Daily Grammar
Grammar rules, five at a time.
Master the grammar rules that quietly decide sentence-correction and verbal-ability questions. Learn 5 at a time, see them in sentences, then test yourself.
Lesson 1 · 5 rules
Subject–Verb Agreement: Singular, Plural and Compound Subjects
Practise singular subjects take singular present-tense verbs, plural subjects take plural present-tense verbs, ignore intervening prepositional phrases and related traps.
Lesson 2 · 5 rules
Subject–Verb Agreement: Indefinite Pronouns and 'One of' Patterns
Practise with 'or/nor', agree with the nearer subject, 'each' and 'every' make a subject singular, 'each of' and 'every one of' take singular verbs and related traps.
Lesson 3 · 5 rules
Subject–Verb Agreement: Number Expressions and Add-on Phrases
Practise 'a number of' is plural; 'the number of' is singular, 'many a' takes a singular noun and verb, 'more than one' usually takes a singular verb and related traps.
Lesson 4 · 5 rules
Subject–Verb Agreement: Collective Nouns, Titles, Amounts and Fractions
Practise plural-form objects such as 'scissors' take plural verbs, 'a pair of' makes the subject singular, titles and names of works are singular and related traps.
Lesson 5 · 5 rules
Present and Past Tense: Habits, Actions in Progress and Completed Events
Practise use the simple present for habits and general truths, use the present continuous for actions in progress or temporary situations, stative verbs are not normally used in the continuous and related traps.
Lesson 6 · 5 rules
Perfect and Continuous Tenses: Since/For, Background Actions and Earlier Past
Practise use present perfect with 'since' and 'for' for continuing situations, finished-time markers normally require the simple past, use past continuous for an action in progress at a past moment and related traps.
Lesson 7 · 5 rules
Future Forms: Arrangements, Schedules and Actions in Progress
Practise present continuous can express a fixed future arrangement, simple present can express timetabled future events, future continuous describes an action in progress at a future time and related traps.
Lesson 8 · 5 rules
Reported Speech and Past Viewpoints: Commands, Used To, Would and Been/Gone
Practise do not normally use 'will' in a future time clause, report commands and requests with ask/tell + object + to-infinitive, 'used to' describes past habits or states that no longer hold and related traps.
Lesson 9 · 5 rules
Verb Forms: Do, Modals, Perfect, Continuous and Passive
Practise after do/does/did, use the base form, after a modal, use the base form, perfect tenses use a past participle and related traps.
Lesson 10 · 5 rules
Causatives and Fixed Verb Patterns: Have/Get, Let/Make, Help and Rather
Practise do not confuse irregular past forms and past participles, causative 'have/get' can use object + past participle, 'let' and active causative 'make' take a bare infinitive and related traps.
Lesson 11 · 5 rules
Gerunds vs Infinitives: Core Verb Patterns
Practise a verb after a preposition normally takes -ing, some verbs are followed by gerunds, some verbs are followed by to-infinitives and related traps.
Lesson 12 · 5 rules
Gerunds vs Infinitives: Meaning Changes After Stop, Remember, Try and Regret
Practise 'stop doing' differs from 'stop to do', 'remember doing' differs from 'remember to do', 'try doing' differs from 'try to do' and related traps.
Lesson 13 · 5 rules
Participles: Active/Passive Meaning and Dangling Modifiers
Practise present participles usually carry an active or ongoing sense, past participles often carry a passive or resulting-state sense, avoid dangling modifiers and related traps.
Lesson 14 · 5 rules
Modifier Placement and Reduced Relative Clauses
Practise an opening participial phrase should modify the following noun, active relative clauses can sometimes reduce to -ing phrases, passive relative clauses can sometimes reduce to past participles and related traps.
Lesson 15 · 5 rules
Pronoun Case: Subject, Object, Compound and Possessive Forms
Practise use subject pronouns as subjects, use object pronouns after verbs and prepositions, test pronoun case by removing the other noun and related traps.
Lesson 16 · 5 rules
Pronoun Reference: Reflexives, Agreement, Who/Whom and Whoever
Practise make every pronoun antecedent clear, pronouns should agree in number with their antecedents, indefinite pronouns such as 'everyone' are grammatically singular and related traps.
Lesson 17 · 5 rules
Relative Clauses: Who, Which, That, Whose and Defining Information
Practise use 'who' for people and 'which' for things; 'that' can introduce defining clauses, 'whose' can express possession for people and things, defining relative clauses normally take no commas and related traps.
Lesson 18 · 5 rules
Relative Clauses: Omission, Where, When and What
Practise an object relative pronoun may be omitted in a defining clause, a subject relative pronoun cannot normally be omitted, 'where' can mean 'in/at which' and related traps.
Lesson 19 · 5 rules
Articles: A/An, The and Zero Article
Practise use 'a/an' with a singular countable noun mentioned non-specifically, choose 'a' or 'an' by sound, not spelling, use 'the' for a specific or already identifiable noun and related traps.
Lesson 20 · 5 rules
Articles: Superlatives, Professions, Meals, Institutions and Geography
Practise superlatives and ordinal numbers normally take 'the', use 'a/an' for professions after 'be', meals often take no article when referred to routinely and related traps.
Lesson 21 · 5 rules
Quantifiers: Many/Much, Few/Little and Countability
Practise use 'many' with plural count nouns and 'much' with uncountable nouns, 'a little' is positive; 'little' often means almost none, 'a few' is positive; 'few' often means almost none and related traps.
Lesson 22 · 5 rules
Determiners: Each, Every, Both, Either, Some/Any and Enough
Practise 'each' focuses on members separately; 'every' views all members individually within a group, 'both' takes a plural noun and plural verb, 'either/neither of' is traditionally singular in formal agreement and related traps.
Lesson 23 · 5 rules
Adjectives and Adverbs: Core Forms and Common Traps
Practise adjectives modify nouns and can follow linking verbs, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, 'good' is an adjective; 'well' is usually an adverb and related traps.
Lesson 24 · 5 rules
Adjective/Adverb Meaning: Hard/Hardly, Late/Lately, Order and Linking Verbs
Practise 'near' and 'nearly' have different meanings, use a natural adjective order before nouns, some adjectives ending in -ly are not adverbs and related traps.
Lesson 25 · 5 rules
Comparatives and Superlatives: Core Structures
Practise use a comparative form when comparing two, use a superlative for the highest degree within a group, avoid double comparatives and superlatives and related traps.
Lesson 26 · 5 rules
Comparisons and Relative-Clause Agreement: Intensifiers, Prefer and 'One of Those Who'
Practise 'the + comparative, the + comparative' shows linked change, 'one of the + superlative' is followed by a plural noun, use 'much/far/a lot' to intensify comparatives and related traps.
Lesson 27 · 5 rules
Prepositions of Time, Place and Duration
Practise use 'at/on/in' appropriately for time, use 'at/on/in' appropriately for place, use 'since' for a starting point and 'for' for duration and related traps.
Lesson 28 · 5 rules
Preposition Meaning: Between/Among, Despite/Although and Because/Because Of
Practise 'beside' means next to; 'besides' means in addition to, 'despite/in spite of' take noun-like complements; 'although' takes a clause, 'because of' takes a noun phrase; 'because' takes a clause and related traps.
Lesson 29 · 5 rules
Correlative Conjunctions and Parallel Structure
Practise 'both ... and' should join parallel structures, 'either ... or' should join parallel alternatives, 'neither ... nor' should join parallel negatives and related traps.
Lesson 30 · 5 rules
Connectors: Although, Because, Unless, Contrast, So/Such and Whether
Practise avoid redundant 'because ... so' pairings, 'unless' already means 'if not', use 'while/whereas' to express contrast clearly and related traps.
Lesson 31 · 5 rules
Conditionals: Zero, First, Second and Third
Practise zero conditional states general truths or repeated results, first conditional describes a real future possibility, second conditional describes an unreal or unlikely present/future situation and related traps.
Lesson 32 · 5 rules
Conditionals and Modals: Mixed Conditions, Wish and Alternative Condition Markers
Practise use 'were' for formal unreal 'be' conditions, use 'provided (that)', 'providing (that)' and 'as long as' for necessary conditions, use past forms after 'wish' for unreal present situations and related traps.
Lesson 33 · 5 rules
Sentence Completeness: Fragments, Comma Splices and Run-ons
Practise a complete sentence needs an independent clause, do not leave a dependent clause as a fragment, do not join independent clauses with only a comma and related traps.
Lesson 34 · 5 rules
Sentence Clarity: Semicolons, Colons, Parallelism and Consistency
Practise use a colon after a complete clause to introduce an explanation or list, keep items in a series parallel, keep correlative structures parallel and related traps.
Lesson 35 · 5 rules
Commas: Introductory Clauses, Coordinating Conjunctions and Restrictive Meaning
Practise use a comma after a substantial introductory dependent clause, use a comma before a coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses, do not separate a subject from its verb with an unnecessary comma and related traps.
Lesson 36 · 5 rules
Apostrophes, Possessives and Hyphenated Modifiers
Practise form singular possessives with apostrophe + s, form regular plural possessives with an apostrophe after s, 'its' is possessive; 'it's' means 'it is/it has' and related traps.
Lesson 37 · 5 rules
Word Order: Adverb Position and Inversion
Practise place frequency adverbs before the main verb but after 'be', place mid-position adverbs after the first auxiliary, fronted negative expressions trigger inversion and related traps.
Lesson 38 · 5 rules
Questions, Degree and Existential 'There': Word Order and Agreement
Practise indirect questions use statement word order, attributive adjectives normally come before the noun, in 'there is/are' structures, agreement follows the real subject and related traps.
Lesson 39 · 5 rules
Nouns and Countability: Uncountables, Partitives and Special Agreement
Practise common uncountable nouns do not normally take a/an or a regular plural, use partitives to count uncountable nouns, some nouns ending in -s are grammatically singular and related traps.
Lesson 40 · 5 rules
Advanced Exam Structures: Subjunctive, High Time, Inversion and Agreement Replies
Practise after suggest, recommend, insist or demand, formal english can use the mandative base form, 'it is time/high time' can be followed by a past form for present necessity, use 'no sooner ... than' and 'hardly/scarcely/barely ... when' with inversion and related traps.