Compendium

🔤 Grammar

English — A0 grammar The first grammar tables you need: personal pronouns and the verbs “to be” and “to have” in the present — with the meaning in your language.

🔢 Vocabulary

Numbers 0–12 The first numbers, from zero to twelve — the ones you use for age, time, prices and counting.

❓ Grammar

Question words Who, what, where, when, why, how — the words that open a question, with the meaning in your language.

📅 Vocabulary

English — days of the week The seven days of the week, with the day in your language next to each one.

🕒 Grammar

English — present tense (Present Simple) The simplest English tense: the base verb everywhere, with one twist — add -s in the third person singular.

🔢 Vocabulary

English — numbers 13–100 The teens, the tens and one hundred — how to keep counting past twelve.

🗓️ Vocabulary

English — months The twelve months of the year, with the month in your language next to each.

🎨 Vocabulary

English — colours Eleven basic colours, with the colour word in your language.

🫱 Grammar

English — possessives Every possessive in full: masculine, feminine and plural of the thing owned (nominative). English and Polish 3rd-person forms don’t change.

📍 Grammar

English — prepositions Eight everyday prepositions of place and relation, with the closest word in your language.

🍂 Vocabulary

English — seasons The four seasons, with the season in your language next to each.

🧩 Grammar

English — to be and to have The two core English verbs. “be” is very irregular; “have” only changes in the third person. Both help build other tenses.

🚫 Grammar

English — negation How to say no, not, never, nothing and nobody — the words that turn a sentence negative.

📏 Vocabulary

English — basic adjectives Twelve everyday adjectives in opposite pairs (big/small, hot/cold…), with the meaning in your language.

🔤 Grammar

English — word order One sentence in four shapes — statement, negative, yes/no question, wh-question — to see how the word order changes.

🔑 Grammar

English — modal verbs The modal verbs in full: every verb conjugated through all persons in the present, with the meaning of each form in your language.

⏪ Grammar

English — past tense (Past Simple) One tense for all finished past actions. Regular verbs add -ed; a handful of common verbs are irregular and must be learned.

⏩ Grammar

English — future (will / going to) English has no single future tense. It uses will and be going to — and even the present — depending on what you mean.

📣 Grammar

English — the imperative The easiest structure in English: just the base verb, no subject. One form for everyone.

🧑 Grammar

English — personal pronouns English pronouns come in two sets: subject pronouns before the verb, object pronouns after it or after a preposition.

🔁 Grammar

English — reflexive pronouns The -self / -selves words. Use them when the subject and the object are the same person: I hurt myself.

📚 Grammar

English — plural nouns Mostly you just add -s. A few spelling rules and a handful of irregulars cover the rest.

💭 Grammar

English — the conditional (would) To talk about unreal or hypothetical situations, English pairs an if-clause with would.

📊 Grammar

English — comparatives Eight everyday adjectives graded base → comparative → superlative, with the base meaning in your language. Watch the irregular good and bad.

✳️ Grammar

English — there is / there are English changes the verb for number: there is for one thing, there are for several.

🔗 Grammar

English — relative clauses Relative clauses add information about a noun using who, which, that and friends.

📦 Grammar

English — there is / there are How to say that something exists — “there is a table”, “there are two tables” — in four shapes, with the meaning in your language.

🔄 Grammar

English — the passive voice The passive puts the receiver of the action first: The letter was written. Build it with be + the past participle.

💨 Grammar

English — adverbs Adverbs say how an action happens. Most come from an adjective + -ly.

🥇 Grammar

English — ordinal numbers First to tenth — the numbers for order and dates, with the meaning in your language.

🗣️ Grammar

English — reported speech When you report what someone said, the tense usually shifts one step back.

🌀 Grammar

English — the subjunctive (formal) English has a small, formal subjunctive: the bare base verb in certain that-clauses, and were for unreal situations.

⏮️ Grammar

English — past perfect The past perfect is the “past before the past”: it shows one action was already finished before another moment in the past.

⏳ Grammar

English — continuous tenses (be + -ing) The continuous (progressive) shows an action in progress at a moment. Build it with be + the -ing form.

📎 Grammar

English — gerund or infinitive When one verb follows another, English chooses between the -ing form and to + verb — and the choice depends on the first verb.

🧮 Grammar

English — quantifiers & determiners Quantifiers tell us how much or how many. English chooses different words for countable and uncountable nouns, and for affirmative versus negative or interrogative sentences: some / any, much / many, little / few.

🔀 Grammar

English — conditional sentences English builds different conditional sentences depending on how real or hypothetical the situation is. Each type pairs a specific tense in the if-clause with a specific form in the main clause.

🏷️ Grammar

English — question tags A question tag is a short question added to the end of a statement to ask for confirmation or invite agreement, as in You're French, aren't you?

🌠 Grammar

English — wish / if only Use wish and if only to talk about regrets — things you would like to be different in the present or the past.

🔧 Grammar

English — causative (have/get something done) The causative describes an action you arrange for someone else to do for you, rather than doing it yourself.

✅ Grammar

English — present perfect (details) The present perfect connects the past with the present moment: an action in unfinished time or one whose result matters now.

🕰️ Grammar

English — used to Use “used to” + base verb to talk about a past habit or a state that is no longer true.

🅰️ Grammar

English — Indefinite article a/an English has one indefinite article with two forms: a and an. The choice depends on the sound that follows, not the spelling. Use it before a singular countable noun mentioned for the first time or one of many, and to state someone's job.

📌 Grammar

English — the definite article the Use the when you and the listener both know which thing is meant: a specific noun, something mentioned before, or something unique. In the man is reading the book, both nouns are already identified. The stays the same for singular, plural and uncountable nouns.

🚫 Grammar

English — Zero article In many general statements English uses no article at all. Plural and uncountable nouns spoken about in general, plus meals, languages, sports and abstract nouns, normally stand bare: Dogs bark and Water is wet.

🗺️ Grammar

English — articles with geographical names English uses the with certain geographical names but no article with others. Groups like oceans, rivers and mountain ranges take the (the Pacific, the Nile, the Alps), while continents, single countries, cities and lakes take no article (Asia, France, Lake Como).

🏫 Grammar

English — Articles with institutions and fixed phrases With certain places, English drops the article when you mean the normal activity done there — go to bed, go to school — but uses the when you mean the physical building or a specific one.

🐅 Grammar

English — Articles for generalization English generalizes about a whole class in three ways: a tiger, tigers and the tiger. All three can mean “tigers in general”, but they frame the class differently and are not always interchangeable.

🧮 Grammar

English — Countable vs uncountable nouns Countable nouns have singular and plural forms (a book / two books). Uncountable nouns (water, advice, information) have no plural and take no a/an. The type decides which quantifiers you can use.

🔖 Grammar

English — Saxon genitive and of-possession English shows possession in two main ways: with 's / s' (the dog's tail) and with the of-phrase (the roof of the house). Which one you use depends mostly on whether the owner is a person or a thing.

🔀 Grammar

English — Irregular plurals Most English nouns form the plural by adding -s or -es, but a small group of common words changes in an unpredictable way, for example man → men and child → children. These irregular plurals must be memorized individually.

👥 Grammar

English — Collective nouns and agreement Some nouns look singular but name a group (team, family, government); the verb can be singular or plural depending on whether the group acts as one unit or as individuals. A separate set of nouns has fixed number: trousers is always plural, news is always singular.

🔗 Grammar

English — Compound and noun-noun combinations English often turns one noun into a modifier of another: a bus stop, a shoe shop. The first noun acts like an adjective and stays singular, even when the meaning is plural.

🔀 Grammar

English — some / any / no and compounds Use some, any and no to talk about an indefinite quantity. As a rule, some appears in affirmative sentences (I have some money), while any goes with negatives and questions (I don't have any money; Do you have any money?). no replaces not any with an affirmative verb (I have no money). The same pattern controls the compounds someone/anyone/no one, something/anything/nothing and somewhere/anywhere/nowhere.

🔢 Grammar

English — much / many / a lot of / plenty To talk about quantity, English chooses the word by the type of noun and the type of sentence. Use many with countable nouns (many books), much with uncountable nouns (much time), and a lot of / lots of / plenty of in affirmative sentences with both.

⚖️ Grammar

English — few / a few / little / a little Use few and a few with countable nouns, little and a little with uncountable nouns. The article a also changes the meaning: few and little are negative (almost none), while a few and a little are positive (some).

☑️ Grammar

English — each vs every Both each and every refer to members of a group and take a singular verb, but each looks at members one by one (and works with just two things), while every views the whole group together and needs at least three: each child got a prize, every child was happy.

⚖️ Grammar

English — both / either / neither These three words all refer to a pair of two things. Both means the two together, either means one or the other, and neither means not one and not the other: both books, either book, neither book.

🔵 Grammar

English — all / whole / every "all", "whole" and "every" all express totality, but they differ in structure and register. "all day" and "the whole day" mean the same, while "every day" means each separate day. Note also "we all" and "all of us".

☝️ Grammar

English — one / ones as a substitute To avoid repeating a countable noun, English replaces it with one (singular) or ones (plural): the red one, these ones, which one. On its own, one can also mean people in general.

👉 Grammar

English — Demonstratives: this/that/these/those English points to things with four words: this and these for what is near, that and those for what is far. Each pair splits into singular and plural: this book / these books, that car / those cars.

🪞 Grammar

English — Reflexive and emphatic pronouns Words ending in -self / -selves refer back to the subject (I hurt myself) or add emphasis (I built it myself). The same set of forms covers both uses.

🤝 Grammar

English — reciprocal pronouns: each other / one another Reciprocal pronouns show that two or more people do the same thing to each other. English has two: each other and one another. They differ from reflexive pronouns like themselves, which point the action back at the same subject.

🌧️ Grammar

English — Empty 'it' English sentences need a grammatical subject. When there is no real doer — for weather, time, distance, or a delayed subject — it fills the slot: it's raining, it's five o'clock, it's important to rest.

📍 Grammar

English — Existential there is / there are Use there is and there are to say that something exists or is present. The verb agrees with the noun that follows: there is a book, there are two books.

🔁 Grammar

English — Additions: so/neither do I To say "the same is true for me", English uses short additions that copy the auxiliary and match the polarity. For a positive statement use so: "I love coffee." — "So do I." For a negative statement use neither or nor: "I don't smoke." — "Neither do I."

🫵 Grammar

English — Generic you / one / they English has no single impersonal pronoun. It uses you and one to talk about people in general, and they to refer to unspecified authorities or sources, as in You never know or They say it will rain.

⏱️ Grammar

English — Present simple vs present continuous Use the present simple for habits and facts, and the present continuous for what is happening now or around now. Compare I work in an office with I am working from home this week.

📅 Grammar

English — Present continuous for future arrangements The present continuous can describe fixed future plans — arrangements you have already made. It usually comes with a future time reference: I'm meeting Tom tomorrow. For fixed schedules and timetables, use the present simple instead: The train leaves at 9.

🎯 Grammar

English — be going to Use be going to to talk about intentions and plans decided before now, and about predictions based on what you can see right now: I'm going to study tonight; It's going to rain.

🔮 Grammar

English — will vs going to Both will and going to talk about the future, but they are not interchangeable. Use will for decisions made at the moment of speaking, offers, and predictions based on opinion; use going to for intentions decided beforehand and predictions based on present evidence.

⏳ Grammar

English — Future continuous The future continuous uses will be + the -ing form to describe an action in progress at a specific future moment. Compare the simple future This time tomorrow I'll fly to Rome (fact) with the continuous This time tomorrow I'll be flying to Rome, which frames the action as ongoing.

⏳ Grammar

English — Future perfect The future perfect describes an action that will be completed before a specific point in the future. It is formed with will have + past participle, as in By 2030 they will have finished the project.

⏳ Grammar

English — Present perfect vs past simple Both tenses talk about the past, but the choice depends on time. Use the present perfect (I have seen) when the time is unfinished, the result matters now, or no time is stated. Use the past simple (I saw) when the time is finished and marked with yesterday, ago or when.

⏳ Grammar

English — Present perfect continuous Use have/has been + -ing to stress the duration of an activity that continues up to now, as in I've been waiting for an hour.

⏳ Grammar

English — for vs since With the present perfect, for measures a length of time (for two years) and since marks the starting point (since 2020). Both answer How long...?

⏱️ Grammar

English — already / yet / just / still These four adverbs sharpen the timing of the present perfect. just marks something very recent, already something completed sooner than expected, yet an action expected but not done (in questions and negatives), and still an action that continues. Compare I've just eaten, I've already finished, Have you finished yet? and I still haven't finished.

⏳ Grammar

English — Past continuous vs past simple Use the past continuous (was/were + -ing) for a longer background action in progress, and the past simple for a shorter, completed action that interrupts it: I was cooking when he called.

⏳ Grammar

English — Past perfect continuous The past perfect continuous shows an activity that was in progress up to a point in the past, often stressing its duration: She had been running before she collapsed.

⏳ Grammar

English — present tense in future time clauses When a clause introduced by when, as soon as, before, after, until or if refers to the future, English uses the present simple, not will. The main clause keeps will: I'll call you when I arrive.

🕕 Grammar

English — Present simple for timetables English uses the present simple, not a future form, to talk about fixed scheduled events set by a timetable or programme: The train leaves at six. The film starts at eight.

⏳ Grammar

English — be about to / on the point of To describe something that will happen in the very next moment, English uses be about to + infinitive and the more formal be on the point of + -ing, as in I was about to leave when the phone rang.

⏳ Grammar

English — Future in the past To talk about something that was still in the future when seen from a past moment, English uses was/were going to, would, and was to. "I was going to call but forgot" describes a plan made in the past that did not happen.

💪 Grammar

English — Ability: can / could / be able to To talk about ability, English uses can for the present, could for general past ability, and was/were able to or managed to for a single thing you succeeded in doing. Be able to fills the tenses that can and could lack.

✋ Grammar

English — Obligation: must vs have to Both must and have to express obligation, but the source differs. Use must for the speaker's own authority or strong personal feeling; use have to (or have got to) when the obligation comes from outside — a rule, a law, another person.

🚫 Grammar

English — mustn't vs don't have to These forms look similar but mean opposite things. You mustn't smoke here is a prohibition (it is not allowed), while You don't have to smoke here means there is no obligation (it is your choice).

💡 Grammar

English — Advice: should / ought to / had better To give advice or say what you expect, use should, shouldn't and ought to before the base verb: You should rest. To criticise a past action, use should have + past participle: You should have called.

🔎 Grammar

English — Modals of present deduction To draw logical conclusions about a present situation, English uses modal verbs. The choice shows how sure the speaker is: must for certainty, can't for impossibility, and may / might / could for a mere possibility, as in He must be tired.

🕵️ Grammar

English — Modals of past deduction To make deductions about the past, use a modal verb + have + past participle. The modal you choose shows how sure you are: must have signals near-certainty, can't have and couldn't have rule something out, and might have, may have and could have leave room for doubt.

🌦️ Grammar

English — Possibility: may / might / could Use may, might and could to say that something is possible now or in the future, as in It may rain. They are followed by the bare infinitive and never change form.

🙋 Grammar

English — Permission and requests To ask for permission use Can/Could/May I…? and to ask someone to do something use Can/Could/Would you…? The choice of modal signals how formal or polite you sound.

❗ Grammar

English — need and needn't "Need" works two ways: as an ordinary lexical verb (I need help, Do you need it?) and as a modal (You needn't worry). The modal exists mainly in the negative needn't and expresses absence of obligation, while needn't have + past participle and didn't need to describe unnecessary actions.

🔁 Grammar

English — would for past habits To describe actions that were repeated regularly in the past, English uses would + base verb: Every summer we would go to the coast. It highlights a recurring routine that no longer happens.

🤝 Grammar

English — shall for offers and suggestions In modern English, shall survives mainly in questions with I and we: Shall I open the window? offers to do something, and Shall we go? suggests doing it together. A more formal shall states rules and firm intentions.

🔀 Grammar

English — Gerund vs infinitive after verbs Some verbs are followed by the -ing form, others by the to-infinitive, and a few accept both. Choosing the wrong one — as in the incorrect I enjoy to read — sounds unnatural to native speakers.

🔤 Grammar

English — Verbs followed by -ing Some English verbs are followed by the gerund (the -ing form) rather than the infinitive. After enjoy, finish, avoid and others, you say enjoy reading, not "enjoy to read".

➡️ Grammar

English — Verbs followed by the to-infinitive Some English verbs are followed by another verb in the to-infinitive form: I want to go, She decided to stay. This card lists the most common of them.

🎯 Grammar

English — Verb + object + to-infinitive Many verbs take an object followed by a to-infinitive to say what one person wants, asks, or expects another to do: I want you to come; She told him to wait.

🫱 Grammar

English — make / let / have + bare infinitive The causative verbs make, let and have take an object followed by the bare infinitive (no to): make him do, let me go, have someone do. They express forcing, permitting, or arranging that an action happens.

👀 Grammar

English — Verbs of perception + do/doing After see, hear, watch, feel, notice you can use object + bare infinitive or object + -ing. The bare infinitive (I saw him leave) presents the whole, completed action; the -ing form (I saw him leaving) presents the action in progress, as it was happening.

🔗 Grammar

English — -ing after prepositions When a verb follows a preposition, it takes the -ing form: good at cooking, interested in learning. This applies to every preposition, with no exceptions.

🎯 Grammar

English — Infinitive of purpose To say why you do something, English uses to, in order to or so as to + the infinitive: I went out to buy milk. The negative is in order not to or so as not to.

🔁 Grammar

English — be used to / get used to + -ing Three structures look alike but mean different things. "be used to" and "get used to" are followed by -ing or a noun and mean "be/become accustomed to": I'm used to driving. "used to" is followed by an infinitive and describes a past habit that has stopped: I used to drive.

⚖️ Grammar

English — would rather / would sooner Would rather (and its equivalent would sooner) expresses preference. For your own preference it takes a bare infinitive: I'd rather stay home. To say what you want someone else to do, use a past-tense clause: I'd rather you didn't smoke here.

⚠️ Grammar

English — had better Use had better (usually contracted to 'd better) plus a bare infinitive to give strong advice or a warning about the immediate future: You'd better leave now. The negative is had better not: You'd better not be late. It is stronger and more urgent than should.

🙏 Grammar

English — would you mind + -ing A polite way to ask someone to do something, or to ask permission. Both patterns literally ask "would it bother you?", so agreeing means answering in the negative — Not at all.

🔀 Grammar

English — verbs that change meaning: -ing vs to A few verbs can be followed by either the -ing form or the to-infinitive, but the choice changes the meaning. With remember, forget, stop, try, regret, go on and mean, each pattern says something different.

🔤 Grammar

English — Adjective + to-infinitive Many adjectives are followed by a to-infinitive to say how we feel about an action or how we judge it: I'm glad to help, It's easy to learn.

⚖️ Grammar

English — too and enough + infinitive too means "more than needed" and blocks the action; enough means "as much as needed" and allows it. Both often lead into a to-infinitive that says what the action is.

🔄 Grammar

English — Passive with get In informal English, get + past participle forms a passive that highlights a change or an incident affecting the subject: get married, got hurt, get paid. It is a livelier alternative to the be-passive.

🗣️ Grammar

English — Reporting passive structures To report what people generally say or believe without naming a source, English uses two impersonal passive patterns: It is said that... and He is said to....

🔙 Grammar

English — Tense backshift in reported speech When you report what someone said, the verb usually moves one step back in time, and words pointing to the moment or place of speaking also change. "I am tired" becomes She said she was tired.

❓ Grammar

English — Reported questions When you report a question, you turn it into a statement inside a longer sentence: She asked where I lived. The word order becomes subject + verb, the question mark disappears, and the auxiliary do/does/did is dropped.

🗣️ Grammar

English — Reported commands and requests To report an imperative, English does not repeat the command directly. Instead it uses a reporting verb such as tell, ask, order, advise or warn, followed by an object (the person addressed) and a to-infinitive: He told me to wait.

🗣️ Grammar

English — say vs tell Both verbs report speech, but the grammar differs. You say something (to someone), while you tell someone something. Getting the object pattern right is the key.

🗣️ Grammar

English — reporting verbs and their patterns When reporting what someone said, each verb takes a fixed complement. Some verbs are followed by -ing (admit doing), some by a to-infinitive (offer to help), some by an object plus to-infinitive (remind me to call), and some by a preposition plus -ing (apologize for being late). Choosing the wrong pattern is a common B2 error.

🔗 Grammar

English — Defining vs non-defining relative clauses A defining relative clause tells you which person or thing is meant and cannot be removed: "The book that I lent you is overdue." A non-defining clause just adds extra information and is set off by commas: "This book, which I read last year, is overdue."

✂️ Grammar

English — Reduced relative clauses A relative clause can be shortened to a participle phrase by dropping the relative pronoun and the verb be: the man waiting outside (= who is waiting), the letter written yesterday (= which was written).

🔗 Grammar

English — whose / where / when / why relatives Besides who, which and that, English uses whose for possession and where, when and why to link a clause to a place, a time or a reason: the town where I was born, the reason why she left.

🔗 Grammar

English — Prepositions in relative clauses When a relative clause contains a preposition, English lets you place it in two positions. Informally the preposition stays at the end: the man who I spoke to. Formally it moves to the front, before whom or which: the man to whom I spoke. Both are correct; the choice signals register.

🔀 Grammar

English — Concession: although / despite / in spite of To concede a point — to say something is true even though it goes against what follows — English uses although / though / even though before a clause, and despite / in spite of before a noun or -ing form: Although it was raining, we went out vs. Despite the rain, we went out.

💬 Grammar

English — so and such Both so and such add emphasis, but they attach to different things: so goes with an adjective or adverb (so tired, so quickly), while such goes with a noun phrase (such a mess). Add that after either to state a result: so tired that I fell asleep, such a mess that we couldn't move.

🔗 Grammar

English — Reason: because / as / since / so To give a reason, use because, as or since before a clause: I stayed home because it was raining. To give a result, use so: It was raining, so I stayed home.

🎯 Grammar

English — Purpose clauses: so that / in order that To say why someone does something, English uses a purpose clause with so that (or, more formally, in order that) followed by a full clause, usually with can, could or would: I left early so that I could catch the train.

🚫 Grammar

English — unless The linking word unless introduces a negative condition. It has the same meaning as if… not: the result happens only when the other thing does not.

☂️ Grammar

English — in case Use in case to talk about doing something as a precaution against a possible future event: Take an umbrella in case it rains. It differs from if, and in case of + noun works differently again.

🔗 Grammar

English — Condition connectors: as long as / provided that Besides if, English marks a condition with as long as, so long as, provided (that), providing and on condition that. Each introduces a requirement that must be met, as in You can borrow the car as long as you drive carefully.

⚖️ Grammar

English — Contrast: while / whereas Both while and whereas join two clauses that contrast, as in He likes tea, whereas she prefers coffee. While has a second job too: it marks two actions happening at the same time.

🔗 Grammar

English — Correlative conjunctions Correlative conjunctions come in fixed pairs that link two equal elements: both … and, either … or, neither … nor, not only … but also. In She speaks both French and German, both marks the first item and and the second — the two words work together.

⏳ Grammar

English — Time conjunctions Words like when, while, before, after, until, since and as soon as join two clauses and say when the action happens. The key rule: in a clause about the future, use the present tense, not will — I'll call you when I arrive, not when I will arrive.

🔗 Grammar

English — Linking adverbs / connectors Linking adverbs such as however, therefore and moreover connect ideas across sentences and signal relationships like contrast, result or addition. Unlike conjunctions, they are not grammatical joiners — punctuation is what holds the clauses together.

📐 Grammar

English — Order of adjectives When several adjectives describe one noun, English puts them in a fixed order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose — then the noun, as in a lovely small old round brown wooden table.

⚖️ Grammar

English — Comparisons with as…as To say two things are equal, English puts the adjective or adverb between two as: She is as tall as her brother. The negative not as … as shows they are not equal: This phone is not as expensive as that one.

😃 Grammar

English — -ed vs -ing adjectives Many adjectives come in pairs like bored / boring. The -ed form describes how a person feels; the -ing form describes the thing or situation that causes the feeling: I'm bored, This film is boring.

🔁 Grammar

English — Adverbs of frequency Adverbs of frequency say how often something happens. The common ones are always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never. They usually go in mid position: before the main verb (I always drink coffee) but after the verb be (She is never late).

🎚️ Grammar

English — Adverbs of degree Adverbs of degree such as very, really, quite, rather, fairly, pretty, too, enough and absolutely say how strong a quality is. Most go before the adjective (very big), but enough comes after it (warm enough).

📍 Grammar

English — Adverb position English adverbs take one of three positions — front, mid, or end. The right slot depends on the adverb's type (manner, place, time, frequency), and when several stack at the end they follow the order manner–place–time: She sang beautifully at the concert last night.

📈 Grammar

English — Parallel and double comparatives English links two comparatives to show that one change drives another: The more you practise, the better you get. A single comparative can also be doubled to show gradual change: bigger and bigger.

📈 Grammar

English — Modifying comparatives To say how big a difference is, put an intensifier before the comparative: much bigger, a bit cheaper, slightly warmer, even better.

🏃 Grammar

English — Adjective vs adverb (good/well) An adjective describes a noun (a quick answer), while an adverb describes a verb, adjective or another adverb (answer quickly). Most adverbs add -ly, but some are irregular and a few pairs change meaning entirely.

🔄 Grammar

English — Inversion after negative adverbials When a negative or restrictive adverbial is placed at the front of a clause for emphasis, English uses subject-auxiliary inversion, exactly as in a question: Never have I seen such a mess.

🔦 Grammar

English — Cleft sentences Cleft sentences split one idea into two clauses to spotlight a particular part. English uses it-clefts (It was John who called) and wh-clefts (What I need is rest) to put one piece of information in focus.

💪 Grammar

English — Emphatic do In an affirmative statement or an imperative, English can add the auxiliary do/does/did to stress that the action really happens — as in I do like it or Do sit down. The verb after it stays in its base form.

🙋 Grammar

English — Indirect questions An indirect question wraps a question inside a polite phrase such as Could you tell me…? or I wonder…. The embedded part keeps statement word order, so we say Could you tell me where the station is? — not …where is the station.

❓ Grammar

English — Subject vs object questions When who or what asks about the subject, the word order stays like a statement and no auxiliary appears: Who broke it? When it asks about the object, English uses the normal question pattern with do/does/did: Who did you see?

💬 Grammar

English — Short answers In English you rarely answer a yes/no question with a full sentence. You reply with the subject plus the auxiliary from the question: Yes, I do / No, she isn't / Yes, they can.

❓ Grammar

English — Yes/no questions A yes/no question expects the answer yes or no. English forms it either by putting the verb be before the subject (Are you ready?) or by adding the auxiliary do/does/did or a modal (can, will, must) before the subject and the base verb (Do you work? Can you swim?).

🤲 Grammar

English — have got vs have To talk about possession and relationships, English often uses have got as an alternative to have. I've got a sister means the same as I have a sister. Have got is common in speech, especially in British English.

🔀 Grammar

English — Uses of get Get is one of the most flexible English verbs. Its meaning changes with what follows it: get tired means 'become', get a letter means 'receive', get dressed means 'become dressed', get somebody to help means 'make them', and get to London means 'arrive'.

✂️ Grammar

English — Ellipsis and substitution To avoid repeating words, English either leaves them out (ellipsis) or replaces them with a short pro-form. In I can't but you can, the second clause drops the repeated verb; in I think so and I hope not, so and not stand in for a whole clause.

✏️ Grammar

English — Spelling of -ing and -ed forms When you add -ing or -ed to a verb, the spelling of the base sometimes changes. Four regular patterns cover almost every case: dropping a silent e, doubling a final consonant, changing y to i, and the special -ie → -ying rule.

⏰ Grammar

English — Prepositions of time English uses at, on and in to place events in time, plus a set of duration and boundary words like for, since, by and until. The choice depends on how precise the time reference is: at 7 o'clock, on Monday, in July.

📍 Grammar

English — Prepositions of place The three core prepositions of place are at (a point), on (a surface or line) and in (an enclosed space): at the door, on the wall, in the room. A wider set describes exact position: above, below, over, under, in front of, behind, between, next to and opposite.

🏃 Grammar

English — Prepositions of movement Prepositions of movement show direction and a change of position: into a space, onto a surface, out of or off something, or through, across and along a path. Compare She walked into the room with He ran towards the door.

🔗 Grammar

English — Phrasal verbs A phrasal verb is a verb plus a small particle (a preposition or adverb) that together carry a meaning you often cannot guess from the verb alone. Compare literal take off ("remove") with the figurative take off ("leave the ground") in the plane took off.

🔗 Grammar

English — separable vs inseparable phrasal verbs Many English phrasal verbs are transitive, but they split differently. With a separable verb the object can go after the particle or between the two parts: turn off the light or turn the light off. With an inseparable verb the two parts stay together: look after the children. Knowing which type you have decides where the object — and especially a pronoun — can stand.

🔗 Grammar

English — prepositional verbs Many English verbs are followed by a fixed preposition that is not chosen freely: depend on, listen to, wait for. The preposition is part of the pattern and rarely translates word-for-word.

🔗 Grammar

English — Adjective + preposition Many English adjectives are followed by a fixed preposition. The combination is set by usage, not logic, so it is learned as a whole: afraid of, good at, interested in.