Self-Study Reference — Edition 01

English.

/ˈɪŋ.ɡlɪʃ/ · noun · West Germanic language

A language built from a small set of moving parts — a handful of word classes, a strict word order, and a limited set of tense patterns — that combine into everything from a shopping list to a court ruling. This guide walks through those parts in order, from the ten words you'll use in almost every sentence, to the eight hundredth you'll need for a graduate seminar.

Use the tabs on the left (top, on mobile) to move between sections. Grammar is organized into three stages; the word bank underneath holds 1,000 words sorted from the ten most frequent words in the language up through specialist, literary vocabulary — searchable, filterable, and tagged by part of speech.

Beginner · Levels 1–3 Elementary–Intermediate · Levels 4–6 Advanced · Levels 7–8 Expert · Levels 9–10

Start here

How this guide works

English proficiency is really three skills stacked on top of each other: knowing enough words to say something, knowing enough grammar to arrange them correctly, and having practiced enough to do both without thinking. This guide is organized to build all three at once.

1Grammar, in three stages

Grammar Basics covers what you need to form a correct, simple sentence: word order, articles, pronouns, the verb "to be," present tense, and basic questions.

Building Blocks covers the tenses and structures that let you talk about the past, the future, obligation, and comparison — the grammar of everyday fluency.

Advanced Grammar covers the structures that separate a competent speaker from a precise one: the passive voice, conditionals, reported speech, and the subtler tools of formal and academic writing.

2The 1,000-word bank

Vocabulary is ordered by how often a word actually appears in English, moving from function words like the and of through everyday nouns and verbs, into the vocabulary of work, study, and technology, and finally into the more exact, formal, and literary vocabulary used in academic and professional writing.

Each entry is tagged with its part of speech and its level (1 = most frequent, 10 = most specialized), and the whole list is searchable.

3A rough proficiency map

Stage	Word levels	You can
Beginner (A1)	1–2	Introduce yourself, ask simple questions, describe your day in the present tense.
Elementary (A2)	3–4	Tell a story in the past, make plans for the future, describe people and places.
Intermediate (B1–B2)	5–6	Explain opinions, handle most everyday and work situations, understand connected speech.
Advanced (C1)	7–8	Read academic or professional text, argue a position, write a structured report.
Expert (C2)	9–10	Match a well-educated native speaker's precision, register, and range.

Stage One · Levels 1–3

Grammar Basics

Everything else in English is a variation on what's here. Learn this section well and you can already build a correct, if simple, sentence about almost anything.

The eight word classes

Every English word belongs to one of these jobs. Knowing the job tells you where the word can go in a sentence.

Class	Job	Examples
Noun	Names a person, place, thing, or idea	teacher, city, freedom
Pronoun	Replaces a noun	I, you, it, they
Verb	Shows an action or state	run, be, seem
Adjective	Describes a noun	tall, quiet, blue
Adverb	Describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb	quickly, very, well
Preposition	Shows relation (place, time, direction)	in, on, before
Conjunction	Joins words or clauses	and, but, because
Determiner	Introduces a noun	a, the, this, my

✓Subject–Verb–Object

The default word order in an English statement is Subject, then Verb, then Object (SVO). This order is stricter in English than in many languages — swapping it usually changes the meaning or breaks the sentence.

She (S) reads (V) the newspaper (O).

✗ Reads she the newspaper.

Time and place expressions usually go at the end: She reads the newspaper every morning in the kitchen.

✓Building a longer sentence

A sentence needs at least a subject and a verb. Everything else is optional detail, added in a fairly fixed order:

Subject → Verb → Object → Manner → Place → Time
The team finished the project quickly at the office yesterday.

aA, an, and the

a / an — one, unspecified example of something (a before a consonant sound, an before a vowel sound): a book, an hour, a university.
the — a specific thing both speaker and listener already know: the book you lent me.
No article — general or plural ideas: Dogs are loyal. I like music.

sPlurals

Rule	Singular	Plural
Add -s	book	books
-s, -x, -ch, -sh → -es	box	boxes
Consonant + y → -ies	city	cities
-f/-fe → -ves	leaf	leaves
Irregular	child, man, mouse	children, men, mice

Personal & possessive pronouns

Subject	Object	Possessive adj.	Possessive pronoun
I	me	my	mine
you	you	your	yours
he	him	his	his
she	her	her	hers
it	it	its	—
we	us	our	ours
they	them	their	theirs

This/that point to one thing (near/far); these/those point to more than one.

The verb "to be"

Subject	Present	Past
I	am	was
you / we / they	are	were
he / she / it	is	was

Used for identity, description, and location: I am a nurse. She is tired. They are at home.

Present simple vs. present continuous

Present simple — habits, facts, routines: add -s for he/she/it.

I work from home. She works from home.

Present continuous — actions happening right now: am/is/are + verb-ing.

I am working right now. She is working right now.

Yes/No questions and negatives

Most tenses need an auxiliary verb (do, does, did, am, is, are) to form a question or a negative.

Statement: You like coffee.
Question: Do you like coffee?
Negative: I do not (don't) like coffee.

Wh- questions

What, where, when, who, why, how go before the auxiliary: Where do you live? Why is she late?

Stage Two · Levels 4–6

Building Blocks

This is the grammar of everyday fluency — talking about the past and future, comparing things, and connecting ideas beyond one short sentence.

Past simple

Regular verbs add -ed; many common verbs are irregular and must be learned individually.

I walked home. She went home. They ate dinner.

Base	Past	Base	Past
go	went	see	saw
have	had	make	made
take	took	come	came
say	said	get	got

Past continuous

An action in progress at a specific point in the past — often interrupted by another action.

I was cooking dinner when the phone rang.

Three ways to talk about the future

Form	Use	Example
will + verb	Decisions made now, predictions, promises	I think it will rain.
going to + verb	Plans already decided	We are going to visit Rome in July.
present continuous	Fixed arrangements	I'm meeting her at six.

Present perfect

have/has + past participle — connects the past to now: an experience at an unspecified time, or something that started in the past and continues.

I have visited Japan twice. She has lived here since 2019.

Compare with past simple, which needs a finished, specific time: I visited Japan in 2019 (not "have visited... in 2019").

Past perfect

had + past participle — the earlier of two past events.

By the time we arrived, the film had already started.

Modal verbs

Modals sit before the base verb (no "to," no -s) and add meaning like ability, permission, obligation, or possibility.

Modal	Meaning	Example
can / could	ability, permission	I can swim. Could I leave early?
must / have to	obligation	You must wear a seatbelt.
should	advice	You should see a doctor.
may / might	possibility	It might rain later.
need not	lack of obligation	You needn't come if you're busy.

Comparatives and superlatives

Adjective type	Comparative	Superlative
Short (1 syllable)	fast → faster	fast → the fastest
Ending in -y	happy → happier	happy → the happiest
Long (2+ syllables)	more expensive	the most expensive
Irregular	good → better, bad → worse	the best, the worst

This route is faster, but that one is the most scenic.

Prepositions of time and place

	at	on	in
Time	precise time — at 6pm	days/dates — on Monday	longer periods — in June, in 2024
Place	a point — at the door	a surface — on the table	an enclosed space — in the room

Stage Three · Levels 7–10

Advanced Grammar

These structures aren't strictly necessary for everyday speech, but they're what separates fluent from precise — and they're essential for academic and professional writing.

Active vs. passive

The passive shifts focus from who did an action to what happened, using be + past participle. It's common in formal, scientific, and journalistic writing where the actor is unknown or unimportant.

Active: The committee approved the budget.
Passive: The budget was approved (by the committee).

The conditional ladder

Type	Structure	Use	Example
Zero	if + present, present	General truths	If you heat water, it boils.
First	if + present, will	Real future possibility	If it rains, we'll stay in.
Second	if + past, would	Unreal/hypothetical present	If I had more time, I would travel.
Third	if + past perfect, would have	Unreal past — regret	If I had studied, I would have passed.
Mixed	if + past perfect, would	Past cause, present result	If I had taken that job, I would be in Tokyo now.

Direct → reported speech

When you report what someone said, tenses usually shift one step into the past, and pronouns/time words adjust to the new context.

Direct: "I am tired," she said.
Reported: She said (that) she was tired.

Direct: "I will call you tomorrow."
Reported: He said he would call me the next day.

Relative clauses

Add detail to a noun using who, which, that, whose, where. A defining clause is essential to meaning (no commas); a non-defining clause adds extra, removable information (set off with commas).

Defining: The woman who called earlier is my aunt.
Non-defining: My aunt, who lives in Boston, is visiting next week.

Gerund (-ing) or infinitive (to + verb)?

Some verbs are followed by a gerund, some by an infinitive, and some by either — sometimes with a change in meaning.

Followed by -ing	Followed by to + verb	Either (meaning changes)
enjoy, avoid, suggest, finish	want, decide, plan, agree	stop, remember, try

He stopped smoking (quit the habit).
He stopped to smoke (paused in order to smoke).

Phrasal verbs

A verb plus one or two particles (up, out, off, into...) that together take on a meaning you can't always guess from the parts. Common in spoken English; understanding them is often what separates textbook English from real conversation.

Phrasal verb	Meaning
give up	stop trying / quit
look into	investigate
put off	postpone
run into	meet by chance
figure out	understand / solve

Register: formal vs. informal

Fluent writing matches its vocabulary and structure to context. Academic and professional English favors precise verbs, nominalization, and hedged claims over casual phrasing.

Informal	Formal
get better	improve
a lot of	substantial / considerable
find out	determine / ascertain
I think	it appears that / the evidence suggests

Cohesion devices

Connect ideas across sentences with signposting language rather than repeating "and" and "but": however, therefore, moreover, consequently, nevertheless, in contrast, as a result.

The subjunctive & inversion

Formal English keeps a few older structures alive: I suggest that she attend the meeting (subjunctive, not "attends"); Never have I seen such chaos (inversion for emphasis, instead of "I have never seen").

1,000 Words · Levels 1–10

The Word Bank

Ordered from the words that appear constantly in English (level 1) to specialized, formal, and literary vocabulary (level 10). Search by word, or filter by level and part of speech.

1000 words

Putting it together

A self-study plan

Grammar rules and word lists don't turn into fluency by themselves — they need repetition, in context, spread out over time. Here's a stage-by-stage rhythm to follow.

Levels 1–2

Get the sentence working

Drill "to be," present simple, and basic word order daily. Learn 10 new level-1/2 words a day and use each in one spoken sentence. Read very simple text (graded readers, children's books) aloud.

Levels 3–4

Add time and description

Practice past and future forms by narrating your day out loud. Keep a short daily journal, three sentences, mixing tenses. Add comparatives when describing things around you.

Levels 5–6

Move into real conversation

Focus on modals, perfect tenses, and phrasal verbs — this is where textbook English becomes spoken English. Watch shows with English subtitles and note phrasal verbs you hear.

Levels 7–8

Read and write with structure

Study passive voice, conditionals, and reported speech through real articles. Practice rewriting informal sentences in a more formal register using level 7–8 vocabulary.

Levels 9–10

Refine precision

Read academic, legal, or literary text and log unfamiliar words. Practice using one new level 9–10 word correctly in writing each day — precision here comes from active use, not recognition.

Every stage

Habits that carry you through

Speak out loud daily, even alone. Review yesterday's new words before learning today's. Favor short, frequent sessions over long, rare ones.