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English grammar
English grammar — B2
Grammar explanations, examples and common mistakes for CEFR B2.
English grammar — B2
Future Perfect Continuous
Duration up to a future point
Future Perfect or Future Perfect Continuous: Which outcome matters?
Common Time Markers for the Future Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Continuous
Duration up to an event in the past: had been doing
Past perfect continuous: earlier activity as the cause of a past result
Past Perfect Simple or Continuous: result and process in the past
Future in the Past
Was / were going to: looking back at a past plan
Would: the future from a past viewpoint and past habits
Was about to / was on the point of: just before a past event
Stative vs Dynamic Verbs
Stative verbs: why they usually avoid continuous forms
Verbs with different meanings: meaning first, form second
Be + adjective: state or behavior right now?
Mixed Tenses in Narrative
Background and main events in a narrative
Past perfect: stepping back in a past narrative
Present tenses in a story about the past
Alternatives to If
Unless, provided (that), as long as: exceptions and conditions
In case or if: preparing or setting a condition
Supposing, imagine, and what if: discussing possible situations
Wish and If Only + Would
Wish / If only + would: when behaviour is annoying
Wish + Past Simple: wishing the present were different
Regretting the past: wish + Past Perfect
Unreal Past: It's Time, I'd Rather
It’s (high/about) time + past simple: time to act
I’d rather + past simple: a preference about someone else’s action
Would rather + base form: what I would prefer to do
Formal Conditionals: Were to, Should
If … were to: formally imagining a future scenario
If … should: if something happens to occur
Conditional inversion: Were / Should without if
Implied Conditionals
Otherwise and or else: a consequence under a different condition
But for: if a particular factor were absent
With / without: a condition expressed in an adverbial
Impersonal Passive
It is reported that…: reporting without a personal subject
Subject + passive + infinitive: The bridge is believed to…
Choosing between two passive reporting constructions
Passive with Reporting Verbs
Common reporting verbs in the passive
Time in passive reports: when a belief is held and what time it concerns
Active and passive reporting: People say, He is said to and It is said that
Advanced Causative
Have/Get Something Done: a service in different tenses
Have or get something done: service, result and tone
Have/get something done for misfortune: affected, not arranged
Active vs Passive Choice
Agentless passives: when the event itself matters
The passive as a means of cohesion: the same theme as the subject of several consecutive sentences
When active voice makes a message more direct
Degrees of Certainty
Must / Can’t: confident deductions about the present
Might / Could / May for possibility
How to Express Degrees of Certainty
Be Supposed To / Be Meant To
Be supposed to: expected behaviour, a rule, or an arrangement
Not supposed to and wasn't supposed to: prohibitions and expectations at different times
Be meant to: intention, purpose, and arrangement
Be Likely To / Be Bound To / Be Due To
Be likely to for probability
Be bound to: near certainty
Be due to for scheduled events
Modal Perfects in Context
Should have / Shouldn’t have for criticism and regret
Could have / Might have for unrealised possibilities
Would have: imagined consequences of something that did not happen
Cleft Sentences
It-clefts: focusing on one sentence element
What-cleft: the topic first, then the main point
All cleft and The thing / The reason cleft
Inversion after Negative Adverbials
Negative adverbial at the beginning of a sentence: subject–auxiliary inversion
Common negative adverbials that trigger inversion
No sooner… than / Hardly… when
Emphasis with Do, Does, Did
Emphatic do/does/did in affirmative statements
Emphatic do in imperatives
Emphatic do and the ordinary auxiliary
Advanced Participle Clauses
Having + past participle for earlier actions
Being + past participle: the passive in a reduced clause
Participle clauses instead of relative and adverbial clauses
Noun Clauses
That-clauses as subjects or objects: clausal subjects, postponed subjects with It, and clauses after verbs
What Clauses: “The Thing That” Instead of a Noun
Using the fact that for emphasis
Concession and Contrast
Although / Though / Even though + subordinate clause
Despite / In spite of + noun or -ing
However, nevertheless, nonetheless: connecting contrasting ideas
Complex Cause and Effect
Expressing a cause in one phrase: due to, owing to
As a result, consequently, therefore: expressing results
Cause and Effect: lead to, result in, give rise to
Hedging Language
Tend to / seem to / appear to: cautious generalisations and conclusions
It would seem / It would appear
Arguably / Somewhat / To some extent
Formal Connectors
Adding information: Furthermore, Moreover and In addition
Formal Result Links: consequently, thus, hence, accordingly
Contrast: On the other hand, Conversely, By contrast · B2
Substitution and Ellipsis
So and not as clause substitutes
Do so / do it / do that as action substitutes
Ellipsis: avoiding repetition of understood words
Presenting Arguments
Presenting and supporting a position
Presenting an opposing view
Formulating conclusions and summaries
Speculating and Hypothesising
Language for speculation
Expressing hypotheses with conditionals
Suppose / Let's say / Imagine: inviting listeners into a scenario
Evaluating and Critiquing
Language for positive evaluation
Language for constructive criticism
Balanced evaluation: weighing strengths and weaknesses
Formal Register and Tone
Formal and informal vocabulary: choose words for the audience and genre
Contractions and phrasal verbs in formal writing
Impersonal constructions for an objective style
Cohesion in Extended Writing
Referring back and connecting sentences
Linking paragraphs
Parallel structure for clarity
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