English Grammar: A1 to C2

Use present simple for permanent facts, regular habits, and fixed schedules: add -s (or -es) to the verb for he/she/it, and use do/does — not the main verb — to build negatives and questions.

Use past simple for actions that started and finished at a specific point in the past: add -ed to regular verbs (worked, played) or use the irregular past form (went, bought, saw), and use did — not the past-tense verb — to build negatives and questions.

Use will for predictions, promises, offers, and decisions you make at the moment of speaking — not for plans you already made before now.

Use am with I, is with he/she/it, and are with you/we/they to talk about identity, feelings, location, and description — questions and negatives use am/is/are directly, with no do or does.

Use a before a consonant sound and an before a vowel sound for a single, not-yet-specific noun; use the once both speaker and listener know exactly which one; use no article at all for general or uncountable nouns.

Use have got (or has got for he/she/it) to talk about possession, family, or physical characteristics — it means exactly the same as plain have, but is more common in British English and only exists in the present tense.

Add -s to most nouns to make them plural (cat → cats), -es after s/x/ch/sh/o (box → boxes), change y to ies after a consonant (baby → babies), and memorize irregular plurals like man → men — some nouns like sheep don't change at all, and uncountable nouns like information have no plural form.

Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their) go directly before a noun to show who it belongs to, never take an apostrophe, and never change even when the noun after them is plural.

Use this for one thing near you, that for one thing farther away, these for several things near you, and those for several things farther away.

Use there is with a singular noun and there are with a plural noun to say that something exists or is present in a place — never use "it is" for this.

Use the base form of the verb with no subject to give a command or instruction (Stop! Open the door.), add don't before it for a negative command, and use let's to suggest doing something together.

Start a question with what, where, when, why, how, or who depending on the information you want, then add an auxiliary verb (do/does/did/is/are) before the subject — except when the question word itself is the subject.

Use present continuous (am/is/are + verb-ing) for actions happening right now, temporary situations, and fixed future plans — not for habits or things that are always true, which need present simple instead.

Use past continuous (was/were + verb-ing) for an action already in progress at a specific past moment — often interrupted by, or running alongside, another action told in past simple.

Use "going to" (am/is/are + going to + base verb) for plans and intentions already decided before you speak, and for predictions based on evidence you can see right now.

Add -er + than for short adjectives (bigger than) or put more before long adjectives (more expensive than) to compare two things; add -est or most, with "the", to say something is the extreme in a group (the biggest, the most expensive).

Use in for months, years, and seasons (in June, in 2024), on for specific days and dates (on Monday), and at for exact times and points in space (at 3 PM, at home) — think big to small: in the biggest unit, on the middle one, at the smallest point.

Use can for present ability, permission, and possibility ("I can swim"); use could for past general ability and for more polite requests and guesses ("She could read at four", "Could you help me?").

Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never) go before the main verb but after "to be": "I always brush my teeth" but "I am always late."

Add 's to a singular noun to show possession (Tom's car); for a plural noun that already ends in -s, add only an apostrophe (the boys' room); for an irregular plural, add 's (the children's toys).

Use some in positive sentences and any in negatives and questions; use much with uncountable nouns (water, money) and many with countable plural nouns (books, people); a lot of works for both types in any sentence form.

Use and to add ideas, but to contrast, or to give a choice, because to explain a reason, and so to show a result — each one joins two ideas into a single, more natural sentence.

Use object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) after a verb or a preposition — never as the subject of a sentence: "She called me," not "She called I."

Countable nouns can be counted one by one and have a plural form (a book, two books); uncountable nouns can't be counted or made plural (water, money) — use some/much/a little instead of a number.

Too means more than you want or need and signals a problem (too hot, too expensive); enough means a sufficient amount (warm enough, enough money) — too goes before the adjective, enough goes after the adjective but before the noun.

Adverbs of manner describe how an action happens, usually formed by adding -ly to an adjective (slow → slowly) and placed after the verb, or after the object if the verb has one.

Use the present perfect (have/has + past participle) for past actions that connect to now — an ongoing state, a life experience, or a recent event whose result still matters — not for actions tied to a specific finished time, which need past simple instead.

Use the present perfect continuous (have/has been + verb-ing) to emphasize the duration of an action that started in the past and is still going on, or has just stopped but left a visible result — use present perfect simple instead when the point is the result or the completed fact.

Modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, should, etc.) sit directly before the base form of another verb — no "to", no -s — and each one signals a specific shade of meaning, such as ability, permission, possibility, obligation, or advice, that depends on context rather than a fixed rule.

Form the passive with be (is/are/was/were/will be/has been…) + past participle, moving the object of the active sentence into subject position — use it when the action or result matters more than who performed it, or when the agent is unknown, obvious, or unimportant.

"Used to + base verb" is only for past habits or states that have now stopped — it has no present-tense form, and questions/negatives drop the -d ("Did you use to...?", "didn't use to...") even though the positive form keeps it ("used to").

Use will be + verb-ing for an action that will already be in progress at a specific future moment, or to ask politely about someone's existing plans without sounding like a direct request.

Add a short tag to the end of a statement to check information or invite agreement — flip the polarity (positive statement → negative tag, negative statement → positive tag) and repeat the statement's own auxiliary verb, matched to its subject pronoun.

Use however to connect two separate sentences (full stop or semicolon before it, comma after), although/even though before a full clause (subject + verb), and despite/in spite of before a noun or -ing form — never a clause — to show contrast.

Use who/that for people, which/that for things, whose for possession, and where for places to add essential identifying information right after the noun — never with a comma — and drop the pronoun only when it is the object of its own clause, never when it is the subject.

Use so before an adjective or adverb with no noun (so tired, so quickly) and such before a noun, with or without an adjective (such a mess, such kind people) — both can be followed by a that-clause showing the result.

Stack adjectives before a noun in this order — opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose (OSASCOMP) — and keep it to two or three at once, since native speakers rarely use more even when a longer chain is grammatically correct.

In sentences with when, as soon as, before, after, until, or once talking about the future, put the time-clause verb in present simple, not will — save will for the other clause, which describes the actual future action.

If the question word (who/what) is the one doing the action, keep normal statement word order with no do/does/did ("Who broke it?"); if it's receiving the action, add do-support and invert the subject and auxiliary ("Who did you see?").

Use past perfect (had + past participle) for the earlier of two past events, especially when the order isn't already clear from words like "before" or "after" — it marks which action happened first.

Use future perfect (will have + past participle) for an action that will be completed before a specific point in the future — it almost always needs a "by" time marker to sound natural.

Match the if-clause tense to the situation: present tense for facts and real future possibilities (Types 0-1), past tense for present hypotheticals (Type 2), and past perfect for past regrets (Type 3) — the main clause then follows with present, will, would, or would have accordingly.

Backshift the verb one step into the past when reporting speech (present→past, past→past perfect, will→would), switch pronouns to match the reporter's perspective, and change "say" to "tell" only when you name who was told.

Check the verb before the gap: some verbs (enjoy, mind, finish) always take -ing, others (want, decide, promise) always take to + verb, and a handful (stop, remember, try) change meaning depending on which one you choose.

Use "have/get + object + past participle" when someone else does something for you — "I had my car repaired" means a mechanic repaired it, not that you did it yourself.

Use past perfect continuous (had been + verb-ing) to show how long an action was in progress before another past moment — it emphasizes duration and process, not just completion.

Use future perfect continuous (will have been + verb-ing) to emphasize how long an action will have been going on by a specific future point — it's mostly reserved for milestones and formal writing, not casual speech.

Use "must have" for a confident guess, "can't/couldn't have" for something you're sure is impossible, "might/may/could have" for an uncertain guess, and "should have" for criticizing or regretting a past action that didn't happen — all followed by the past participle, never "of".

Use -ing for an active meaning ("Walking down the street, I saw..."), -ed for a passive meaning ("Built in 1890, the house..."), and "having + past participle" when the participle action happened before the main clause ("Having finished, she left").

Learn each verb, adjective, or noun together with its fixed preposition as one chunk (afraid of, depend on, interested in) — the preposition rarely follows a logical rule and stays at the end of the sentence even in questions ("What are you afraid of?").

Mixed conditionals combine a past condition with a present result (or a present condition with a past result) in one sentence: use had + past participle in the if-clause with would/could + base verb in the result for a past cause with a present effect, or past simple in the if-clause with would have + past participle in the result for a present cause with a past effect.

Inversion after a negative adverbial means swapping the normal subject-verb order — auxiliary before subject — right after words like Never, Rarely, Not only, or Under no circumstances placed at the start of a sentence for dramatic emphasis: "Never have I seen such a sunset," not "Never I have seen."

Use a defining relative clause (no commas) when the clause is essential to identify which person or thing you mean, a non-defining relative clause (with commas) when it just adds extra, removable information, and a reduced relative clause (dropping the pronoun) to compress either type into a shorter phrase.

Use wish + past simple (or "were") for a wish about now, wish + past perfect for a regret about the past, and wish + would for wanting someone else's annoying behaviour to change — "if only" follows the same rules but sounds more emotional and emphatic than "wish."

Would have + past participle describes an imagined or unrealised past action or outcome — something that didn't actually happen: "I would have helped you if I had known" means you didn't help, because you didn't know.

Discourse markers like moreover, on the other hand, and by the way connect and organise ideas across sentences rather than adding grammatical meaning — pick one that matches both the logical relationship (addition, contrast, result, topic shift) and the register of your writing or speech.

Substitution replaces a word or clause with a short form like one, so, or not to avoid repeating it ("I think so"), and ellipsis omits words entirely when the meaning is already clear from context ("Want some?" = "Do you want some?").

Had, were, and should can replace "if" at the start of a conditional clause for a formal or literary tone — swap the subject and auxiliary instead of using "if": "Had I known" = "If I had known," "Were I you" = "If I were you," "Should you need help" = "If you should need help."

Nominalisation turns a verb or adjective into a noun (decide → decision, important → importance) to write in a formal, objective, academic style that foregrounds the result or idea rather than who did it and when.

Hedging softens a claim with words like may, might, seems, tends to, or arguably so you state an interpretation as an interpretation, not an established fact — useful in academic and formal writing where a single counterexample could otherwise disprove an unhedged claim.

Use be to for formal scheduled announcements, be about to for something happening in the very next moment, be due to for a planned or timetabled event, be on the verge of for a dramatic turning point, and be bound to for a confident prediction based on logic rather than a schedule.

Use the-more...the-more for two things changing in proportion, repeat a comparative with "and" (bigger and bigger) for an ongoing trend, and modifiers like far/slightly or not nearly as...as to control exactly how big — or small — the gap between two things is.

A cleft sentence splits one clause into two parts to push a single element into focus: the it-cleft ("It was Sarah who won") for formal emphasis, or the wh-cleft ("What I need is a good rest") for a more natural spoken alternative.

The mandative subjunctive uses the bare base form of the verb — no -s, no tense change — after expressions of necessity, demand, or recommendation ("It is essential that she be informed"); it stays common in formal American English, while British English often swaps in "should" instead.

Use the passive causative ("have/get something done") to say someone else performs an action for you, and the impersonal passive ("It is said/believed/known that…") to report information without naming who said it — both are staples of formal, academic, and journalistic English.

Use "was/were going to" for a planned or expected action viewed from a point in the past — often one that never happened — "was/were about to" for something on the verge of happening, and "would" for predictions or plans reported in indirect speech.

Fronting moves an object, adjective, or adverbial to the start of the sentence for emphasis or contrast — most fronted objects don't trigger inversion ("That book, I have already read"), but fronted negative adverbials and so/such phrases do ("Never have I seen…").

Put long or new information at the end of the sentence, using "it" (extraposition) or "there" (existential) as placeholders to keep a heavy subject from cluttering the start — "It surprised me that he agreed so quickly," not "That he agreed so quickly surprised me."

Parallelism repeats the same grammatical structure across items in a list, anaphora repeats the same words at the start of successive clauses, and a tricolon groups three parallel parts for rhythmic emphasis — all three make speech and writing more memorable and persuasive.