (same form, both roles)
• ✅ She works hard; ❌ She works hardly (different meaning!)

The -ly words are adverbs: they modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, telling you how, when, where, or to what degree.

Pattern: most adjectives become adverbs by adding -ly, but watch the exceptions (fast, hard, late, well) that keep the same shape or change meaning entirely.

Imperative mood

• ✅ Sit down. (command: bare verb, no subject)
• ✅ Don't touch that. (negative imperative)
• ✅ Let's go. (first-person inclusive imperative)
• ❌ You sit down. (adding you sounds aggressive; only for emphasis/anger)

The imperative mood uses the bare verb form with no stated subject for commands, instructions, requests, and invitations. Negated with don't. Softened with please or replaced by questions (Could you…?) for politeness.

Rule: imperative = base form of verb, no subject, no tense marking. If there's a subject or tense → it's not imperative.

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.

Modal verb

• ✅ She can swim. ❌ She can to swim. (modal + bare infinitive, no to)
• ✅ You must leave now. (strong obligation)
• ✅ It might rain. (possibility, ~50%)
• ✅ He should apologize. (advice/recommendation)

Modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) are auxiliaries expressing ability, permission, possibility, obligation, or speculation. Always + bare infinitive. Never inflected (she can, not she cans).

Rule: modals never take to after them, never add -s for third person, and can't combine directly (must can ❌; use must be able to).

Past tense

• I walked home. (simple past: completed action)
• I was walking when it rained. (past progressive: in progress)
• I had already left when she arrived. (past perfect: earlier past)
• I had been waiting for an hour. (past perfect progressive: duration up to a past point)

Four past tense forms: simple past (done), past progressive (was happening), past perfect (had already happened), past perfect progressive (had been happening). Each encodes different timing relative to other past events.

Pattern: simple past = the story's main timeline. Past progressive = background action. Past perfect = flashback to something even earlier.

Phrasal verb

• give up = quit (≠ give + up literally)
• come across = find by chance (≠ come + across literally)
• put up with = tolerate (3-word phrasal verb)
• look into = investigate (≠ physically look inside something)

Phrasal verbs = verb + particle/preposition forming a unit with non-literal meaning. There are thousands, and they dominate casual native English. They must be learned as whole units.

Key fact: the particle completely changes the verb's meaning. Look up (search), look after (care for), look into (investigate), look down on (disrespect): all different.

Phrase

• the red car (noun phrase, functions as one noun unit)
• on the table (prepositional phrase)
• has been running (verb phrase)
• very quickly (adverb phrase)

A phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit WITHOUT a subject + verb pair. Types: noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase.

Key distinction: a phrase lacks a subject-verb pair. If it has subject + verb → it's a clause, not a phrase. Phrases are the building blocks clauses are made of.

Present tense

• I work here. (simple present: habit/permanent)
• I am working now. (present progressive: happening right now)
• I have lived here for 10 years. (present perfect: started past, still true)
• I have been waiting for an hour. (present perfect progressive: duration up to now)

Four present tense forms: simple (habits/facts), progressive (now/temporary), perfect (past → present relevance), perfect progressive (ongoing duration). Each encodes a different relationship between the action and the present moment.

Trap: "I am living here for 10 years" ❌. Started in the past + still true = present PERFECT (have lived/have been living), not progressive.

Punctuation

• Period (.) — ends statements
• Comma (,) — separates within sentences
• Semicolon (;) — links related independent clauses
• Colon (:) — introduces what follows
• Question mark (?) — ends direct questions
• Apostrophe (') — possession + contractions

Punctuation marks signal sentence structure to the reader: where thoughts end, how they connect, what's quoted, and what belongs to whom. ~12 marks, each with specific rules.

Key insight: punctuation isn't about pauses in speech. It's about grammatical structure. Learn the structure, and the punctuation follows.

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).

Sentence

• She left. (simple: one independent clause)
• She left, and he stayed. (compound: two independents)
• She left because she was tired. (complex: independent + dependent)
• She left because she was tired, and he stayed. (compound-complex)

A sentence = one or more clauses forming a complete thought, ending with terminal punctuation. Four types based on clause structure: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.

Minimum requirement: at least one independent clause with a subject + finite verb. Without that → fragment.

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.

Verb mood

• Indicative: She goes every day. (stating fact)
• Imperative: Go now. (giving command)
• Subjunctive: I suggest she go. (hypothetical/recommendation)
• Conditional: She would go if asked. (dependent on condition)

Verb mood marks the speaker's attitude: indicative (fact), imperative (command), subjunctive (unreal/recommended), conditional (would/could). English barely marks mood morphologically, mostly through auxiliaries and word order.

Rule: stating a fact? → indicative. Giving a command? → imperative. Imagining/recommending? → subjunctive or conditional. The mood determines which verb forms and auxiliaries you use.

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.

Progressive tense

• ✅ I am working in London. (temporary, happening now)
• ✅ I work in London. (permanent/habitual, simple)
• ❌ I am knowing the answer. (stative verb, can't be progressive)
• ✅ She was reading when I arrived. (past progressive: in progress at that moment)

The progressive = be + -ing. Marks actions as ongoing, temporary, or in-progress at a reference time. NOT used with stative verbs (know, believe, own, want, like) unless meaning shifts.

Rule: is the action temporary/in-progress right now? → progressive. Is it a permanent fact, habit, or schedule? → simple. Is it a stative verb? → almost never progressive.

Simple tense

• ✅ I go to work every day. (present simple: habit)
• ✅ She went home yesterday. (past simple: completed action)
• ✅ I will call you later. (future simple: promise/decision)
• ✅ Water boils at 100°C. (present simple: general truth)

The simple aspect is the default, unmarked verb form. Present simple = habits, facts, schedules. Past simple = completed actions. Future simple = predictions, promises, decisions. No auxiliary needed (except will for future and do for questions/negatives).

Rule: if the action is a fact, habit, completed event, or scheduled future, and you don't need to emphasize it being in-progress or connected to now → simple tense.

Collocations

• ✅ make a decision; ❌ do a decision
• ✅ strong coffee; ❌ powerful coffee
• ✅ heavy rain; ❌ strong rain
• ✅ highly unlikely; ❌ very unlikely (grammatical, but less natural)

Collocations are word pairs that English habitually puts together. Both options may be grammatically valid, but one sounds native and the other doesn't.

Pattern: there's no logic to predict them; you make decisions but do homework, you have strong coffee but heavy rain. They must be learned as chunks, not deduced from rules.

Idiom

• It's raining cats and dogs. (means "raining heavily", not literal animals)
• Break a leg! (means "good luck", not an injury wish)
• Spill the beans (means "reveal a secret")
• Kick the bucket (means "to die", no actual bucket involved)

Idioms are fixed phrases whose meaning can't be guessed from the individual words. They must be memorized as complete units; word-by-word translation from another language almost always fails.

Pattern: if a phrase is literally absurd but everyone uses it with a specific meaning → it's an idiom. Learn it as a chunk, not as individual words.

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 at 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.

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 at 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 apologize. (one rule, the 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.