English practice: passive voice
Make the receiver of the action the subject, then use the right tense of be with a past participle. Add by plus the doer only when the reader needs that information.
Everyday listening
Start with short recordings, then work through longer phrases. Listen once for the situation and again for the words.
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English practice: prefixes and suffixes
Use a prefix to add or change meaning before a base word, and a suffix to make a related form after it. Check both the meaning and the grammar of the finished word.
English practice: present perfect basics
Use have or has plus a past participle when a past action has a connection with the present. Use the past simple when you say when a finished action happened.
English practice: punctuation in sentences
Start complete sentences with a capital letter and end them with the punctuation that matches their purpose. Use commas to organise parts of a sentence, and use apostrophes carefully for possession and contractions.
English practice: relative clauses
Use who for people, which for things, where for places, and whose for possession. That can often replace who or which in an identifying clause.
English practice: reported speech
Use said, told, asked, or another reporting verb, then choose the pattern that matches the original message. Reported statements use statement order, reported questions do not use question order, and reported instructions often use an object plus to and a verb.
English practice: review and self-check
For a useful English self-check, try an item without looking at a rule, check the answer, and write down the exact point to review if you miss it.
English practice: useful verb-noun collocations
Learn frequent verb-noun combinations as complete phrases. Say make a decision, take notes, do research, give advice, and have a conversation.
English practice: word families
First decide what job the missing word must do. Then choose the noun, verb, adjective, or adverb from the related word family that fits both the grammar and the meaning.
English practice: workplace English
For clear workplace English, name the task, use a polite request or update, and include the deadline or next step when it matters. Choose direct words that leave little room for confusion.
English practice: zero and first conditionals
Use the zero conditional for a fact or a result that happens whenever the condition is true: if plus present simple, then present simple. Use the first conditional for a possible future result: if plus present simple, then will plus a base verb.
English prefixes: use word beginnings to predict meaning
Find the base word, notice the prefix, and then check the whole sentence. For example, re- often suggests doing something again, while un- often changes a word to its opposite or adds the idea of not.