Advanced English Grammar and Essential Vocabulary Builder

Posted on Dec 31, 2025 in English

Frequency Adverbs

• Always
• Often
• Usually
• Sometimes
• Hardly ever / Rarely / It’s rare for me to…
• Never

The Modal Verb: Would

Would for the Future in the Past

When talking about the past, we can use would to express something that had not happened at the time we were talking about:

Example: In London she met the man that she would one day marry.

Would for Conditionals

We often use would to express the so-called second and third conditionals:

Example: If he lost his job, he would have no money.

Would for Polite Requests and Questions

Example: Would you open the door, please? (More polite than: Open the door, please.)

Advanced Vocabulary: States of Confusion and Legal Terms

Mastering the Perfect Tenses

Present Perfect

Use: Unspecified point in the past. Used for:

1. Actions that started in the past and continue up to the present (often with for and since).
2. Experiences (often with ever, never, already, just, and yet).

Form: Subject + have/has + Past Participle Verb.

• Example 1: I’ve had this photo of my aunt for over twenty years.
• Example 2: We’ve never discovered who took the photo.

Present Perfect Continuous

Use: Actions that started in the past and continue up to the present, or an action that has happened repeatedly in the past and is still happening now. The emphasis is on the duration of the activity (often with for and since).

Form: Subject + have/has + been + Verb + -ing.

Past Perfect

Use: To talk about actions or events that happened before another action or event in the past. Often used with time expressions like: by the time, when, before, after, and until.

Form: Subject + had + Past Participle Verb.

• Example: The artist had died before I bought the sculpture.

Past Perfect Continuous

Use: Ongoing activity leading up to a more recent past event, or providing background information about an event.

Form: Subject + had + been + Verb + -ing.

• Example 1: The painting had been losing its bright colors, so we took it to an artist to have it restored.
• Example 2 (Background): He’d been working on the portrait for months.

Future Perfect

Use: An action that will be completed before a definite time in the future.

Form: Subject + will + have + Past Participle Verb.

• Example: By this time next year, they will have closed down the housing scheme.

Future Perfect Continuous

Form: Subject + will + have + been + Verb + -ing.

Perfect Infinitive Forms

• Standard Perfect Infinitive: to have + Past Participle Verb.
• Perfect Gerund/Participle: Having + Past Participle Verb.

Other Future Tense Uses

Present Simple for Future

Use: To express future events which are part of a fixed timetable or schedule.

• Example: The train leaves at 7:30.

Present Continuous for Future

Use: To talk about a definite plan or arrangement for the near future.

• Example 1: We are having a party tonight.
• Example 2: We are going to the beach tomorrow morning.

Vocabulary for Change and Idioms

Personality and General Vocabulary