Conquering the Beginner Level: All You Need to Know to Cover the Basics in English

Any English for beginners course introduces certain key grammar topics needed to use English at a basic level. By learning and practicing these concepts little by little, anyone can begin to communicate at a more advanced level and begin to conquer the fear of making mistakes.

If you’ve taken English lessons for beginners before, you’re probably already familiar with many of these grammar concepts, but you may not feel completely confident using them. This article aims to help you better understand these basic English grammar topics. We’ll cover adjectives, articles, nouns, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns and verbs, along with a few other important parts of English grammar.

For each topic, we’ve included clear explanations and plenty of examples, along with links to other articles that offer more specific and detailed information. We hope that this guide can serve as a useful reference and introduction to basic English for beginners. Ready to start? Let’s begin!

Adjectives

Interesting, fun, dynamic, useful, engaging… These are all positive adjectives that you could use to describe something you like, such as a language learning app, for example.

Adjectives are words you use to describe the quality of something. They come in different types, so take a look at the topics below to learn all about each one. If you want to go further and learn more about a topic, just click on the title to link to a more detailed article.

Comparatives

Comparatives are adjectives that we use to compare two things or people. They are usually formed in one of two ways:

1. Add -er to the end of a short, one-syllable adjective.
2. Say the word more before a longer adjective of two or more syllables.

In many cases, we add the word ‘than’ after the comparative adjective. In the examples below, the comparative adjectives are in bold type, and the word ‘than’ is underlined in two of the sentences.

• I got a puppy that is smaller than my older dog, but it’s way louder.

• You’re going to need a bigger house.

• This is more complicated than I thought.

There are sometimes minor changes in spelling (learn about these by reading the full comparative adjectives article), but you can see how these work. Also, remember that there are a few irregular forms. The most common of these are shown in the table below.

Superlatives

When we use a superlative, we don’t leave room for improvement. A superlative describes the greatest possible amount of a certain quality. Superlatives are formed with the ending ‘-est’ for short words of one syllable and the word ‘most’ before longer words. Remember that the article ‘the’ is always part of the superlative.

• He is the youngest member of our team.

• This is the largest pizza you can get here.

• She is the most accomplished person I know.

While these rules apply to most words, there are a few exceptions – these are the same words that have an irregular form for comparatives.

Again, for a full explanation of superlatives, follow the link to our complete article on comparatives and superlatives.

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives indicate who or what something belongs to. Very commonly used, they are a must-have on your list. In the examples below, the possessive adjectives are marked with bold type.

• This is John. Yesterday I met his sister.

• This is Jane. Yesterday I met her sister.

The following table gives examples of all the singular and plural forms of this simple but really important grammar structure.

Demonstrative adjectives

When in doubt about a word they don’t know, most English learners will just point at something and say, “I need this!” The words this, that, these and those are demonstrative adjectives. We use them to make clear the specific thing we are talking about. Notice how they come before a noun in the following sentences, just like many other kinds of adjectives:

• I’ve lived in this house for two years.

• These clothes are too small for me. I’m going to throw them out.

• That girl goes to my brother’s school.

• I want to take a look at those shoes.

Descriptive adjectives

Sometimes grammar terms can sound a little obscure, but when you start to get familiar with them, they are actually easy to understand. Descriptive adjectives are like this. These are adjectives that we use to… describe something. They provide essential information to define the qualities of a person, an object, an animal or an idea.

• She wore a soft sweater to feel comfortable.

• This pizza has a delicious and crispy crust.

• The sky is so blue and clear today.

Some descriptive adjectives can be formed by two words, and in this case they are often joined by a hyphen:

• It was a life-changing experience.

• She is a well-known author.

• This is a heartbreaking story.

Order of adjectives

A very useful and well-known rule about adjectives is that they have a fixed position in English and often come before the word they are describing, as you can see in these examples:

• She bought a red vase.

• We saw a cute puppy.

• He gave me a leather jacket for my birthday.

A lesser known rule about adjectives is that, funnily enough, when two or more adjectives come before a noun, they have a specific order. Let’s imagine that every Christmas your grandmother knits a sweater for her grandchildren. The sweater is red and it’s made out of wool. It’s also very cute. How do you combine all this information in one sentence?

Well, the answer is that there is only one way – a cute red wool Christmas sweater. If you say the adjectives in a different order, for example ‘a Christmas red wool cute sweater,’ it will sound very strange and be difficult to understand.

The correct order is based on the purpose of each adjective. Adjectives that express an opinion go first, followed by adjectives that describe color, material, and finally type. Let’s break this down in the table below.

This word order (opinion-color-material-type) is fixed. If you change the position of one or more adjectives the whole thing will sound wrong to the ears of a native speaker.

There are up to ten categories of adjectives that form this word order. In the examples below, you can see adjectives that describe size, like large, little and big. These go after opinion adjectives but before color adjectives. For a more complete explanation, check out our article on the order of adjectives.

• She bought a beautiful large red vase.

• We saw a cute little brown puppy.

• He gave me a stylish big black leather jacket for my birthday.

Personality adjectives

Personality adjectives don’t really form a grammatical category but nonetheless are a very important tool when speaking English. They provide basic information about a person, including everything from positive characteristics to personal flaws and beliefs about the world.

Describing someone’s personality is one of those basic skills that all English learners should master, so make sure that you are familiar with these before you move on. The following sentences contain examples of personality adjectives marked in bold type:

• My brother is very kind and always helps others.

• He is very impatient when he’s hungry.

• She is shy, but she’s actually very friendly.

• My grandmother is not very religious.

Articles

These little words can add a lot of nuance to a conversation at a higher level. For the time being, it should be enough to say that without them a sentence will not be complete. Articles are definitely on the must-have list for beginners.

Definite articles

These articles are used to refer to something that is clear from context and has been mentioned before in the text or conversation. There is only one definite article in English – the word ‘the.’ Pretty convenient, eh?

• The dog

• The cat

• The apple

Indefinite articles

Indefinite articles appear when we refer to something that hasn’t come up in the conversation before. If we refer to the same thing later in the conversation, then we switch to the definite article. There are two indefinite articles in English – a and an.

• I brought a book. Remember the book I told you all about?

• I want an apple.

• We want to take a trip to London.

Articles are a difficult piece of grammar to learn, and it takes a lot of practice to get them right. To learn more about them, you can read our guide to using articles in English.

Nouns

We have already referred to nouns, which are words for things, people and places. You can see these in the sentences below. The first sentence uses the noun actress, which is a type of person. The second sentence has the noun bathroom, which is a place, and the third sentence has the noun fruit, which is a thing.

• She is a very accomplished actress.

• We have renovated our bathroom.

• I’ve bought a lot of fruit.

But nouns also refer to abstract ideas, like feelings and other things that cannot be touched. For example:

• What is happiness?

• We need more information.

English has weird rules for some of these nouns, based on whether you are referring to one thing or more than one and on whether the thing is countable or not. In a few cases there are different nouns based on whether a person is male or female, like actor and actress. Sometimes we put two nouns together to form a compound noun, such as bus stop or classroom.

If you want to learn more about nouns, you’ll like our article on ten types of English nouns.

Adverbs

Similar to adjectives, adverbs are words that add additional information to the words around them, but while adjectives are specifically linked to nouns, adverbs are linked to verbs and adjectives. Many adverbs in English have an ‘-ly’ ending, but they can also come in different forms. Here are some examples of adverbs in sentences:

• He always arrives early to class.

• The movie was incredibly entertaining.

• They searched everywhere for her keys.

Next we are going to take a quick look at adverbs of frequency and conjunctive adverbs. If you feel like you need a quick refresher on common adverbs, check out our article on 70 useful English adverbs.

Adverbs of frequency

Adverbs of frequency tell how often something occurs. In order to remember them properly, it is useful to visualize them in order from minimum to maximum frequency – never, rarely, seldom, occasionally, sometimes, often, generally, usually, always.

• I never drink coffee in the evening.

• We often eat dinner together as a family.

• I always brush my teeth before going to bed.

There is more to adverbs than just the meaning, so if you want to learn about the position of adverbs in a sentence and how they work with compound verbs, see our guide to adverbs of frequency.

Conjunctive adverbs

Conjunctive adverbs will help you give structure to a sentence or a whole text. They help signal to your listener or reader that you are adding something, that you are making several points, or that you are describing a surprising or unexpected outcome. Conjunctive adverbs are important for connecting your ideas together clearly and are absolutely necessary in many cases, especially if you are expressing yourself in writing.

Notice how the conjunctive adverbs (in bold type) are used in the examples below:

• She studied a lot for the test; therefore, she passed easily.

• It was a difficult challenge; also, I didn’t receive any help at all.

• I wanted to go to the park; however, it started raining.

To explore different uses of conjunctive adverbs and their correct punctuation, take a look at our guide to conjunctive adverbs.

Prepositions

Now things really get interesting. Using prepositions is a rather difficult part of learning English for beginners. Prepositions are generally small words that seem simple and easy to use, but they can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A plane flying from Toronto is actually going in the opposite direction than a plane flying to Toronto, right?

Prepositions can give important information about time, location, state or condition, direction and more. One of the most important things to understand about prepositions is that a single preposition can be used in many different ways. For example, the preposition ‘at’ is used in a different way in each of the following sentences:

• The meeting is at 4 p.m. (time)
• She’s waiting at the bus stop. (place)
• I’m at peace with my decision. (state or condition)
• They were throwing snowballs at each other. (direction)
• I learned how to drive late, at the age of 25. (age)

Here are a few more examples of different prepositions at work. For a more complete guide, read our dedicated article on prepositions.

• The book is on the table.

• I’ll meet you at the library in ten minutes.

• She’s been waiting for the bus since 7 a.m.

• I can’t concentrate without a cup of coffee.

• I’ve been studying English for two years.

Pronouns

Sometimes grammar terms can seem more difficult than they are. Pronouns are words that stand in the place of other words so we don’t have to keep on repeating them. At this stage you only need to master a few pronouns, but don’t worry. Even if you speak only a little English, you certainly know them already!

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns come in two categories, depending on their role in the sentence – subject pronouns and object pronouns. Subject pronouns are the words that you use instead of names to make it clear who or what you are talking about. In the context of a sentence, subject pronouns are the ones doing the action.

• You sit next to Sarah. She is our accountant.

• I don’t like coffee – I never drink it.

• We are going back to work now.

Object pronouns, on the other hand, represent the person or thing affected by the action:

• Talk to him.

• I haven’t asked them yet.

• He is coming with us.

The table below lists the subject and object pronouns side by side. The top half of the table shows personal pronouns that refer to only one person or thing, and the bottom half shows the ones that refer to more than one person or thing.

We have already discussed demonstrative adjectives (this, that, these, those), so you already know what we are dealing with. When you use one of these words before a noun, they are called demonstrative adjectives, but when you use one without a noun, it’s a demonstrative pronoun. For example, if you point at something and ask, “What’s that?” then the word ‘that’ is a demonstrative pronoun since it doesn’t have a noun after it.

Here are some more examples with demonstrative pronouns:

• This is my favorite book!

• Those were the best days of my life.

• I don’t agree with that.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns can be considered a little bit more advanced, but every beginner should know how to use them in the most simple sentences. They include the words who, which, that, whom and whose. We use this grammar structure to specify which one of something we are talking about. Take the following sentences, for example:

• The girl who won the race is my cousin.

• This is the book that I was telling you about.

• The movie which we watched last night was fantastic.

In the first sentence, if you just said, “The girl is my cousin,” it would be unclear which girl you were talking about. By adding the demonstrative pronoun who with some extra information, it is clear that your cousin is the girl ‘who won the race.’ In the second sentence, the demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ helps specify which book the speaker is talking about, and in the third sentence, the demonstrative pronoun ‘which’ makes it clear which movie the speaker means.

Reflexive pronouns

Pronouns are a big family and apart from the ones that we’ve already mentioned, there are also reflexive pronouns, something you will definitely need to learn as a beginner. These pronouns include words like myself, yourself and themselves. They are used any time that an action refers back to the subject of the sentence. This includes actions that have physical consequences, as in “I cut myself” and those that don’t, as in the sentence, “She taught herself how to cook.” Here are some more examples:

• I made this cake myself.

• She looked at herself in the mirror.

• We went by ourselves to the party.

Sometimes, like in the first example, the pronoun is not grammatically necessary, but it adds emphasis to the sentence. Our full article on reflexive pronouns explains in more detail how to use these pronouns.

Indefinite pronouns

You already know that pronouns are placeholders, meaning words that stand in for another word. Sometimes, however, we don’t really know who or what we are referring to. Do you know that lost umbrella that you might see at any office, school or shop entrance? Who does it belong to? Nobody knows. To talk about this and other mysterious or indefinite things or people, we use indefinite pronouns.

Here are some examples:

• Someone left their umbrella in the hallway.

• No one knew the answer to the difficult question.

• Is there anything I can do to help you?

Verbs

Verbs are such an important concept in grammar. Yes, they express an action, but they also tell us if the action is completed, if it’s an action that happens again and again or if it will happen in the future. It could be an imaginary action or something that surely will not happen. We use verbs to express all of these different meanings, but as a beginner, you just need to master the basics. All the more complicated aspects of using verbs will come later in your language learning journey.

Verb conjugation

Let’s start with one of the basic verb concepts – verbs change to express different meanings. They have a basic form, like the verb do for example, but they change to signify that the verb is in a different tense. So if you’re talking about the past, the verb do changes to did. They can also change to refer to a different person, so we say ‘They do…’ but ‘He does…’

Changing the form of the verb to match the correct verb tense or person is called verb conjugation. It’s a complicated topic, so here we’ll just give one example of it. But if you’d like to learn about it in more detail, you can check out our guide to English verb conjugation.

One rule of basic English for beginners is that verbs in the simple present always require an ‘-s’ ending for the third person singular (he, she, it). This is considered a very basic skill in English, so make sure to always add this ending when required, just like in the second example below:

• I play tennis with my friend Joan sometimes.

• He plays basketball with his friends every Friday at 6.

• They play poker at Frank’s house.

A lot of beginner mistakes involve this simple rule. Below are two examples of this type of mistake, along with the way to correct it:

Mistake: He go to the gym every Sunday.

Correction: He goes to the gym every Sunday.

Mistake: The guys eats lunch together every day.

Correction: The guys eat lunch together every day.

Verb tenses

Tenses mainly add information about when an action happens. English has different tenses not only to signify if the action takes place in the past, present or future, but also to show whether an action is repeated, finished or ongoing. Here we’ll look at four verb tenses that are usually studied in an English class for beginners.

1) Simple present

Let’s start with the simple present. This is your everyday English tense to discuss things in the present. Remember to add an ‘-s’ at the end of the third person (he, she, it) and you are good to go.

• I know.

• He wants to eat now.

• They all work for the same company.

2) Present continuous

Another commonly used tense is the present continuous. It describes an action that is happening right now as you are reading these words.

• What are you doing?

• I’m walking.

• We’re going out.

3) Future simple

The sentence “We’re going out” in the last example above could also refer to the near future. There are several ways to talk about the future in English, but the most common is the future simple. Remember to use this tense when discussing your plans and projects.

• We will go on our honeymoon in April.

• I will become a doctor.

• You both will come, right?

4) Simple past

This very commonly used tense describes an action that was completed sometime in the past. It has many irregular verbs, so be careful to memorize the most important ones to pass the beginner stage.

• I liked this book a lot.

• We really enjoyed our holidays in Canada.

• Tim already ate.

There are other more complicated verb tenses in English that are common in daily conversation. If you’d like to learn more about some of these, you can take a look at our article about the past participle.

Irregular verbs

This could look like enough for most people, but there is another thing to consider. Many English verbs, especially the ones that are very common, don’t follow the normal pattern of adding ‘-ed’ to the end of a verb in past tense. These verbs are called ‘irregular’ verbs.

This can make things a little bit more spicy for English learners, but it’s really not a big deal. You’ll have to rely on your memory at the beginning, but to be honest, most of these verbs are so common that in no time they will become second nature to you.

Here are a couple examples of irregular verbs in sentences:

• Yesterday, I went to the store to buy groceries.

• Je drank all the juice before breakfast.

• We have eaten at that restaurant several times.

Modal verbs

Before we leave our discussion of verbs, we need to discuss one special type of verb. These are called modal verbs and include common words like can, should, and will. Modal verbs are always followed by another verb. At the beginning level, you should definitely master the modal verbs can and can’t.

Can and can’t are used to discuss the ability to do something or to ask permission to do something. Notice how can and can’t are followed by the base form of another verb (come and drive) in the following examples:

• I can’t come with you tomorrow.

• She can come tomorrow at 5pm.

• He can’t drive yet – he’s too young.

English grammar rules

If you’ve made it this far, you should pat yourself on the back for a job well done! Do you want to test how you are doing? What do you think are the most important English grammar rules? Take a moment to reflect on this question and maybe remember what you have read so far. If you already understand everything you have read so far, well, congratulations! You are ready for the next step.

However, if you want to challenge yourself a little more, go check out our article on basic grammar rules for English and see if you already know all twelve of them. Don’t forget to come back here afterwards, though, because we’ve got a couple tips for you on how to learn English grammar in the last section of this article.

Wrapping up

So now we’ve covered the most important concepts of English for beginners. If it seems overwhelming, don’t panic – you don’t need to learn it all at once! Instead, it’s best to learn grammar bit by bit. Choose one of the grammar topics you want to practice, and then try to notice that aspect of grammar as you read or listen to English.

For example, you might decide to focus on past tense verbs. First, start looking or listening for them everywhere you go. Then try to use them in your speaking and writing. After you improve with a bit of practice, move on to a new grammar topic.

For even more focused English practice, consider taking some free lessons with Busuu. Not only will you find an expert-designed sequence of bite-sized and motivating lessons, but you can also receive personalized feedback from native English speakers in the Busuu Community.

And if you complete a level of Busuu’s Complete English course, you’ll even receive a certificate that shows the great progress you’ve made. A Busuu Certificate will demonstrate that you’ve mastered the beginning stages of the language and are able to communicate effectively in English.

Regardless of how you decide to learn, remember that language learning is a journey, and completing each stage brings its own rewards. Have a happy journey – we’re sure you will enjoy every minute of it!