Grammar Reference

Mixing past simple, past continuous and past perfect.

Choosing between will, going to and present tenses for the future.

Completed or in progress at a point in the future.

Background action interrupted or in progress in the past.

The earlier of two past events.

Ongoing past action leading up to another past event.

A finished action at a finished time.

Actions happening now or around now.

Past action with a present result, or an unfinished period.

Activity continuing up to now, emphasising duration.

Facts, habits and timetables.

Past habits and states that are no longer true.

Generic reference, abstract nouns and institutional phrases.

Which place names take the and which take nothing.

How to choose between a, an, the and nothing at all.

Words that require a fixed preposition.

Into, onto, through, across, along and towards.

In for enclosure, on for surfaces, at for points.

In for periods, on for days, at for clock times.

Four patterns for real and unreal conditions.

Past condition with a present result, or the reverse.

Ways to state conditions without using if.

Expressing regrets and desires.

Can, could, be able to, manage to.

Must be, might be, cannot be, should have.

Must, have to, should, ought to.

Can, may, be allowed to, must not.

Could, would, will, shall.

Present, past, perfect and modal passives.

When the doer matters less than the action.

Reporting questions, orders and requests.

Moving a statement back a tense.

Say, tell, admit, deny, suggest, claim and their structures.

Clauses that identify which person or thing.

Extra information set off by commas.

Whose, where, when and stranded prepositions.

Which verbs take -ing and which take to.

Why we do something, and adjective patterns.

Verb plus preposition patterns.

Stop, remember, forget, try, go on.

Equality and inequality.

Forming -er, -est, more and most.

Much, far, slightly, by far and the definite article.

Comparing like with like.

Embedded questions keep statement order.

Short checks at the end of a statement.

Question words and word order.

Auxiliary before subject.

Possession, contractions and reported wording.

What to capitalise and what not to.

Clauses, lists and introductory phrases.

Joining words and interrupting clauses.

Conventions for figures and abbreviations.

Recognising and repairing broken sentences.

Joining related clauses and introducing lists.

Formal and informal linking.

Moreover, however, whereas, in contrast.

Because, so, therefore, consequently, in order to.

Although, even though, despite, nevertheless.

First, then, finally, in conclusion, overall.

Pairs, groups and negation.

Which determiners can appear together.

Quantifying countable and uncountable nouns.

Quantifiers in statements, questions and negatives.

Bored or boring, interested or interesting.

Opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.

More carefully, fastest, better.

Where adverbs go in a sentence.

Un-, dis-, mis-, over-, under-, re-.

Noun, verb, adjective and adverb forms.

Matching the verb to the real subject.

Introducing that something exists.

Moving the focus with it and what.

Never have I seen, rarely does she.

Reference, repetition and parallel structure.

Avoiding repetition with so, do, one and that.

Qualifiers that match evidence to claim.

Turning verbs into abstract nouns.

Affect and effect, fewer and less, lie and lay.

Patterns behind common spelling errors.