Master grammar with comprehensive explanations and examples
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The verb be (am/is/are)
A good first topic
Then: Articles: a, an, the · Plural nouns
I can introduce myself and others and ask simple questions with am/is/are.
I can talk about routines and facts and ask about them with do/does.
I can describe what is happening right now and contrast it with routines.
I can talk about abilities, ask for permission and make simple requests with can.
I can narrate finished past events with regular verbs and ask about them with did.
I can use the core irregular pasts and was/were fluently in stories and questions.
I can express possession with both have got and have, without mixing their question machineries.
I can talk about likes with -ing forms and order politely with would like.
I can choose between a/an, the and no article in everyday sentences.
I can form regular and the most frequent irregular plurals with correct spelling.
I can express possession with 's and the my/your row, including the its/it's distinction.
I can ask wh-questions with do-support and use how-combinations.
I can point near and far with this/that/these/those and introduce people and myself on the phone.
I can replace nouns with the right object pronouns after verbs and prepositions.
I can describe what exists in a place and ask about facilities.
I can build yes/no and wh-questions in present and past with the QASV pattern.
I can place events and objects with in/on/at using the point–surface–container logic.
I can place unchanging adjectives before nouns and after linking verbs.
I can talk about experiences and present results with the present perfect and its markers.
I can choose between will and going to for decisions, plans and predictions.
I can set the scene in past stories and combine background and events with when/while.
I can give directions, instructions and suggestions with the imperative and let's.
I can express obligation, prohibition and absence of necessity without mixing the negatives.
I can give, soften and ask for advice with should.
Best after: Obligation: must, have to, mustn't, don't have to
I can use could for past abilities and to upgrade requests politely.
I can keep state verbs in simple forms and switch the double-life verbs by meaning.
I can compare people, places and things and pick favourites with superlatives.
I can quantify countable and uncountable nouns correctly, including the classic trap nouns.
I can say how often I do things with correctly placed frequency adverbs.
I can place too and enough correctly and attach to-infinitive consequences.
I can build -ly adverbs, place them after the object and avoid the hard/hardly trap.
I can express purpose with to + verb and for + noun, including negative purpose.
I can join clauses with because/so/but/although without doubling connectors.
I can use the my/mine grid, ask whose-questions and say a friend of mine.
I can use the compound pronoun grid with single negation and singular every-words.
I can replace repeated nouns with one/ones and choose between things with which one.
I can draw movement paths with the right prepositions while keeping verbs simple.
I can say dates, years and clock times and avoid the US/GB numeric-date trap.
Best after: Question words: what, where, when, who, why, how
I can pick the right past tense by time frame, news value and duration.
I can form the passive across tenses and decide when it beats the active.
I can choose among the four future forms by how fixed the plan is.
I can sequence two past events with past perfect where the order matters.
I can express duration up to now and process traces with have been doing.
I can place guesses on the will-to-won't certainty scale with may/might/could.
I can shade obligation with ought to, had better, be supposed to and needn't.
Best after: Obligation: must, have to, mustn't, don't have to
I can use core phrasal verbs and place pronouns inside separable ones.
I can build want/tell/let patterns with the right infinitive and no that-clause.
I can build real and unreal conditions and give advice with If I were you.
I can describe people and things with relative clauses and control the comma distinction.
I can report statements, questions and commands with correct backshift and word changes.
I can choose so or such by what follows and build so/such...that results.
I can choose between although + clause and despite + noun and dodge despite of.
I can wrap questions politely with statement order and if/whether.
Best after: Question words: what, where, when, who, why, how
I can state equality, deny it and multiply it with the as...as frame.
I can split feelings (-ed) from their causes (-ing) across the emotion adjectives.
I can handle two-item logic with both/either/neither and their paired conjunctions.
I can echo agreement with the matching auxiliary in so/neither patterns.
I can anchor time with for/since/ago and let each pull its right tense.
I can speculate about the unreal past and link past causes to present results.
I can attach the right question tag with the right intonation, including the special cases.
I can compress relative clauses into participle and infinitive phrases with the right voice.
I can link essay ideas with the right word class and punctuation.
I can open emphatic sentences with negative adverbials and correct inversion.
I can report with precise verb patterns and ask embedded questions politely.
I can build whatever/whoever/however concessions and their no matter twins.
I can signal real vs unreal comparisons through the tense after as if.
I can express present and past regrets and polite frustration with wish/if only.
I can use get-passives, order services with have something done and report claims with is said to.
I can grade certainty about present and past situations with the modal deduction system.
Best after: Obligation: must, have to, mustn't, don't have to
I can pick gerund or infinitive by verb group and control the meaning-changing pairs.
I can describe discontinued habits and states and keep used to apart from be used to.
I can talk about deadlines with will have done and future moments with will be doing.
I can layer a story with all four narrative tenses doing their jobs.
I can handle the institutional, geographic and group uses of the article system.
I can fine-tune quantity meaning with few/a few, most (of), all/whole and no/none.
I know the dependent prepositions of high-frequency verbs and adjectives, with -ing after them.
I can use so/such, conditional and locative inversion for formal emphasis.
I can redirect focus in writing with it-clefts, what-clefts and their variants.
I can agree, disagree and avoid repetition with the so/neither/do so toolkit.
I can compress adverbial clauses into participle phrases without dangling them.
I can use the mandative subjunctive in formal proposals and recognize its frozen formulas.
Best after: Advanced reporting: questions, requests and verbs patterns
I can place objects and pronouns correctly in all four phrasal verb classes.
I can build inverted and but-for conditionals in formal register.
I can report claims without naming sources using both passive frames.
Best after: Advanced passive: get-passive and have something done
I can calibrate academic claims with hedging and stance markers at publication level.
Best after: Modals of deduction: must have, can't have, might have
I can pick discourse markers that fit the register and manage conversations with them.
Best after: Linking devices: however, although, despite, therefore
I can concede points elegantly with albeit, much as and fronted-adjective patterns.
I can nominalize for cohesion and denominalize for clarity in academic prose.
I can pair nouns with their light verbs natively: make/do/have/take/pay/give.
I can punctuate to professional US or GB house style, consistently.
Best after: Linking devices: however, although, despite, therefore
I can package information with fronting and end-weight like an editor.
I can deploy correlative frames with native rhythm and correct internal syntax.
I can read archaic and high-formal English and deploy the living survivors (whom, albeit) accurately.
I can keep a consistent US or GB grammar profile and explain the differences.
I know the canonical usage disputes, the current verdicts, and how to choose per audience.
Best after: Punctuation conventions: dashes, serial comma, quotes
I can render one message in five registers and break register deliberately for effect.
I recognize the canonical native errors, avoid importing them, and never preach.
Best after: Prescriptive disputes: split infinitives, singular they, who/whom
I can decode headline grammar including noun pile-ups and the to-future.
I can use headers, tails, vague language and response tokens like a native conversationalist.
I can move sentence stress to steer meaning and read intonation contours precisely.