A1 Grammar Explanations

Explanations » A1 Grammar Explanations
Present simple forms of 'be'

Present simple forms of ‘to be’
This, that, these, those

This, that, these, those
Cartoon image with two characters demonstrating possessive adjectives 'my' and 'your' with phrases 'This is my money' and 'Give me your money' for an elementary English grammar lesson.

Possessive adjectives and subject pronouns
a/an, plurals – singular and plural forms

a/an, plurals – singular and plural forms
Illustration of a girl with speech bubbles saying 'This book is interesting!' and 'It's an interesting book!' to demonstrate the use of adjectives in sentences for an A1 elementary English grammar lesson.

Adjectives – old, interesting, expensive, etc.
Cartoon image of a man holding a dumbbell with text statements 'I don't smoke', 'I never drink', and 'I go to the gym every day' for learning the Present Simple tense in English.

Present simple – affirmative, negative, questions
Cartoon illustration of two characters with speech bubbles: one confused monster saying 'What are you?' and an alien girl responding 'Why do you ask?' for an A1 English grammar lesson on questions.

Questions – word order and question words
Cartoon of two characters demonstrating adverbs of frequency: one monster saying 'I often brush my teeth' and a chef stating 'I brush my teeth twice a day' for an A1 English grammar lesson.

Adverbs of frequency with present simple
Object pronouns vs subject pronouns – me or I, she or her?

Object pronouns vs subject pronouns – me or I, she or her?
Illustration of a robot with text bubbles 'Whose oil is this? It's Peter's oil.' to teach possessive 's for an A1 English grammar lesson

Whose, possessive 's – Whose is this? It's Mike's
llustration with icons of a clock, calendar, and daily planner marked 'Friday 30' with the prepositions 'at', 'in', 'on' for an A1 English grammar lesson.

At, in, on – prepositions of time
Graphic illustration with a cube, soccer ball, and hexagon demonstrating the prepositions 'at', 'in', 'on' for a lesson on prepositions of place.

At, in, on – prepositions of place
Cartoon of a boy singing with the text 'I can sing' and a robot with 'But you can't dance' for an A1 English lesson on modal verbs 'can' and 'can't'.

Can, can't – ability, possibility, permission
Animated characters in a dialogue with text bubbles: 'What are you doing?' and 'I am leaving!' demonstrating the use of the present continuous tense.

Present continuous – I'm doing, I'm not doing, Are you doing?
Illustration of a man standing next to a taxi with text 'I drive a taxi. But I'm not driving now.' for teaching Present Simple vs Present Continuous.

Present simple or present continuous?
Cartoon pig saying 'Let's do some exercise.' and a bunny saying 'Shut up, please.' to illustrate polite and motivational imperatives in English.

The imperative – Sit down! Don’t talk!
Illustrated scene with two men, one asking 'Where were you?' and the other responding 'I was with you!' to demonstrate the past simple of 'be'.

Was/were – past simple of 'be'
Contrasting triangles displaying examples of regular and irregular verbs: 'walk, walked' and 'draw, drew' for an A1 English grammar lesson.

Past simple – regular/irregular verbs
Cartoon of two students, one asking, 'Did you study your lesson?' and the other replying, 'Of course I didn't study my lesson! It exemplifies a grammar lesson on the past simple.

Past simple – negatives and questions
Cartoon image of a monkey asking, 'Would you like to dance?' and a bear responding, 'No, I don't like dancing.

Verbs + to-infinitive and verbs + -ing
Cartoon image showing a dialogue using 'Would you like to...' with one character asking 'Would you like to dance?' and another responding 'No, sorry. I don't like dancing. And I don't like you.

Would you like...? I'd like...
Cartoon image of a person asking 'Have you got the time?' with a response 'Yes, I have' next to an illustrated clock, for A1 English grammar learning.

Have got
Illustration of a character in a top hat pleading for 'some money for a car', emphasizing the use of 'some' and 'any' in English grammar for A1 learners.

A, some, any – countable and uncountable nouns
there is, there are – there was, there were

There is, there are – there was, there were
Illustration of a comically oversized spider and mosquito with the text 'There is a mosquito in the room. It is big!' for an A1 English grammar lesson.

There or It
Cartoon of a burglar character indicating movement with the text, 'Now, I'm going to the bank next to the florist, opposite the library' to illustrate prepositions of place.

Next to, under, between, in front of, behind, over, etc.
Cartoon image of a man with a speech bubble 'Just a few' in response to the question 'How many beers did you have?' alongside an animated mug of beer.

Much, many, a lot of, a little, a few
Cartoon of a burger and a pressure cooker with speech bubbles saying 'I'm faster than you' and 'Yes. But I'm healthier' to illustrate comparative adjectives.

Comparative adjectives – older than, more important than, etc.
Illustration of two students with speech bubbles, one saying 'I'm the smartest student in the class' and the other 'And the most pretentious' to demonstrate superlative adjectives.

Superlative adjectives – the oldest, the most important, etc.
Colorful illustration of two dinosaurs with one asking, 'Will you marry me?' and the other responding, 'Yes, I will!' to exemplify the future tense 'will'.

'Will' and 'shall' – Future
Cartoon image of a bomb with a lit fuse and a speech bubble saying 'I'm going to explode!' as an example of 'be going to' for future intentions.

Be going to – future plans and predictions
Illustration of two cartoon characters playing guitars with text 'We are good guitar players. We play the guitar well.' to differentiate adjectives from adverbs.

Adverbs of manner (slowly) – or adjectives (slow)?
Cartoon image of a man with crossed arms next to an open fridge asking 'Did you drink the milk in the fridge?' and a cow responding 'I don't drink milk'.

A/an, the, no article – the use of articles in English
Illustration of a cartoon character with a text overlay using conjunctions 'and', 'but', 'so', 'because', and 'or' in a complex sentence.

Conjunctions: and, but, or, so, because
Visual aid depicting icons for subject, verb, object, place, and time with corresponding examples 'cow', 'eat', 'grass', 'in the fields', 'every day' to illustrate English sentence structure.

Basic word order in English
Cartoon image of a book character pointing at an angry spider with the captions 'THIS is a spider. IT's angry.' from test-english.com's A1 Elementary grammar lesson.

The difference between 'this' and 'it'