A1 Grammar

Complete A1 grammar contents

Choose a grammar topic to open the full explanation and practice page. Work through the sections in order or jump directly to the grammar you need.

36 topics · 12 sections

Present tenses

Talk about identity, routines, actions happening now, temporary situations, and possession.

Present simple of be: am / is / are

Use am, is, and are to say who or what someone is, describe people and things, give ages and locations, and talk about how someone feels.

Present simple: I do / I don't / Do I?

Use the present simple for routines, repeated actions, facts, permanent situations, and things that are generally true.

Present continuous

Use the present continuous for actions happening now, temporary situations, and activities happening around the present time.

Present simple or present continuous?

Choose the present simple for routines and facts, and the present continuous for actions happening now or temporary situations.

Have got

Use have got and has got mainly to talk about possession, family relationships, physical features, and things a person or place has.

Past tenses

Describe past states and completed actions, and form clear past simple questions and negatives.

Was / were: past simple of be

Use was and were to talk about past states and situations, including where people were, how they felt, and what something was like.

Past simple: regular and irregular verbs

Use the past simple to talk about actions and events that started and finished at a completed time in the past.

Past simple: negatives and questions

Use did and didn't with the base form of most verbs to make past simple questions and negatives.

Future

Talk about predictions, instant decisions, promises, offers, intentions, and plans.

Will and shall

Use will for simple future predictions, decisions made at the moment of speaking, promises, and offers. Use shall mainly with I/we for offers and suggestions.

Be going to: plans and predictions

Use be going to for future intentions or plans already decided, and for predictions when there is clear evidence now.

Modals and imperatives

Express ability and permission, give instructions, and make polite offers, invitations, and requests.

Can / can't

Use can and can't to talk about ability, permission, and things that are possible in a simple, direct way.

The imperative

Use the imperative to give instructions, directions, warnings, commands, invitations, and simple advice.

Would you like...? / I'd like...

Use would like for polite offers, invitations, and requests, and to say what you want in a polite way.

-ing and infinitive

Learn common beginner verb patterns with to + base verb and verb-ing.

Verbs + to-infinitive and verbs + -ing

Some common verbs are followed by to + base verb, while others are followed by the -ing form. At A1, learning the verb together with its pattern is the safest approach.

Articles, nouns, pronouns and determiners

Build accurate noun phrases, talk about quantity and ownership, and refer clearly to people and things.

A / an and plural nouns

Use a or an before one singular countable noun, and use plural forms when you mean more than one.

A / an, the, or no article

Use articles to show whether you mean one non-specific thing, a specific known thing, or something in general.

This, that, these, those

Use this, that, these, and those to point to or identify things according to number and distance.

Subject pronouns and possessive adjectives

Use subject pronouns as the subject of a verb and possessive adjectives before nouns to show who something belongs to.

Object pronouns vs subject pronouns

Use subject pronouns for the person or thing doing the action, and object pronouns after verbs or prepositions.

A, some, any: countable and uncountable nouns

Use a/an, some, and any differently depending on whether a noun is singular countable, plural countable, or uncountable.

Much, many, a lot of, a little, a few

Use quantifiers to talk about quantity. The correct form depends on whether the noun is countable or uncountable.

Whose and possessive 's

Use whose to ask about ownership, and use possessive 's to show that a person or animal owns or is connected to something.

There and it

Say that something exists, introduce people and things, and use it for known things, weather, time, and distance.

There is / there are / there was / there were

Use there + be to say that a person or thing exists, is available, or is present somewhere.

There or it?

Use there to introduce the existence of something. Use it to refer to a specific thing or situation, and in expressions about weather, time, distance, and temperature.

This or it?

Use this when you introduce, identify, show, or point to one thing or person. Use it when you refer back to something already known.

Adjectives and adverbs

Describe nouns and actions, and make clear comparisons between people and things.

Adjectives

Adjectives describe people, animals, places, and things. They can come before a noun or after linking verbs such as be.

Adverbs of manner or adjectives?

Use adjectives to describe nouns and states. Use adverbs of manner to describe how an action happens.

Comparative adjectives

Use comparative adjectives to compare two people, places, things, or situations.

Superlative adjectives

Use superlative adjectives when one person or thing has the highest or lowest degree of a quality in a group of three or more.

Conjunctions

Connect simple ideas to express addition, contrast, choice, result, and reason.

And, but, or, so, because

Use these basic conjunctions to join words and clauses and show addition, contrast, choice, result, and reason.

Prepositions

Express time, place, and position with the most common beginner prepositions.

At, in, on: time

Use at, on, and in with different kinds of time expressions. Learning the main time groups makes the choice much easier.

At, in, on: place

Use at, in, and on to describe location. Think of at as a point, in as inside an area or space, and on as a surface or line.

Position: next to, under, between, behind...

Use position prepositions to explain where one person or thing is in relation to another.

Questions

Build clear questions with the right auxiliary verb and question-word order.

Questions: word order and question words

Build questions by putting the correct question word first and then using the right auxiliary or form of be before the subject.

Word order

Put adverbs, objects, places, and time expressions in natural English positions.

Adverbs of frequency with present simple

Use adverbs of frequency to say how often something happens. Their normal position depends on whether the verb is be or another main verb.

Basic word order in English

Most basic English statements follow subject + verb + object. Place and time information usually comes later, and adjective position follows clear patterns.