This path is for learners who can already manage simple present-tense sentences and now want to handle everyday life in English. It moves from tricky sounds through the grammar around nouns to the past tense, everyday verbs and your first fixed expressions. By the end you will describe finished events, choose the right small words in front of nouns, and know exactly what the A2 exam will ask of you.
Sounds before spelling
Tune your ear and mouth to the sound distinctions that written English hides.
- LessonTwo sounds from one spelling, and the wrong ones learners reach for
Start by separating two sounds that share one spelling, before the habit of substituting an easier sound settles in.
- PracticeOne sound apart: choosing the word the sentence needs
Test your ear on pairs of words separated by a single sound, using the sentence around them to confirm what you heard.
- ReferenceThe letters that are spelled but never spoken
Learn which written letters are never spoken, so familiar spellings stop pulling your pronunciation off course.
Nouns and their small words
Get control of nouns and the small grammatical words that stand around them.
- ReferencePlural forms that refuse to follow the rule
Meet the plural forms that ignore the usual rule now, before they undermine the sentences you build in later stages.
- ReferenceWords for what you eat: which take a plural and which never do
Sort everyday food words into those you can count and those you cannot, a distinction every later choice about nouns depends on.
- ReferenceWhich word goes in front of the noun, and when nothing does
With countability clear, weigh the four options for what goes in front of a noun, including the choice of nothing at all.
- PracticePut in the missing word, or leave the gap empty
Apply those rules to real gaps, deciding each time whether a word is needed or the space stays empty.
- ReferencePoint, surface, container: one scale for both time and place
See how one scale of precision governs the little words for both time and place, replacing two rote lists with a single picture.
- PracticeChoose the word that places the sentence in time or in space
Practise placing sentences in time and space by choosing among the three small words the scale has just organised.
- DialogueAsking a stranger the way to the nearest pharmacy
Hear the three small position words of this stage guide a stranger through real directions.
Talking about the past
Learn to describe finished actions, on the page and out loud.
- LessonThe regular way to talk about finished actions
Learn the regular way to report finished actions, the tense that carries most everyday storytelling at this level.
- PracticeBuilding the regular past
Build the regular past forms yourself until the spelling changes at the end of the verb become automatic.
- LessonThree different sounds for one written ending
Now that you can write the past ending, learn why it is spoken in three different ways depending on the sound before it.
- PracticeWhich of the three ending sounds do you hear
Train your ear to catch which of the three ending sounds a speaker used, closing the gap between page and ear.
- DialogueTwo friends compare their weekends on a Monday morning
Hear regular and irregular past forms side by side in an ordinary Monday conversation.
Everyday verbs and first expressions
Build the everyday verbs and first fixed expressions that carry daily conversation.
- LessonTwo everyday verbs learners constantly mix up
Untangle the two all-purpose verbs whose territories overlap in most learners' minds, fixing which everyday task belongs to which.
- PracticeThe two all-purpose verbs: pick the right one
Choose between those two verbs in context until the right pairing comes without hesitation.
- LessonThe small second word that decides what a verb means
Discover how a small second word can completely change what a verb means, the pattern behind hundreds of everyday verbs.
- PracticeThe missing second word: complete each two-part verb
Complete two-part verbs yourself, proving you can supply the second word rather than merely recognise it.
- WordTo take something you will give back later
Add a precise everyday verb for taking something temporarily, one that learners often confuse with its mirror opposite.
- ReferenceThe set expressions you will hear first in everyday English
Survey the fixed expressions you will meet earliest in everyday speech, learning each one whole rather than word by word.
- WordFeeling slightly unwell, but not ill enough to see a doctor
Pick up a gentle fixed way of describing minor illness, a first idiom you can use safely in real small talk.
People, politeness and the exam
Talk about the people around you, judge formality, and size up the exam.
- ReferenceNaming the people you are related to, by blood and by marriage
Fill in the words for family relationships, by blood and by marriage, so you can talk about the people closest to you.
- LessonWhy a friendly opening sounds wrong in a formal setting
Understand why a warm opening can land badly in a formal situation, your first step in matching language to setting.
- ReferenceWhat each paper of the A2 Key exam asks you to do
Finish by seeing exactly what each paper of the exam expects, so you can measure your progress against the level.
With the past tense, everyday verbs and your first fixed expressions in place, you are ready to link ideas, tell longer stories and handle work situations. Continue with the B1 path.
Continue to the B1 path