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Complete the food critic's dramatic review of her recent dinner by selecting the correct words.

The restaurant served _________________________ to our table. The waiter was very _________________________ when we complained. Naturally, I left a _________________________ on their website!

cold soup

Adjectives go before the noun they describe. It is cold (adjective) soup (noun).

rude

After the verb "was" (a form of "to be"), we just need the adjective "rude" to describe the waiter.

bad review

The adjective "bad" goes before the singular noun "review." We know it must be singular because of the word "a" before the blank!

Easy A1 | Elementary | Beginners Adjective Word order Adverb Article

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Adjective

✅ a tall building — ❌ a tally building
✅ The soup is hot — ❌ The soup is hotly
✅ a lovely small old table — ❌ a small lovely old table
✅ She seems tired — ❌ She seems tiredly

These bolded words are adjectives — words that describe nouns or pronouns. They sit before a noun (a tall building) or after a linking verb (The soup is hot).

Pattern: if a word can slot between a/the and a noun (a ___ thing) and can take -er/-est, it's almost certainly an adjective.

Word order

✅ She (S) eats (V) cake (O). — standard SVO
❌ Cake eats she. — SOV (not English)
✅ a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife — adjective order (opinion→size→age→shape→colour→origin→material→purpose)
✅ Never have I seen… — inversion after negative adverb

English word order = SVO (subject-verb-object) as default. Adjectives follow a fixed sequence (opinion→size→age→shape→colour→origin→material). Adverb placement varies by type. Deviations signal questions, emphasis, or literary style.

Rule: when in doubt, default to SVO. English position = meaning. Move a word and you change the grammar or the emphasis.

Adverb

✅ She sings beautifully — ❌ She sings beautiful
✅ He drives carefully — ❌ He drives careful
✅ They arrived late — ✅ a late train (same form, both roles)
✅ She works hard — ❌ She works hardly (different meaning!)

The -ly words are adverbs — they modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, telling you how, when, where, or to what degree.

Pattern: most adjectives become adverbs by adding -ly, but watch the exceptions — fast, hard, late, well — that keep the same shape or change meaning entirely.

Article

✅ an hour — ❌ a hour (vowel sound → an)
✅ a university — ❌ an university (consonant sound /j/ → a)
✅ I love coffee — ❌ I love the coffee (generic uncountable → zero article)
✅ the sun — ❌ a sun (unique referent → the)

Articles (a/an, the, and the zero article) signal whether a noun is specific or general. A/an introduces something new; the points to something already known or unique.

Pattern: a/an = "one of many, first mention." The = "you know which one." Zero article = generic or uncountable.

A1 | Elementary | Beginners

✅ My name is Anna. — present simple of be
✅ Where is the station? — basic *wh-*question
✅ I have two brothers. — possession with have
✅ She likes coffee. — third-person -s

These are A1 sentences — the starting level of the CEFR framework. At A1 you can introduce yourself, ask and answer simple personal questions, and handle basic everyday transactions using present tense, be/have/do, and core vocabulary.

If you can say these but freeze at normal speaking speed, you're solidly A1 — and that's exactly where to start.

Easy

She is a teacher. — one verb form, one rule
I have two cats. — basic possession, short sentence
He doesn't like coffee. — simple negation with do-support
Only one answer is clearly correct; distractors are obviously wrong.

Easy marks beginner-level challenges: A1–early A2, one rule at a time, everyday vocabulary, no trick questions.

Use "Easy" when you want to build confidence on a specific rule without interference from other grammar or tricky contexts.