English grammar — clear, with examples

"To be" (быть) is the most common verb in English. It has three forms in the present: am, is, are.

We use the Present Simple for habits, routines, and facts — things that are always or usually true.

Articles go before nouns. Use a/an for one new thing, and the for a specific known thing. Russian has no articles, so this needs practice.

To talk about more than one thing, we usually add -s to the noun. Some plurals are irregular.

We use have/has to talk about possession, family, and features. Use have with I/you/we/they and has with he/she/it.

Question words ask for information. Common ones are what (что), where (где), and how much (сколько стоит).

We use there is / there are to say that something exists or is in a place.

Prepositions of place tell you WHERE something is. The trick is choosing the right one: in (inside), on (on a surface), under (below), next to (at the side), between (in the middle of two), in front of / behind, above / below / near.

With he, she, and it in the Present Simple, we add -s (or -es) to the verb.

"I would like" is a polite way to ask for something or say what you want. It is softer than "I want".

We use the Past Simple to talk about finished actions in the past. Many verbs add -ed, but some are irregular.

Use the Present Perfect for past actions connected to now (with no specific time), and the Past Simple for finished actions at a specific past time.

The Present Perfect Continuous (have/has been + verb-ing) describes actions that started in the past and are still continuing now, or that recently stopped but have visible results, and it often emphasizes the duration of the activity.

The Past Continuous (was/were + verb-ing) describes an action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past, often interrupted by another shorter action.

We use "used to + base verb" to talk about past habits, repeated actions, and states that were true before but are not true now.

We use the first conditional (if + present simple, will + base verb) to talk about real and possible situations in the future and their likely results.

We use the Second Conditional to talk about imaginary, unreal, or unlikely situations in the present or future and their imagined results.

English has three main ways to talk about the future — "will", "be going to", and the present continuous — and the one you choose depends on whether you are predicting, planning, deciding, or arranging.

In English we use "must", "have to", and "should" to talk about obligation and advice: "must" and "have to" express strong necessity or rules, while "should" gives advice or recommends what is a good idea.

We use the relative pronouns "who", "which", and "that" to join two ideas into one sentence and to give more information about a person or thing.

In the passive voice we focus on the action and the thing it happens to, not the person who does it; we form it with the verb "be" plus the past participle, and we use the present simple ("am/is/are + past participle") or the past simple ("was/were + past participle") depending on the time.

The Past Perfect (had + past participle) shows that one past action happened before another past moment, while the Past Perfect Continuous (had been + -ing) emphasises the duration or ongoing nature of an activity that took place before that point.

The third conditional describes unreal or imaginary situations in the past — things that did not happen — and their hypothetical past results, using the structure "If + past perfect, would have + past participle".

Mixed conditionals combine clauses from different conditional types so that the time of the condition and the time of the result are different.

In advanced English the passive voice works across all tenses and is often combined with reporting verbs (say, believe, think, expect) to present information impersonally or to emphasize the action rather than the doer.

Reported (indirect) speech tells what someone said or asked without quoting their exact words, usually shifting tenses one step back, changing pronouns and time expressions, and turning questions into statement word order.

English uses "must have," "might/may/could have," and "can't/couldn't have" + past participle to express how certain we are about something that happened in the past, based on the evidence we have.

Relative clauses add information about a noun: defining clauses identify which person or thing we mean (no commas), while non-defining clauses give extra, non-essential information (set off by commas).

We use "wish" and "if only" to talk about things we want to be different — regrets about the past, dissatisfaction with the present, and frustration with annoying situations.

The causative with "have something done" and "get something done" is used when you arrange for another person to do a job for you, rather than doing it yourself.

The future perfect ("will have done") describes an action that will be completed before a specific point in the future, while the future continuous ("will be doing") describes an action that will be in progress at a specific future moment.