Articles: a, an, the
The ZONES system, and the specific article error your first language predicts. Five rules, then ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill your articles →Grammar drilled · free IELTS resources · one-to-one lessons · proper British English
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The errors that keep capable speakers from the next level are predictable, often from your first language. Drill them, with instant feedback, free. Each page is a short set of rules, then ten drills marked as you go.
The ZONES system, and the specific article error your first language predicts. Five rules, then ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill your articles →The structures that mark you at Band 6, 7 and 8+, pick your target and see exactly what to aim for, with an example of each.
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See the ladder →The five forms, the one error that caps Band 7, the Part 3 deployment map, and ten drills with instant feedback, the structure that moves you from 6.5 to 7.
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Drill conditionals →The seven forms that matter, the boundary that caps Band 7, and a map of which tense each part of the test is asking for, then ten drills.
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Drill your tenses →Lexical resource is a quarter of your mark, and it's rarely about more words. See the same idea climb from Band 6 to 8+, the linker chart by function, and how to link ideas with the right clause.
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Upgrade your vocabulary →A range of complex structures is the phrase the grammar band turns on. The four sentence types, the joins that build them, the comma-splice error that caps accuracy, and ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill sentence structure →The verb-pattern error that quietly caps a band. Which verbs take -ing, which take to, the gerund-after-preposition rule, the meaning-change pairs (stop doing vs stop to do), and ten drills.
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Drill verb patterns →Vague comparison is a Band 6 habit; precise comparison is a Band 7 one, and it shows most in Task 1. The forms, the degree modifiers that quantify a gap, the errors that mark you down, and ten drills.
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Drill comparison →How you grade certainty and soften a claim, exactly what Task 2 and Part 3 reward. The certainty ladder, obligation, hedging, the modal + have + past form, and ten drills.
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Drill modals →The first topic-vocabulary bank. The collocations that lift one of the most common IELTS themes, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill education vocabulary →The main tool for combining two ideas into one Band 7 sentence. Defining vs non-defining, who/which/that/whose/where, when to drop the pronoun, the comma rule, and ten drills.
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Drill relative clauses →The interactive tool that ties the grammar pages together: the four moves that fuse flat clauses into one controlled complex sentence, one idea climbing Band 5 to 8, the three traps, and ten to combine. The Band 6-to-7 lift.
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Combine sentences →The register of Task 1 process writing and of academic prose. Be + past participle across the tenses, the three reasons to use it, the errors that cap accuracy, when the active is clearer, and ten drills.
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Drill the passive →How you cite sources in Task 2 and relay speech in Part 1. Backshift and its shifts, reported questions and commands, the still-true exception, and the reporting verbs that beat said, with ten drills.
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Drill reported speech →The auxiliary goes before the subject, except when it does not. Yes/no and wh-questions, subject questions, question tags, and the indirect-question word order that catches even strong speakers. Ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill question formation →How one idea explains, qualifies or contrasts with another in a single complex sentence. The connectors for time, reason, concession, purpose and result, the comma rule, the comma-splice trap that caps accuracy, and ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill adverbial clauses →The Band 8+ word-order moves that show real control: inversion after a negative adverb (Never have I seen), it-clefts and what-clefts, and fronting for effect, used sparingly and accurately. Ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill emphasis structures →Time and place (at, on, in), the dependent prepositions that quietly cap a band (depend on, interested in, responsible for), and the data prepositions that keep Task 1 figures clean (rose by vs to). Ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill prepositions →The natural, idiomatic English that lifts Speaking into Band 7+, and the formal equivalents that keep a Task 2 essay in register. What a phrasal verb is, separable vs inseparable word order, the most useful ones, and ten drills.
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Drill phrasal verbs →Connecting ideas without overdoing it: the three kinds of linker, choosing one by function, punctuating however and therefore (the comma-splice trap), and the overuse that caps Coherence and Cohesion. Ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill linking words →Cohesion without repetition: this, these, the former, the latter, one, do so and ellipsis, the devices that point back to an idea without naming it again, plus the unclear-reference trap that costs Coherence and Cohesion marks. Ten drills with instant feedback.
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Drill referencing →Browse the whole Grammar section → · Every resource here is free. When you want a person to mark your work and tell you exactly what's holding you back, that's what the lessons are for.
A full IELTS suite, free: full papers marked the moment you finish, a writing scan, and topic and essay banks. No download, no sign-up.
Seventeen complete Academic passages, each with fourteen questions across the four question types. Sit them online; mark instantly with an explanation for every answer.
16 tests · Available now
Open the Reading tests →Fourteen full Academic papers, a Task 2 essay-question bank sorted by type, and a free writing scan that reads your structure in seconds.
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Open the Writing papers →The three-part structure with band-graded answers, plus a topic bank: Part 1/2/3 questions, a practise generator, and the same answer shown at Band 6, 7 and 8+.
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Practise the topics →How IELTS is scored, with a target-band tool, plus a free Listening exercise generator that builds marked practice from any video you choose.
Scoring live · Listening live
Listening practice → How you're scored →All 1,048 grammar and vocabulary drills behind one adaptive round of ten. Answer well and the questions climb the band ladder; struggle and they step back down. Every wrong answer explains itself.
1,048 questions · Available now
Play a round →Which IELTS are you taking? The test comes in two versions, and this site treats them as two tracks with their own material. Academic is for university study and professional registration: dense Reading passages and a data-driven Task 1. General Training is for work and migration: everyday texts and a Task 1 letter. Speaking and Listening are identical in both. The Academic track → The General Training track →

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Everything here is built by Adam J. Smith, an IELTS tutor, London-born, in proper British English. He teaches one to one online: grammar and fluency, IELTS, professional English, and more.
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About Adam →The free resources will take you a long way on your own. When you want a person to hear your English, mark your writing and tell you exactly what to fix, that is a lesson. One to one, online, in proper British English.
General English for speaking and writing: the grammar that holds you back, and the confidence to use the language naturally.
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Adam writes as well as teaches. The grammar here, the band-by-band structures and the first-language guidance, is drawn from his forthcoming book, with more to come.
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Forty-eight reviews on Preply, every one of them five stars. A handful, in their own words.
He is excellent for IELTS Academic preparation and provides a lot of writing practice, which is extremely helpful for making real progress.
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This is a Band 6 paragraph from the worked example on this site, marked the way a report marks it. Every slip is named, corrected and explained, because a correction you cannot explain is one you will make again.
Task 2 · unpaid community service in schools
Firstly, community service gives young people important skills. For example, they help in a hospital or a old people home, and they learn to talk to different people. Some students say they are too busy studying. This is a reasonable point, however I think that with a good time management, students can do both things without problem. In my opinion the advantages are more than the disadvantages.
a old people home
an old people’s home
An before a vowel sound, and the possessive for “a home for old people”.
a reasonable point, however I think
a reasonable point. However, I think
Two full sentences joined by only a comma. However opens a new sentence and takes a comma after it.
with a good time management
with good time management
Uncountable, so no article. The same slip twice in one paragraph is the one to drill.
the advantages are more than the disadvantages
the advantages outweigh the disadvantages
One precise verb replaces four vague words, which is Lexical Resource in a sentence.
Many women experience sickness; it usually a normal.
Many women experience sickness; it is usually normal.
Turkish lets an adjective stand alone – o normal. English cannot: every finite clause needs a verb, and where there is no action, be is the verb.
We recommend vaccine because it protects the baby.
We recommend the vaccine because it protects the baby.
A specific thing already in play takes the. First-mention countable takes a/an. An uncountable or a whole field takes nothing.
The contractions are every five minutes, before the patient come to hospital.
When the contractions are every five minutes, come to hospital.
Two things at once: the connector names a condition, so when, not a tacked-on before; and the patient come → comes.
The chart was worried.
The chart was worrying.
One test: who is feeling it? People take -ed. Things – charts, traces, trends, observations – take -ing.
There were three options, however Monitoring was the safest.
There were three options. However, monitoring was the safest.
However is not a joining word. It needs a full stop in front of it and a comma after. Same family as therefore and as a result.
They must be celebrating something special, I have to find a table.
They must be celebrating something special, so I have to find a table.
Russian punctuates by clause and a comma may legally join two full clauses. English punctuates by sentence.
Most of people arrive after midnight.
Most people arrive after midnight.
Two different structures. MOST + bare noun for people in general; MOST OF + THE for a specific group already named.
The queue was that bad that we left. I only work on the weekend, and I asked where the restroom was.
The queue was so bad that we left. I only work at the weekend, and I asked where the toilets were.
Three British-English corrections in one line: so … that for the result pair; at the weekend, not on; and restroom is American – in Britain ask for the toilets, or the Ladies and the Gents.
He must have been having too many drinks.
He must have had too many drinks.
The original was already right – this one was broken by over-correcting under instruction. A completed cause takes must have had; the continuous adds nothing.
It is tougher as we get older.
The older we get, the tougher it becomes.
The double comparative. He can build one – he had already produced The more action a government takes, the more progress it will make.
Living abroad is difficult, however it teaches you quickly.
Living abroad is difficult. However, it teaches you quickly.
Written Spanish tolerates the comma chain; English does not. However is an adverb, not a conjunction.
This will be resumed in one sentence.
This can be summed up in one sentence.
A false friend: Spanish resumir means to summarise. English resume means to start again after a pause.
I wanted to feel healthier so that I stopped eating sweets.
I stopped eating sweets so that I could feel healthier.
So that points at the goal, and the goal goes second. Action first, purpose after.
We went to the Paris and met the Grandma at the station.
We went to Paris and met Grandma at the station.
Proper nouns take no article – place names and family names used as names alike.
Active travel accounted for 14% and 19 in London and Tokyo respectively.
Active travel accounted for 13% and 10% in London and Tokyo respectively.
The figures belong to two other cities on the same chart – which he then quotes correctly in the next paragraph.
Governments subsidise public transport, as such reducing congestion.
Governments subsidise public transport, thereby reducing congestion.
As such means in that capacity. For a result use thereby + -ing, or thus, or and so.
The proportion of people travelling by car were the highest in every city.
The proportion of people travelling by car was the highest in every city.
The verb agrees with proportion, not with the nearest noun. Agreement breaks at exactly the distance where the subject stops being visible.
Governments should relax regulations which mitigate the responsibility of industry.
Governments should relax the regulations that oblige industry to act.
The thesis contradicted itself: regulations that mitigate responsibility are the ones he wants relaxed, which argues the opposite case.
Function returns pointer to buffer, so caller must free memory before process exits.
The function returns a pointer to the buffer, so the caller must free the memory before the process exits.
Six determiners missing from one sentence of otherwise near-native syntax. Polish has no article system, so nothing prompts them.
The traffic in my city very bad and many people angry about it.
The traffic in my city is very bad and many people are angry about it.
Arabic forms a complete sentence without a present-tense verb. English never does. Get be in place first – everything else is easier after it.
Moreover, education is a right, and it is important for everyone, and governments should pay for it.
Beyond fairness, public funding pays for itself: a better-educated workforce raises tax revenue, which offsets the initial cost.
The original asserts; the upgrade develops – claim, then mechanism, then consequence. That single move is what lifts Task Response to 7.
I sometimes do mistakes
I sometimes make mistakes
MAKE tends to go with producing or causing a result – make a mistake, make a decision, make progress, make a backup; DO goes with activities and work – do research, do a scan, do your homewo.
I read about the exploit in a forum
I read about the exploit on a forum
English chooses between on, in and at by context; the pairing has to be stored, not reasoned out.
The scanner run every hour
The scanner runs every hour
The English third-person singular -s has to be maintained deliberately: the scanner runs, it depends, she has access.
it depends of the ruleset we loaded last week
it depends on the ruleset we loaded last week
Verb + preposition pairs are stored whole, not derived: depend on, rely on.
since three days
for three days
FOR takes a duration, SINCE takes a starting point: for three days / since Monday.
You can see the misconfiguration on the screenshot I attached
You can see the misconfiguration in the screenshot I attached
English puts things in a picture, a screenshot or an image, not on one.
AI just a tool
AI is just a tool
Every English sentence needs a verb, and where there is no other verb the verb is a form of BE.
some people think pets is a part of their lives
...pets are a part of their lives
Match plural to plural: a plural subject takes a plural verb (pets are).
technology affect education negatively
technology affects education negatively
Add the -s for he/she/it: one thing → affects.
food are spicier
food is spicier
The rule underneath: food is uncountable → food is; cars is plural → cars are.
a lot of stuffs were sold
a lot of stuff was sold
Stuff is uncountable: it takes no plural -s, and it takes a singular verb.
people don't go out of Korea
people don't leave Korea / don't go abroad
English keeps go out of for small enclosed spaces – a room, a building, a lift.
at weekdays
on weekdays
AT for clock times and night (at 7, at night); ON for days and dates (on Monday, on weekdays, on my birthday); IN for months, years and longer stretches (in July, in the morning).
My friends is the same
My friends are the same
A plural subject takes a plural verb: friends are, people are.
there are too much stuffs to organise
there is too much stuff to organise
Stuff is an uncountable noun – no plural -s, and a singular verb with it.
would have had
will have had
The future perfect is will have + past participle: it looks ahead and says something will be finished by a future point.
I am ready this lesson
I am ready for this lesson
Ready takes for before the thing you are ready for.
half year ago
half a year ago
Add a to a singular countable noun, and keep the idiom half a year (or simply six months).
they were not paying last few invoices
not paying the last few invoices
Add the when the noun is specific and identified: the last few invoices is a known, particular set.
I don't have team under me
I don't have a team under me
A singular countable noun takes a: a team, a sales team.
you should invest in sales team
invest in a sales team
First-mention singular countable nouns take a, even inside a compound: a sales team.
make a photo of yourself
take a photo of yourself
English fixes this verb as take – take a photo, take a picture – and the wider split is take a photo, make a decision, do the work, have a meeting.
I think South Eastern area of Moscow
the south-eastern area of Moscow
An of-phrase pins a noun down, so the noun it modifies takes the definite article.
he claimed Iberian peninsula will turn into a huge burden
the Iberian peninsula will turn into a huge burden
Named geographical features – peninsulas, seas, ranges – take the.
the governor of Lombardy region
the governor of the Lombardy region
A region built as NAME + common noun takes the: the Lombardy region.
they ran family business
they ran a family business
A first-mention countable noun takes a/an.
since the ancient Greece times
since ancient Greek times
Before a noun such as times, use the adjective (ancient Greek), not the country noun – and the generic time phrase takes no article.
he was not in the politics, he was behind the scenes
he was not in politics; he was behind the scenes
An abstract noun used generically takes the zero article: in politics, under pressure, with patience. And two full clauses need more than a comma – a semicolon carries the contrast.
a largest lake
the largest lake
An attributive superlative takes THE: there is only one largest, so it is definite by nature.
it's ancient palace
it's an ancient palace
A first-mention countable noun takes A/AN – and the vowel sound calls for AN.
not as big as on Christmas
not as big as at Christmas
English fixes festivals with AT: at Christmas, at Easter, at the weekend – but keeps ON for named days (on Saturday). So: at the season, on the day.
the car you're allowed to drive with 18
the car you're allowed to drive at 18
English states an age with AT: at 18, at the age of 18. WITH is never used for age.
good in English
good at English
Skills take AT: good at English, brilliant at improvising – and AT stays even when an -ing form follows.
in primetime
at prime time
Clock-like time slots take AT: at prime time, at midnight, at the interval.
everybody want to
everybody wants to
Everybody, everyone and each are grammatically singular, always.
we also works together with our business law department
we also work together with our business law department
A plural subject never takes the singular -s; this is a hypercorrection, evidence that the -s system is unstable in both directions under speed.
I don't know if that have sense in English
I don't know if that makes sense in English
A singular subject takes the -s form: that has, that makes.
a woman that practice massage
a woman who practises massage
A singular subject takes the -s form; and for a person, WHO is the natural relative pronoun – that is possible, but who reads better.
this company don't want to hire anyone
this company doesn't want to hire
With a singular subject the negative carries the -s through do-support: doesn't, didn't.
Every one is a real correction from marked homework, and the three change with the date, so this is never quite the same page twice.
This paragraph is a worked example, not a student’s work. Real reports are written for the person who wrote the essay and are never published. Individual corrections, anonymised, are gathered in the marking archive.
Every lesson ends with a written report and homework built from your own mistakes. It's part of the £20, not an extra. No marks out of ten and no good job. The grammar we covered gets one of four verdicts, every error you made is written down in your own words and corrected, and the reason it happened is traced back to your first language. Below are real pages from real reports. Only the names have been removed.
Every lesson's grammar gets one of these four
Absorbed
The headline is a strong one: all the conditional forms are absorbed: you run them fluently, in a real fintech register, right up to the past-hypothetical that trips most people. What's left isn't the conditionals at all; it's the little third-person -s that slips off inside them (if the engine flags). Fix the -s, one habit, and today's whole sheet largely clears.
C2 · Polish · fintech team lead · session 9“if engine flag a transaction” · “if scope creep happen” · “if he have another offer”
if the engine flags · if scope creep happens · if he has another offer
Every one is a third-person singular subject that needs -s on its verb. The pattern is consistent, so the fix is a single habit. A quick self-check when you speak: he/she/it → verb + s.
C2 · Polish · fintech team leadNot tested
The forms were taught, but they didn't surface in your speaking today, so there's nothing to mark yet. I've deliberately not recorded this as absorbed: this morning your past passive was only partially there, and the perfect forms stack more auxiliaries on top, so they need to be seen in production before we can say. The homework elicits them.
B2 · Arabic · IELTS · session 6Why it happened
“how much could earn a lawyer in Spain”
how much a lawyer could earn in Spain
Spanish places the subject after the verb very freely (¿cuánto podría ganar un abogado?) and keeps that order in indirect questions too. English inverts only in direct questions. The moment one is embedded, it snaps back to statement order: subject, then verb. Same words; different order.
C1 · Spanish · cross-border litigator · session 14Split
Purpose, result and, impressively, reduced relatives came through clean. Russian has no reduced relatives at all, so the dishes prepared this morning is a structure with no template in your first language. That's a real gain.
“people who wants to learn”
people who want to learn
The one thing to tidy: the verb agrees with the noun before who.
C1 · Russian · restaurant receptionist · session 7| Lesson | Grammar faced | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Conditionals | Absorbed |
| 06 | Passive voice | Absorbed |
| 07 | Clause family | Absorbed |
| 08 | Relative clauses | Partially |
| 09 | Cohesion & modals | Absorbed |
| 10 | Inversion & clefts | Absorbed |
On the hard, advanced grammar the verdict is almost always absorbed. Where the small marks cluster is one finite place: two short lists of Swedish habits. Not gaps to fill: lists to automate.
C1 · Swedish · cyber security · session 10The motive
Pure structure, no carelessness. Polish forms the conditional with the clitic by, and the conjunction gdyby ('if') already contains it, literally if-would. So in Polish the conditional marker sits in the if-word itself; carried across, it re-surfaces as an English would right there in the if-clause.
Closed with a rule to bank: one would, result side only.
Every report closes with one of six of these · C2 · PolishAbsorbed · clean sheet, no errors.
A milestone and a clean sheet on the same day. It's worth knowing why that's impressive: every one of these structures runs against the grain of Korean, which emphasises with particles and puts its verbs last. You switched systems cleanly. The homework doesn't need to repair anything: it just stretches these tools across registers, from a chat with a friend to a formal essay.
C1 · Korean · age 12 · session 10The homework isn't a photocopy. It's written for the lesson you just had, in a setting you actually work in, and it targets the errors you actually made. Six stages, from noticing to free writing, and every answer comes back marked with the reason, not just a tick. Here's a real key, from a worksheet on linking clauses:
Last year I went to a new school. Finished past → simple past. English never puts was in front of a base verb.
My parents are very supportive. Parents = plural → are. Arabic has no present 'to be', so this one is entirely on the English side.
I like to drink tea in the evening. After like / want / need → to + verb, or the -ing form. Never the bare verb.
They are tired because they studied all night. Both shapes in one sentence: the copula, then the finished past.
The three verb shapes: your one priority. Past: I WENT, they STUDIED (never was go). Be: I am / you-we-they ARE / he-she-it IS (never they is). After like/want/need: TO + verb, or -ing, never the bare verb.
Why it happens. Arabic has no present 'to be': hum asihha' ('they healthy') is a complete sentence with no verb. So the English be is a word your first language never supplies. Add it on purpose.
The plan. Don't add new grammar. Make these three shapes automatic. That's the fastest lift to your band.
That's what lands in your inbox after every fifty minutes: a report that names what you did well, what you got wrong in your own words, and why your first language pulled you there, plus a worksheet built to fix it. It's included in the £20, and it's the part students keep. Start with a trial lesson →
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