All sections
Foundations
The verb system
Describing and connecting
- 09 Adjectives and adverbs
- 10 Prepositions
- 11 Conjunctions
- 12 Building longer sentences
- 13 Punctuation and capital letters
Words and sounds
Practice and progress
How to use this course
Reading is not studying. Six steps, every page, every day. Students who follow them finish in six weeks and can use the language; students who only read finish in six weeks and remember little.
1. Read the rule once
Do not stop at a word you do not know. Get to the end of the box first.
2. Read the table
The table is the rule in short form. Cover the right column and say it yourself.
3. Say every example aloud
Out loud, not in your head. Your mouth learns English separately from your eyes.
4. Cover the English, read the Urdu
Then say the English back. The fastest way to build speaking.
5. Do the Check yourself box
Write your answer before you open it. An answer you only looked at teaches nothing.
6. Come back tomorrow
Ten minutes on yesterday's page before you start today's.
The course, part by part
Foundations
The words English is made of, and the order it puts them in. Everything after this depends on it.
- 01Parts of speech and word orderThe eight kinds of word, and the fixed order English puts them in.
- 02Nouns, articles and pluralsa, an, the: when to use each and when to use none. Plurals and uncountable nouns.
- 03PronounsI, me, my, mine and the rest, in one table.
- 04be, do and haveThe three verbs that build almost every other structure in English.
The verb system
The verb carries the time, the question and the negative. This is the biggest part of the course.
- 05The twelve tensesThree times, four aspects. The map, the master table, and a page for each tense. 12 pages inside.
- 061st, 2nd and 3rd formWhich form follows which helper, plus 85 irregular verbs.
- 07Questions, negatives and short answersWord order in questions, the WH words, and how to answer.
- 08Modal verbscan, should, must, may and the rules that govern all of them.
Describing and connecting
How to add detail, join two ideas, and punctuate the result.
- 09Adjectives and adverbsDescribing things, describing actions, and comparing.
- 10PrepositionsTime, place, movement, and the pairs you must simply memorise.
- 11ConjunctionsJoining two ideas into one sentence, correctly.
- 12Building longer sentencesSimple to complex, plus the passive, conditionals and reported speech.
- 13Punctuation and capital lettersThe marks, what each one does, and when a capital is required.
Words and sounds
Seventy words worth owning, how to build more from them, and how to be understood when you say them.
Practice and progress
Two hundred and thirty more exercises, a six-week timetable and a checklist.
Grammar words you will meet
If you do not know these words, the rules will not make sense. Learn these thirteen first.
| Word | What it means | Example | Urdu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | The person or thing doing the action. | Ali writes a letter. | فاعل |
| Verb | The action or state word. Every sentence needs one. | Ali writes a letter. | فعل |
| Object | The person or thing receiving the action. | Ali writes a letter. | مفعول |
| Singular | One. | one book, one student | واحد |
| Plural | More than one. | two books, many students | جمع |
| Helping verb | A small verb in front of the main verb: am, is, are, was, were, do, does, did, have, has, had, will. | She is reading. | معاون فعل |
| Clause | A group of words with its own subject and verb. | because it was raining | جملہ خبریہ کا حصہ |
| Phrase | A group of words with no verb. | in the morning | فقرہ |
| Tense | The form of the verb that shows time. | go / went / gone | زمانہ |
| Vowel | The letters a, e, i, o, u. | apple, egg | حروفِ علت |
| Consonant | Every other letter. | b, c, d, f, g | حروفِ صحیح |
| Formal | Careful language for writing, exams and offices. | I would like to request… | رسمی |
| Informal | Relaxed language for friends and family. | Can I get… | غیر رسمی |
Your progress list
Tick a line only when you can do it without looking anything up. The number on the right is the section to go back to.
- I can name the eight parts of speech and find them in a sentence.01
- I write every sentence in Subject + Verb + Object order without thinking.01
- I use a, an and the correctly, and I know when to use none.02
- I make plurals correctly, including the irregular ones.02
- I never say a / two with an uncountable noun.02
- I use I / me / my / mine in the right places.03
- I never write am, is or are in front of another main verb.04
- I can build all twelve tenses and say when each is used.05
- I know the 1st, 2nd and 3rd form of the 85 verbs in the table.06
- I can turn any statement into a question and a negative.07
- I follow every modal with the bare V1.08
- I use good / well and -ing / -ed adjectives correctly.09
- I know the fixed preposition after the twenty commonest verbs.10
- I never write although … but in the same sentence.11
- I can write a compound and a complex sentence on demand.12
- I capitalise I, names, days, months and nationalities every time.13
- I can use all 70 vocabulary words in my own sentences.14
- I can hear the difference between /t/, /d/ and /ɪd/ at the end of a past verb.15