Grammar & Vocabulary Guide

Present perfect vs past simple is the single biggest tense problem. Use present perfect for unfinished time ('I have lived in London for three years' — still living there). Use past simple for finished time ('I lived in London for three years' — not any more).

Present perfect continuous emphasises duration and is often used with 'for' and 'since'. Past perfect ('I had eaten') sets one past event before another — only use it when the order matters.

Use 'the' when both speaker and listener know which one ('the kitchen', 'the moon'). Use 'a/an' for one of many ('a teacher'). Use no article for plural and uncountable nouns in general statements ('teachers are underpaid', 'water is essential').

Speakers of Slavic, Russian, Chinese and Japanese languages often skip articles entirely. If you're one of them, slow down and check every noun in your essay before submitting.

Time: in (months, years, parts of day) — 'in July', 'in 2026', 'in the morning'. On (days, dates) — 'on Monday', 'on 5 June'. At (clock times, festivals) — 'at 7pm', 'at Christmas'.

Place: in (enclosed) — 'in London', 'in the box'. On (surface) — 'on the table', 'on the wall'. At (specific point) — 'at the bus stop', 'at the door'.

Native English uses fixed pairings that learners often miss. 'Make a decision' (not 'do a decision'). 'Take a photo' (not 'make a photo'). 'Strong tea / heavy rain / fast food / quick lunch'. Use a learner's dictionary (Oxford, Cambridge, Longman) and note the example sentences, not just the meaning.

Academic Writing also rewards specific verbs: 'demonstrate' instead of 'show', 'examine' instead of 'look at', 'highlight' instead of 'point out'.

Don't study grammar in isolation — apply it the same day. After a 20-minute lesson on present perfect, write five true sentences about your own life using the structure. The next day, write five more.

For vocabulary, learn words in chunks of 4–8 in a single topic (e.g. environment, technology, education) so they reinforce each other. Re-test yourself after one day, three days and one week.

Commas: separate items in a list (apples, pears and bananas), set off non-essential clauses (London, the capital of England, is...), and after fronted adverbials (However, the data shows...). Don't use a comma to join two complete sentences — that's the comma splice, the single most-marked error in IELTS Writing.

Semicolons join two closely related complete sentences ('It was raining; the picnic was cancelled'). Colons introduce a list, an explanation or a quotation. Apostrophes show possession (the student's book) or contraction (don't, it's). 'Its' (possessive) has no apostrophe; 'it's' always means 'it is' or 'it has'.

Three structures lift a band 6 piece to band 7. Conditionals: 'If house prices fell, more first-time buyers could enter the market.' Relative clauses: 'Students who live with their parents save thousands.' Cleft sentences: 'What concerns most parents is screen time, not homework.'

Use them sparingly — one or two of each per essay is enough. Sprinkling complex structures over weak grammar fundamentals (article, agreement, tense) doesn't fool examiners.

Learn the Academic Word List (AWL) — 570 word families that appear across academic subjects in English. Key examples: analyse, approach, area, assess, available, benefit, concept, consist, context, contract, create, data, define, derive, distribute, economy, environment, establish, estimate, evaluate, evidence, factor, function, identify, income, indicate, individual, interpret, involve, issue, labour, legal, legislate, major, method, occur, percent, period, policy, principle, process, require, research, respond, role, section, sector, significant, similar, source, specific, structure, theory, vary.

Look up each word in a learner's dictionary, note one example sentence, and use the word in two written sentences of your own. Recycle each word at least three times in the next two weeks for it to stick.