Two friends compare their weekends on a Monday morning
Two friends trade weekend stories before work, one of them visibly short of sleep.
A2 Elementary
A2 is where the past tense arrives. You are at this level if you can manage short everyday exchanges in the present but still hesitate the moment you need to talk about yesterday. Here you will build regular past forms, sort out the plurals that ignore the usual rule, separate two very common all-purpose verbs that learners mix up, and hear the three sounds hiding behind one written ending. If the present still feels unsteady, go back to A1 first.
Asking a stranger the way to the nearest pharmacy
A visitor asks a passer-by for the closest place to buy medicine and gets a two-step route.
Choose the word that places the sentence in time or in space
Choose the preposition that places each sentence in time or in space, or decide that none is needed.
Put in the missing word, or leave the gap empty
Put the right article in front of each noun, or recognise the cases where nothing belongs there.
Point, surface, container: one scale for both time and place
Point, surface and container: one scale that chooses the preposition for both time and place.
Which word goes in front of the noun, and when nothing does
The indefinite article, the definite article and no article at all, with the meaning each choice carries.
What each paper of the A2 Key exam asks you to do
The three papers of the A2 Key exam, what each one asks you to do and how the marks are shared.
One sound apart: choosing the word the sentence needs
Each answer sits one consonant away from a rival word; pick the one that fits the sentence.
Two sounds from one spelling, and the wrong ones learners reach for
One pair of letters spells two different consonants, and every substitute learners reach for is already a real word.
Feeling slightly unwell, but not ill enough to see a doctor
An idiom for feeling mildly unwell, with nothing to do with the forecast.
The set expressions you will hear first in everyday English
The set expressions you will meet first in everyday English, each paired with its plain meaning.
The missing second word: complete each two-part verb
Supply the small word that completes each two-part verb; the rest of the sentence tells you which.
The small second word that decides what a verb means
The two-part verbs a beginner meets in the very first week, and why the small word that follows the verb is never decoration.
Words for what you eat: which take a plural and which never do
Food words sorted into the ones that take a plural and the ones that never do, with the quantity words each accepts.
Naming the people you are related to, by blood and by marriage
Family words in three layers: the household, the wider family, and relatives by marriage.
Why a friendly opening sounds wrong in a formal setting
Every greeting also announces how close you think you are to the other person, which is why a warm one can misfire.
The letters that are spelled but never spoken
The letters that are written but never spoken, grouped into the small number of patterns they follow.
Pronunciation of the regular past ending: three sounds, one rule
The regular past tense ending is pronounced three ways in English. One question about the sound before it decides every verb, so there is nothing to memorise.
To take something you will give back later
The verb for the person who takes something for a while; the giver's side uses a different verb.
Building the regular past
Build the regular past form, watching the spelling changes that happen before the ending.
The regular way to talk about finished actions
One ending turns a regular verb into the past - when to use it, and how the spelling shifts along the way.
The two all-purpose verbs: pick the right one
Pick the right all-purpose verb for each collocation and put it in the correct form.
Two everyday verbs learners constantly mix up
Two everyday verbs share the work that a single verb does in most other languages - here is how English splits it.
Plural forms that refuse to follow the rule
The nouns that change inside the word to form a plural, and the few that do not change at all.
Which of the three ending sounds do you hear
Say each past verb aloud and identify which of the three ending sounds you hear.
Three different sounds for one written ending
One written past ending, three spoken sounds - and the simple rule your mouth already wants to follow.