English grammar: choose a lesson and practice

Wish and if only: talking about unreal situations

Your train leaves in ten minutes, but your ticket is at home. You might say, I wish I had my ticket with me. Wish lets you talk about a situation you want to be different.

Would rather: state a preference

The cafe is full, and you want to sit outside. You can say, I'd rather sit on the patio.

Zero and first conditionals: facts and likely results

If you leave bread in the oven too long, it burns. If the oven is free later, I will bake a loaf. Both sentences use if, but one describes what normally happens and the other looks ahead to one possible situation.

Zero article: when English uses no article

We usually say Music helps me focus, not The music helps me focus, when we mean music in general. English can leave the article out. This choice is called the zero article.

Adjective clauses: add precise information

The colleague who organized the meeting sent the notes. The clause who organized the meeting tells us which colleague sent them.

Adverb clauses: show time, reason, condition, and contrast

When the meeting ends, I will send the notes. The clause when the meeting ends tells us when the speaker will send them.

Cleft sentences: add focus to an idea

Someone says the whole team changed the plan, but one person suggested it. You can say, "It was Rina who suggested the change." The cleft sentence puts Rina in focus.

Correlative conjunctions: both and, either or, neither nor

Both the schedule and the budget need approval. The pair both and makes the two things feel connected. If you write both the schedule and we need approval, the sentence loses that balance because the two parts are not the same kind of structure.

Discourse markers: guide a conversation naturally

A clear conversation has signposts. If you say, "Well, the train was late. Anyway, I made it to the meeting.", well prepares the listener for your answer, and anyway brings the conversation back to the main point.

Ellipsis and substitution: avoiding repetition

Mira chose the blue notebook, and Sam chose the red one. The word one saves us from saying notebook twice, but it still points to a notebook. English often works this way: it removes repeated material only when the missing meaning is easy to find.

English verb patterns: verbs followed by objects and clauses

Maya suggested meeting after work. Maya persuaded Leo to meet after work. The ideas are close, but the verb pattern changes what the sentence can say.

GRAMMAR B2 13 min

Finite and non-finite verbs: find what changes

A finite verb can show tense or subject agreement. Non-finite forms, including infinitives and participles, do not mark tense, person or number. A base form or core modal can also be finite.

Fronting: move information for emphasis

At the end of the lane stood a small cafe. The place comes first, so the reader sees the setting before the action.

Future continuous: form and practical use

At 4 p.m. tomorrow, I will be speaking with the landlord. The conversation has not begun yet, but it will be underway at that future time.

Future perfect continuous: describe duration before a future time

Next June, Amina will have been working at the clinic for five years. The sentence looks ahead to June and measures the time that her work will have continued by then.

Future perfect tense: actions completed before a future time

A project has a deadline next Friday. If you say, "By Friday, I will have finished the report," you are looking forward from that deadline and seeing the report as complete.

Future perfect: form and practical use

By the time the doors open, the technicians will have checked every microphone. The checking happens in the future, but it finishes before another future event: the doors opening.

Gerunds and infinitives: choose the right verb form

You may know both forms of a verb, but the verb before them often decides which one belongs in the sentence.

Gerunds and participles: how to tell them apart

Reading, reading, and read can all come from the same verb, but each one can have a different place in a sentence.

Have and get something done: the causative

Your laptop stops working before a deadline. You take it to a technician, then later say: I had my laptop repaired.

Independent and dependent clauses: connect complete ideas

When the lights went out is a clause, but it leaves a reader waiting for the rest of the idea. The lights went out can stand on its own. That difference helps you decide where a sentence needs support and punctuation.

Inversion after negative adverbials

You are writing about a difficult project. We have never faced a delay like this is neutral. Never have we faced a delay like this puts the rare experience first and gives the sentence more weight. The word order changes because never begins the main clause.

Linking words for contrast and concession

A report can be useful and incomplete at the same time. Linking words help you show that relationship clearly: Although the report was useful, it did not answer every question. The two facts do not cancel each other; one fact changes how the reader understands the other.

Mixed conditionals: connect past causes and present results

If I had accepted the job in Dublin, I would live there now. The cause belongs to the past, but the result describes life now. That change of time is the point of a mixed conditional.