B1 Grammar — English But Better

B1 is where English starts to feel more complex — and more powerful. You'll learn to talk about the past with more precision, express conditions, and understand grammar structures used in real conversations and exams.

Stage 1 — Present Perfect

01 Present Perfect Simple Life experiences, recent events, unfinished time 02 Present Perfect Continuous How long / recent ongoing activity 03 Present Perfect or Past Simple? The most important contrast at this level

Stage 2 — Past and Future (advanced)

04 Past Perfect Simple The action before the past action 05 Future Continuous Action in progress at a future moment

Stage 3 — Conditionals

06 Zero Conditional General truths: If water freezes, it becomes ice 07 First Conditional Real future possibility: If it rains, I'll stay home 08 Second Conditional Hypothetical present: If I had time, I would travel

Stage 4 — Modal Verbs

09 Modal Verbs — Introduction can, could, must, have to, should, may, might 10 Ability: can, could, be able to Present, past, future ability 11 Obligation: must, have to, should Obligation vs. advice vs. necessity 12 Probability: must, might, could, can't Degrees of certainty about the present

Stage 5 — Passive, Relative Clauses, Reported Speech

13 The Passive Voice is made · was built · will be finished 14 Relative Clauses (defining) who, which, that, where, when 15 Reported Speech She said she was tired. He told me to wait. 16 Gerunds and Infinitives enjoy doing · want to do · stop to do / stop doing

Stage 6 — Modals (advanced) & Sentence structures

17 Had Better / It's Time You'd better hurry · It's time you went to bed 18 Would Rather / Would Sooner I'd rather stay in · I'd rather you didn't smoke 19 Question Tags It's cold today, isn't it? · You know her, don't you? 20 Future Time Clauses When I arrive, I'll call you — NOT "will arrive" 21 Linking Words However · Although · Despite · Therefore · Because of

Stage 7 — Nouns, Pronouns & Adjectives

22 Articles: a/an, the, zero A dog / The dog / Dogs are loyal 23 Reflexive Pronouns myself, yourself, himself · I did it myself · by myself 24 -ed and -ing Adjectives boring film vs bored student — cause vs experience

Stage 8 — Quantifiers

25 Much, Many, A lot of, Little, Few much time · many cars · a little money · a few friends 26 Some, Any, No and Compounds some milk · any milk? · nobody home · anywhere 27 All, Both, Every and Each all students · both sisters · every day · each person 28 Either, Neither and Both Either day is fine · Neither answer is correct 29 Other, Another, Others, The Other another coffee · other options · the others · the other one

Stage 9 — Prepositions & Phrasal Verbs

30 Verb + Preposition worry about · wait for · believe in · depend on · agree with 31 Adjective + Preposition good at · afraid of · interested in · similar to · bored with 32 During, For and While during the film · for three hours · while I was eating 33 Phrasal Verbs (B1) give up · carry on · find out · look after · get on with · end up

← A2 Next level: B2 →

B1 — Intermediate