You don't need to memorise every rule. You need the handful of structures that show up in 90% of real English — and to stop making the mistakes that mark you as a learner. Everything you need is on this page.
Present simple — habits and facts. She works from home.
Present continuous — right now / temporary. He's studying for exams this month.
Present perfect — past action connected to now. I've lived here for five years.
Present perfect continuous — ongoing recent activity. I've been waiting for an hour.
Past simple — finished action in a finished time. We met in 2019.
Past continuous — background action in the past. I was reading when she called.
Past perfect — earlier past. The train had left when we arrived.
Future — 'will' vs 'going to' — 'will' for spontaneous decisions, 'going to' for plans and predictions with evidence.
Future continuous — action in progress at a future time. This time tomorrow I'll be flying to Rome.
Future perfect — completed before a future point. By 2030 she'll have finished her PhD.
a / an — first mention, one of many. I bought a book.
the — specific, already known, unique. The book was fantastic. The sun rose.
No article — general plural or uncountable. Books are expensive. Coffee helps.
Geographic rules — no article for continents, most countries, cities (Europe, Japan, Paris). Use the for oceans, seas, rivers, plural country names (the Atlantic, the Netherlands, the USA).
Common mistake: dropping "the" before superlatives — always the best, the most.
Zero — general truths. If you heat water to 100°C, it boils.
First — real future. If it rains, we'll stay home.
Second — imagined present/future. If I had more time, I'd travel.
Third — imagined past. If I had studied, I would have passed.
Mixed — past cause, present result. If I had studied medicine, I'd be a doctor now.
Alternatives to 'if': unless (= if not), provided that, as long as, in case, otherwise.
Shift the tense one step back when the reporting verb is past:
"I am tired" → She said she was tired.
"I have finished" → He said he had finished.
"I will call" → She said she would call.
Questions lose the auxiliary inversion: "Where do you live?" → She asked where I lived.
Time and place shift too: now → then, today → that day, here → there, tomorrow → the next day.
Ability: can / could / be able to.
Advice: should / ought to / had better.
Obligation: must / have to (external rules), mustn't (prohibition), don't have to (not necessary).
Deduction: must (sure yes), might/could (maybe), can't (sure no). She must be exhausted; she can't be sleeping.
Past modals: should have + past participle (regret), must have + past participle (past deduction), could have + past participle (past possibility).
Structure: subject + be + past participle. Use when the doer is unknown, obvious, or unimportant.
The report was submitted yesterday. — We don't need to say by whom.
Passive in every tense: is done, was done, has been done, is being done, will be done, would have been done.
Overusing the passive in speaking sounds distant. Prefer active in emails and conversation unless the object is the focus.
Verb + gerund: enjoy, avoid, mind, finish, keep, suggest, deny, admit, consider. I enjoy running.
Verb + infinitive: want, decide, plan, hope, promise, agree, refuse, offer. She decided to leave.
Both, different meaning: remember to lock the door (before) vs remember locking the door (memory of a past action); stop smoking (quit) vs stop to smoke (pause in order to).
After prepositions, always use the gerund: good at cooking, interested in learning, afraid of failing.
Separable: turn on / off, put on, pick up, take off. Pronouns go in the middle: turn it on, not turn on it.
Inseparable: look after, get on with, run into. Never split them.
Top 15 for daily life: get up, wake up, look for, look after, run out of, deal with, put off, give up, go on, come back, find out, work out, hang out, catch up, break down.
Countable (books, ideas): many, few, a few, several, a number of.
Uncountable (water, information, advice): much, little, a little, a great deal of, an amount of.
Both: some, any, no, a lot of, plenty of, most, all.
Watch out: information, advice, furniture, news, equipment, research are uncountable in English — use "a piece of" to count them.
Yes/no questions: auxiliary + subject + verb. Do you like coffee? Have you finished?
Wh- questions: wh-word + auxiliary + subject + verb. Where did you go? What are you doing?
Subject questions (no auxiliary): Who called? What happened?
Indirect questions (polite, embedded — no inversion): Could you tell me where the station is? — not where is the station.
Comma before 'and' in a list is optional (the Oxford comma) — pick one style and be consistent.
Semicolon joins two related complete sentences. She was tired; she kept working.
Colon introduces a list or explanation. Bring three things: pen, notebook, laptop.
Apostrophes: possession (John's book) and contractions (don't). Never for plurals.
Capitalisation: days, months, nationalities, languages, and proper nouns. Not seasons.
1. Missing third-person -s: He works, not He work.
2. Confusing 'since' and 'for': since + point in time (since 2020), for + duration (for 5 years).
3. Wrong preposition after adjectives: interested in, good at, afraid of, married to.
4. Using 'people is' — people are. It's already plural.
5. Saying 'I have 25 years' — I am 25 years old.
6. 'Very much' + verb — say I like it a lot, not I like it very much (usually).
7. 'Make' vs 'do': do homework, do a favour; make a decision, make dinner.
8. Double negatives: I don't know anything, not I don't know nothing.
9. 'Actually' does NOT mean 'now' — it means 'in fact'. Use currently or at the moment.
10. Confusing 'say' and 'tell': you tell someone something, you say something (to someone).
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