English Grammar Academy
Master English grammar with clear explanations, rich examples, and interactive exercises at every level — completely free for students.
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are written symbols that help make meaning clear.
Nouns
A noun names a person, place, thing, or abstraction.
Articles: A, An, The
Articles are the tiny words with the biggest error rate. A/an introduces something new and non-specific; the points to something specific that both speaker and listener can identify; and sometimes the correct article is no article at all (the "zero article"). Because Punjabi and Hindi have no articles, this topic deserves extra attention.
Quantifiers: Some, Any, Much, Many
Quantifiers answer "How much?" and "How many?" — and each one is loyal to either countable nouns (many, few, a number of), uncountable nouns (much, little, a great deal of), or both (some, any, a lot of, plenty of). Choosing the wrong partner is instantly noticeable, so this topic is pure accuracy gold.
Pronouns
A pronoun substitutes for a noun. Use it when the noun has already been named, to avoid repeating it.
Adjectives
Adjectives give information about nouns. Two kinds: noun determiners and descriptive adjectives.
Adverbs
Adverbs are the flavour of a sentence: they tell us how (manner), when (time), where (place), how often (frequency), and how much (degree). They modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and even whole sentences — and their position in the sentence follows real rules that learners must master.
Present Tense — The Verb BE
The verb be (am / is / are) is the most important verb in English. It links a subject to a description, an identity, or a location — and it is the helping verb behind every continuous tense and every passive sentence. Master it first, and half of English grammar becomes easier.
Present Tense — Other Verbs
The Present Simple is the tense of facts, habits, routines, and permanent situations. It does NOT mean "happening at this exact second" — that is the Present Continuous. Think of the Present Simple as describing what is generally true about the world.
Present Progressive Tense
The Present Continuous (also called Present Progressive) describes actions in progress now, temporary situations, changing trends, and — very importantly — fixed future arrangements. Its formula never changes: am / is / are + verb-ing.
Present Perfect Tense
The Present Perfect (have/has + past participle) is the bridge between past and present. Use it when a past action matters now: it produced a present result, it happened at an unstated time, or it started in the past and continues today. If you say when it happened, switch to the Past Simple.
Present Perfect Progressive
The Present Perfect Continuous (have/has been + verb-ing) zooms in on the duration and activity of something that started in the past and continues to now — or that just stopped and left visible evidence. Where the Present Perfect counts results, this tense emphasizes the process.
Past Tense — The Verb BE
The past of be has only two forms — was and were — but they unlock all past descriptions, identities, locations, and the entire Past Continuous tense. Unlike other verbs, be makes its own negatives and questions without "did".
Past Tense — Other Verbs
The Past Simple is the storytelling tense. Use it for actions and situations that started and finished in the past — whether one second ago or a thousand years ago — especially when the time is stated or understood. Stories, histories, biographies, and "What did you do yesterday?" all live here.
Past Progressive Tense
The Past Continuous (was/were + verb-ing) paints the background scene of a story: an action already in progress at a past moment. Its signature move is the "interrupted action": I was cooking when the phone rang — long background action in the continuous, short interrupting action in the simple.
Past Perfect Tense
The Past Perfect (had + past participle) is the "past of the past". When you are already talking about a past time and need to mention something that happened even earlier, the Past Perfect makes the order of events crystal clear: When I arrived, the class had started — the start came first.
Verbs — Future Time
English has no single "future tense" — it has a toolbox of future forms, each with its own job: will for predictions, promises and instant decisions; going to for plans and evidence-based predictions; the Present Continuous for fixed arrangements; and the Present Simple for timetables. Choosing the right tool is what examiners listen for.
Imperative Mood
The imperative is the base verb used to give commands, instructions, directions, invitations, warnings, and advice. Its hidden subject is always you. It is the grammar of recipes, signs, manuals, GPS directions — and First Aid instructions!
Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive is the mood of unreality, demand, and formal suggestion. It survives in two patterns: the were-subjunctive for unreal situations ("If I were you…") and the base-form subjunctive after verbs of demand and suggestion ("They insisted that he be on time"). Small, formal, and a favourite of advanced exams.
Prepositions
A preposition connects a noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence. It shows place, direction, time, or other relationships.
Conjunctions (Extra)
A conjunction is a word that joins two words, phrases, or sentences together.
Sentences — Subject & Predicate
Every sentence has two parts: the subject (who or what the sentence is about) and the predicate (what the subject does or is).
Asking Questions
In English, we form questions by changing the word order or by using question words (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How).
Subject-Verb Agreement
The verb must agree with the subject. If the subject is singular, use a singular verb. If plural, use a plural verb.
Modal Verbs
Modal verbs come before a main verb and change its meaning. They show ability, possibility, permission, or obligation.
Gerunds & Infinitives
A gerund is a verb + -ing used as a noun. An infinitive is "to + verb". Both can work as the subject or object of a sentence.
Comparing Nouns
We use comparatives to compare two things, and superlatives to say something is the most or least of all.
Conditionals (If-Sentences)
Conditionals describe a condition and its result: IF this happens, THAT happens. English has four main types — Zero (always true), First (real future), Second (unreal present), Third (unreal past) — plus mixed forms. The secret is simple: the IF-clause sets the time and reality; the result clause carries will/would/would have.
Passive Voice
In an active sentence, the subject DOES the action; in a passive sentence, the subject RECEIVES it: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet → Hamlet was written (by Shakespeare). Use the passive when the doer is unknown, unimportant, or obvious — it is the natural voice of news reports, science, formal writing, and IELTS Task 1 process descriptions.
Reported Speech
Reported (indirect) speech retells someone's words without quotation marks: "I'm tired" → She said (that) she was tired. Three things shift when you report: tenses move one step back, pronouns change to match the new speaker, and time/place words update (today → that day). Master the backshift table and the rest follows.
Interjections
An interjection is a word or phrase that shows a sudden feeling or emotion. It is not grammatically connected to the rest of the sentence.
Pronouns (Extra)
A pronoun replaces a noun so we don't have to repeat it. Example: "John went home. He was tired." — "He" replaces "John".
Clauses & Phrases
A clause has a subject AND a verb. A phrase is a group of words without a subject-verb pair.
Confusing Words
Some English words look or sound similar but have different meanings. These are easy to mix up — even for native speakers!
Word Formation
In English, you can build new words from existing ones by adding prefixes (to the beginning) or suffixes (to the end).
Spelling Rules
Good spelling comes with practice — but knowing the rules makes it much easier.