English Grammar for IELTS
Clear, accurate guides to the building blocks of English grammar. Every topic includes a plain-English definition, the main types, key rules, example sentences, common mistakes to avoid, and how it lifts your IELTS Grammatical Range and Accuracy score.
Verbs
An auxiliary verb, or "helping verb", is a verb used together with a main verb to form tenses, questions, negatives and passives. English has three primary auxiliaries (be, have, do) and modal auxiliaries (can, will, must, should, and others). They add grammatical meaning such as time, possibility or emphasis rather than describing the main action itself.
An action verb is a word that expresses a physical or mental action performed by a subject, such as run, write, think or decide. Unlike stative verbs, which describe states, feelings or conditions, action verbs show something happening: an activity, movement, process or thought that a person, animal or thing does.
Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs, such as can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would, that combine with a main verb to express ideas like ability, permission, possibility, obligation or advice. They do not change form for person or tense and are followed directly by the base form of the verb, without "to".
Transitive and intransitive verbs are two categories that describe whether a verb needs a direct object to complete its meaning. A transitive verb passes its action onto an object, for example "She read the book." An intransitive verb makes complete sense alone, for example "The baby slept," with no object required.
Adjectives
A demonstrative adjective is a word (this, that, these, those) that comes directly before a noun to point out which specific person, thing or group is meant, and to show whether it is near or far in space or time. Unlike demonstrative pronouns, demonstrative adjectives always modify a noun rather than replacing it.
Comparative and superlative adjectives are adjective forms used to compare things. The comparative (e.g. bigger, more useful) compares two people, things or ideas, showing one has more of a quality than the other. The superlative (e.g. biggest, most useful) compares three or more, showing which has the most or least of that quality.
Conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction is a word that joins two grammatically equal elements, such as two words, two phrases or two independent clauses. English has seven: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, remembered by the acronym FANBOYS. They show relationships like addition, contrast, choice, reason or result between the joined items.
A subordinating conjunction is a word or phrase that joins a dependent (subordinate) clause to an independent clause, showing how the two ideas relate. Common examples include because, although, if, when and since. It shows relationships such as time, reason, condition or contrast, and the dependent clause it introduces cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.
Nouns
A possessive noun is a noun that shows ownership, belonging or a close relationship between two things or people. It is usually formed by adding an apostrophe and "s" ('s) to a singular noun, or just an apostrophe to a plural noun ending in s, as in "the girl's book" or "the students' books".
A proper noun is a word or group of words that names a specific, unique person, place, organisation or thing, such as "Maria", "London" or "Microsoft". Unlike common nouns, which name general items like "city" or "company", proper nouns are always written with a capital letter, no matter where they appear in a sentence.
Countable and uncountable nouns are two categories of nouns based on whether something can be counted as separate units. Countable nouns (book, chair, idea) have singular and plural forms and can follow numbers. Uncountable nouns (water, advice, furniture) refer to substances, concepts or collections treated as a whole and normally have no plural form.