Adjective

An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving more information about its qualities, state, or identity. Adjectives are one of the core parts of speech in English, and you use them constantly — to describe people, objects, feelings, and ideas.

What adjectives do

Adjectives typically answer questions like What kind?, Which one?, or How many? They can appear in two main positions:

• Before a noun (called attributive position): a tall building, fresh coffee, three students
• After a linking verb (called predicative position): The soup is hot, She seems tired

Some adjectives work in only one position. For example, main is almost always attributive (the main reason), while asleep is almost always predicative (The baby is asleep).

Examples

• ✅ She wore a red dress. (red modifies dress)
• ✅ The exam was difficult. (difficult follows the linking verb was)
• ❌ She wore a redly dress. (Adverbs like redly don't modify nouns.)
• ✅ He gave me useful advice. (useful modifies the uncountable noun advice)

Adjective order

When you stack multiple adjectives before a noun, English follows a conventional order: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose. For example, a lovely small old round brown French wooden serving table — though in real life you'd rarely pile up that many.

Self-check: If your sentence sounds awkward with two adjectives before a noun, try swapping their order. The version that "sounds right" usually follows the standard sequence.

Adjectives vs. determiners

Words like the, this, my, and some were historically grouped with adjectives, but modern grammar classifies them as determiners. Unlike true adjectives, determiners don't have comparative forms (bigger works, but *more the doesn't) and occupy a fixed slot before any adjectives.

Comparatives and superlatives

Most adjectives have comparative and superlative forms used to compare things:

• tall → taller → tallest
• expensive → more expensive → most expensive

To practice these, try Comparatives and Superlatives. You can also build a foundation with Basics. Adjectives and Adverbs. and Basics. Word Order..

Adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realized by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses).

Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that the term "adverb" has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.)

Object

Traditional grammar defines the object in a sentence as the entity that is acted upon by the subject. There is thus a primary distinction between subjects and objects that is understood in terms of the action expressed by the verb, e.g. Tom studies grammar—Tom is the subject and grammar is the object. Traditional theories of sentence structure divide the simple sentence into a subject and a predicate, whereby the object is taken to be part of the predicate. Many modern theories of grammar (e.g. dependency grammars), in contrast, take the object to be a verb argument like the subject, the difference between them being mainly just their prominence; the subject is ranked higher than the object and is thus more prominent.

The main verb in a clause determines whether and what objects are present. Transitive verbs require the presence of an object, whereas intransitive verbs block the appearance of an object. The term complement overlaps in meaning with object: all objects are complements, but not vice versa. The objects that verbs do and do not take is explored in detail in valency theory.

Types

Various object types are commonly acknowledged: direct, indirect, and prepositional. These object types are illustrated in the following table:

The descriptions "entity acted upon" and "entity indirectly affected by the action" are merely loose orientation points. Beyond basic examples such as those provided in the table, these orientation points are not much helpful when the goal is to determine whether a given object should be viewed as direct or indirect. One rule of thumb for English, however, is that an indirect object is not present unless a direct object is also present. A prepositional object is one that is introduced by a preposition. Despite the difficulties with the traditional nomenclature, the terms direct object and indirect object are widespread.

The term oblique object is also employed at times, although what exactly is meant varies from author to author. Some understand it to be an umbrella term denoting all objects (direct, indirect, and prepositional), whereas others use the term to denote just a prepositional object.

Syntactic Category

While the typical object is a pronoun, noun, or noun phrase, objects can also appear as other syntactic categories, as illustrated in the following table:

Identification

A number of criteria can be employed for identifying objects, e.g: The object follows the subject. Languages vary significantly with respect to these criteria. The first criterion identifies objects reliably most of the time in English, e.g.

Fred gave me a book.

• a. A book was given (to) me. — Passive sentence identifies a book as an object in the starting sentence.
• b. I was given a book. — Passive sentence identifies me as an object in the starting sentence.

The second criterion is also a reliable criterion for isolating languages such as English, since the relatively strict word order of English usually positions the object after the verb(s) in declarative sentences.

The third criterion is less applicable to English, though, since English lacks morphological case, exceptions being the personal pronouns (I/me, we/us, he/him, she/her, they/them).

Verb Classes

Verbs can be classified according to the number and/or type of objects that they do or do not take. The following table provides an overview of some of the various verb classes:

Ergative and object-deletion verbs can be transitive or intransitive, as indicated in the following table:

The distinction drawn here between ergative and object-deletion verbs is based on the role of the subject. The object of a transitive ergative verb is the subject of the corresponding intransitive ergative verb. With object-deletion verbs, in contrast, the subject is consistent regardless of whether an object is or is not present.

Preposition

Prepositions form a closed word class, although there are also certain phrases that serve as prepositions, such as in front of.

A single preposition may have a variety of meanings, often including temporal, spatial and abstract. Many words that are prepositions can also serve as adverbs. Examples of common English prepositions (including phrasal instances) are of, in, on, over, under, to, from, with, in front of, behind, opposite, by, before, after, during, through, in spite of or despite, between, among, etc.

A preposition is usually used with a noun phrase as its complement.

A preposition together with its complement is called a prepositional phrase.

Examples are in England, under the table, after six pleasant weeks, between the land and the sea.

A prepositional phrase can be used as a complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in the man in the car, the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in deal with the problem, proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase.

English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (fronted), leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English.

For example:

• What are you talking about? (Possible alternative version: About what are you talking?)
• The song that you were listening to ... (more formal: The song to which you were listening ...)

Notice that in the second example the relative pronoun that could be omitted.

Stranded prepositions can also arise in passive voice constructions and other uses of passive past participial phrases, where the complement in a prepositional phrase can become zero in the same way that a verb's direct object would: it was looked at; I will be operated on; get your teeth seen to.

The same can happen in certain uses of infinitive phrases: he is nice to talk to; this is the page to make copies of.

Verb

A verb is a word that expresses an action, a state, or an occurrence — and it's the engine of every English sentence. Understanding how verbs work is foundational to everything else in English grammar, from forming questions to building complex sentences.

Verb Forms

Most English verbs have five inflected forms:

• Base form (go, write, climb) — used as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative in all persons except third-person singular.
• -s form (goes, writes, climbs) — used for the present tense, third-person singular (she writes).
• Past tense (went, wrote, climbed) — also called the preterite.
• Past participle (gone, written, climbed) — identical to the past tense for regular verbs, but often different for irregular verbs.
• -ing form (going, writing, climbing) — serves as the present participle and gerund.

The verb be is a special case with more forms than any other English verb (am, is, are, was, were, been, being). Modal verbs like can, must, and should have fewer forms than typical verbs.

Main Verbs and Auxiliaries

Verbs in English often appear in combinations: one or more auxiliary verbs paired with a main verb.

• The dog was barking very loudly.
• My hat has been cleaned.
• Jane does not really like us.

The first verb in the combination is the finite verb (it carries tense and agrees with the subject). The rest are nonfinite (infinitives or participles). Notice that these verbs don't always sit next to each other — as in does not really like.

Tense, Aspect, and Mood

English expresses tense (time reference), aspect (how an action unfolds over time), and mood (the speaker's attitude toward the action) mostly through verb combinations rather than word endings. That's why you'll encounter labels like "present progressive" or "conditional perfect" — these are specific tense–aspect–mood combinations built with auxiliaries.

Self-check: If you can change the time of a sentence by swapping one word (She runs → She ran), that word is the verb.

Keep Practising

To build your verb skills from the ground up, try these challenges: Basics. "To be" in Present Tense, Basics. Common Uses of Auxiliary Verbs, and Transitive and Intransitive Verbs.

Word Order

The primary word orders that are of interest are

• the constituent order of a clause, namely the relative order of subject, object, and verb;
• the order of modifiers (adjectives, numerals, demonstratives, possessives, and adjuncts) in a noun phrase;
• the order of adverbials.

Constituent word order is defined in terms of a finite verb (V) in combination with two arguments, namely the subject (S), and object (O).

There is a difference between grammatical word order and natural word order. In many languages, topicalization and questions can change the grammatical word order.

Examples

A: [Kate loves who/Who does Kate love?] (SVO/OSV)
B: [She loves Mark/Mark is who she loves.] (SVO/OSV)

In the (A) sentences, the first one is used when putting emphasis on who Kate loves, and the second is used with more of a quizzical tone. English uses stress and tone to emphasize different aspects of the sentences, which can also change the word order, as shown above.

In the (B) sentences, the first one is more likely to be used by a native English speaker. The second sentence is grammatical as well, but less likely to be said in natural speech. This is because English uses the SVO structure in regular sentences, but is able to answer questions using the same structure that was used in the sentence.

In English, you can change the word order depending on what you want to emphasize.

Collocations

Collocations are combinations of words that are frequently used together in a particular order, forming a natural-sounding expression. These word pairs or groups often sound more natural to native speakers than other possible combinations of the same words. Understanding collocations is important for language learners because they help you sound more fluent and natural when speaking or writing.

B1 | Intermediate

B1 is the intermediate level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It marks the point where you move beyond survival English and start expressing yourself with real independence — describing experiences, explaining opinions, and handling everyday situations without a script.

What a B1 user can do

At this level, you're expected to:

• Understand the main points of clear, standard speech and writing on familiar topics — work, school, travel, hobbies.
• Handle most travel situations in English-speaking environments.
• Produce simple connected text on topics you know or care about.
• Describe experiences, events, hopes, and plans, and give brief reasons and explanations for your opinions.
• Communicate in routine tasks that require a straightforward exchange of information.

What B1 grammar looks like

B1 is where grammar starts to get more layered. You're not just forming basic sentences anymore — you're combining ideas, using different tenses with more precision, and starting to handle structures like the passive voice, modal verbs for necessity and possibility, and gerunds vs. infinitives. You're also expected to build complex sentences with linking words and dependent clauses.

Typical B1 grammar areas include:

• Future tenses — distinguishing will, going to, and the present continuous for future plans
• Passive voice — The report was written yesterday.
• Modal verbs — You should apply early. / She might be late.
• Used to — I used to live in Berlin.
• Verb patterns — knowing whether a verb takes a gerund, an infinitive, or both (I enjoy reading vs. I decided to leave)

What B1 doesn't mean

B1 speakers still hesitate, make grammatical errors, and sometimes struggle with less familiar topics. That's normal. The key difference from A2 is that you can keep a conversation going and get your point across even when things aren't perfect. The step up to B2 involves handling more abstract topics, understanding nuance, and producing more complex, accurate language.

Self-check: Can you tell a friend about a recent trip — what happened, what you liked, and what you'd do differently — without switching to your native language? If yes, you're likely operating at B1 or above.

Ready to find out where you stand? Try Are you B1/Intermediate? Test your English CEFR Level to figure out!, then build your skills with challenges like Basics. Passive Voice, Basics. Modal verbs, and Used to.

B2 | Upper Intermediate

B2, or Upper Intermediate, is the fourth level on the CEFR scale. It marks the point where you move from "getting by" to genuinely comfortable communication — handling complex topics, expressing nuanced opinions, and understanding most of what you read or hear in real-world contexts.

What a B2 user can do

At this level, you're expected to:

• Understand complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in your own field.
• Follow extended speech and lectures, even when the structure isn't entirely clear, as long as the topic is reasonably familiar.
• Interact fluently and spontaneously enough that conversations with native speakers flow naturally — without strain on either side.
• Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects, using connectors and cohesive devices to build well-structured arguments.
• Explain and defend a viewpoint on a topical issue, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different options.
• Recognize implicit meaning — reading between the lines in demanding, longer texts.

What B2 grammar looks like in practice

B2 is where grammar stops being about isolated rules and starts being about flexibility and precision. You're expected to control structures like:

• Advanced conditionals and mixed conditionals — moving beyond simple if-clauses to express hypothetical and counterfactual meaning.
• Passive voice in varied tenses and contexts, not just present and past simple.
• Reported speech with correct sequence of tenses, including backshifting and reporting verbs.
• Participle clauses and the distinction between participles and gerunds.
• Comparative and superlative structures beyond basic -er/-est, including double comparatives and qualifying expressions.

Errors still happen at B2, but they rarely cause misunderstanding. The goal is controlled, flexible use of language across social, academic, and professional settings.

How B2 fits in the CEFR progression

B2 builds directly on the foundations of B1 (Intermediate) and prepares you for C1 (Advanced). Many university entrance exams, professional certifications, and immigration requirements target B2 as the minimum standard.

Self-check: If you can read a newspaper editorial, follow most of a TED talk without subtitles, and write a clear essay arguing a position — you're likely operating at B2.

Ready to test yourself? Try Is your English level B2/Upper Intermediate? or practise specific B2 grammar with challenges like Basics. Advanced Conditionals And "wish", Basics. Passive Voice, and Sequence of Tenses in Indirect Speech.

Difficulty: Medium

Medium difficulty. Difficulty levels represent author's opinion about how hard a question or challenge is.