The 12-question check
Don’t look anything up and don’t think for too long — the aim is to see what you do when you are writing quickly, because that is when mistakes happen. Choose one answer for each question, then press Check my answers.
1.My brother is ___ engineer.
2.The list of approved suppliers ___ on the shared drive.
3.We have worked together ___ 2019.
4.I ___ the report yesterday afternoon.
5.The workshop starts ___ Monday morning.
6.I look forward to ___ from you.
7.If I ___ more time, I would learn another language.
8.The survey results ___ to all staff yesterday.
9.Last month Tom said, “I will call you tomorrow.” → Last month Tom said he ___ call me the next day.
10.Could you ___ me where the station is?
11.The company has changed ___ logo.
12.Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
Answer key and explanations
My brother is ___ engineer.
an
A singular job noun needs an article, and engineer begins with a vowel sound, so an. Practice: Articles (a, an, the)
The list of approved suppliers ___ on the shared drive.
is
The subject is list (singular). Suppliers belongs to the phrase “of approved suppliers” and does not control the verb. Practice: Subject–verb agreement
We have worked together ___ 2019.
since
Since + a starting point (2019); for + a length of time (for six years). Practice: For vs. since
I ___ the report yesterday afternoon.
sent
Yesterday afternoon is a finished time, so English uses the past simple. The present perfect cannot go with a finished time expression. Practice: Present perfect vs. past simple
The workshop starts ___ Monday morning.
on
On is used with days, including a day plus part of the day: on Monday, on Monday morning. (Compare in the morning.) Practice: Prepositions of time (in, on, at)
I look forward to ___ from you.
hearing
In look forward to, the word to is a preposition, so it is followed by an -ing form. Practice: Gerund or infinitive
If I ___ more time, I would learn another language.
had
An imaginary present situation uses if + past simple, with would in the other clause (the second conditional). Practice: Conditionals
The survey results ___ to all staff yesterday.
were sent
The results did not send anything; someone sent them. The past simple passive is was/were + past participle. Practice: Passive voice
Last month Tom said, “I will call you tomorrow.” → Last month Tom said he ___ call me the next day.
would
The promise was made in the past about a time that is now also past, so will moves back to would. Practice: Reported speech
Could you ___ me where the station is?
tell
Tell takes the listener as a direct object (tell me). Say does not (say to me, say that…). Practice: Say vs. tell
The company has changed ___ logo.
its
Its is the possessive. It’s always means it is or it has, and its’ does not exist. Practice: It’s vs. its
Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
The data is ready; however, the report is late.
However here joins two complete sentences, so it needs a semicolon (or a full stop) before it and a comma after it. Practice: Semicolons and commas
How to read your result
One question per topic is a quick screen, not a test. A wrong answer means “check this topic”, not “you don’t know this”. A right answer might have been a lucky guess. So treat the result as a starting list:
- Missed one or two topics? Do the full exercise page for each. If you score well there, the miss here was probably a slip.
- Missed several? Start with the topic that appears most in your own writing. For most people who write emails and reports, that is articles, tense choice or prepositions — they occur in almost every sentence, while reported speech and conditionals appear far less often.
- Missed none? Short multiple-choice items are easier than producing the form yourself. Take one of your recent emails and look for the topics in the table below.
The topics, and why they are hard
Most grammar mistakes in a second language are not random. They come from your first language doing the job it has always done. Knowing which pattern you are carrying over makes the English rule easier to remember, because you can see exactly where the two languages part ways.
| Topic | Who finds it hard, and why |
|---|---|
| Articles (a, an, the) | Hardest for speakers of languages with no articles (Russian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi) or with different article rules (Arabic, Spanish, French). |
| Subject–verb agreement | Speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese have no verb endings to transfer, so “she go” slips through. Everyone gets caught by long subjects such as “the list of suppliers”. |
| For vs. since | French (depuis), Spanish (desde), German (seit) and Russian all use the present tense where English uses the present perfect, which produces “I am here since 2019”. |
| Present perfect vs. past simple | German and French often use their perfect-type tense for finished past events, giving “I have seen him yesterday”. Speakers of languages without tense (Chinese, Indonesian) find the whole distinction new. |
| Prepositions (in, on, at) | No two languages divide time and place the same way. Spanish en and Portuguese em do the work of in, on and at in many places; Japanese に and Korean 에 also map onto several English prepositions. |
| Gerund or infinitive | Most languages use an infinitive where English often wants -ing (“I enjoy to read”). There is no shortcut: the pattern belongs to each verb. |
| Conditionals | Russian, Polish and Hindi put a future form inside the if-clause, which leads to “if I will have time”. German and Dutch speakers often produce “if I would know”. |
| Passive voice | Spanish and Italian often express the passive with a reflexive (se vende, si vende) and German uses a different auxiliary (werden), so the English pattern be + past participle needs deliberate practice. |
| Reported speech | Russian and Japanese keep the original tense when reporting, so English backshift (will → would) feels unnatural. |
| Say vs. tell | Spanish decir, French dire and Arabic قال cover both verbs, so “say me” is a common transfer. |
| It’s vs. its | A spelling problem rather than a grammar one; native speakers get it wrong too. |
| Semicolons and commas | Many languages allow two full sentences to be joined with a comma. Formal English does not, especially before however and therefore. |
| Present perfect tense | Form and uses of have/has + past participle on their own, before you work on the choice against the past simple. |
| Past simple | Irregular verbs and the “didn’t went” error: after did, the main verb goes back to its base form. |
| Past perfect | Needed for the earlier of two past events, in reported speech and in the third conditional. Includes the past perfect continuous. |
| Clauses and sentence fragments | A dependent clause cannot stand alone, so “Because the file was late.” is a fragment, not a sentence. |
| Complex sentences | Joining a main clause and a dependent clause, and the comma rule when the dependent clause comes first. |
| Subordinating conjunctions | Choosing between although, because, unless and while changes the meaning, and a comma decides whether the sentence reads correctly. |
| Relative clauses (who, which, that) | Defining vs non-defining clauses: the commas change the meaning, and that cannot introduce a non-defining clause. |
| Linking verbs | After be, seem, look and feel, English uses an adjective, which is why “I feel bad” is correct and “I feel badly” usually is not. |
| Auxiliary verbs | Be, have and do build questions, negatives, continuous and perfect forms; modals add ability, permission and obligation. |
| Action verbs | Action vs stative verbs (why “I am knowing” is wrong), plus strong verbs for reports and résumés. |
| Phrasal verbs | Separable vs inseparable patterns: “pick it up” is correct, “pick up it” is not. |
| US vs UK spelling | Canceled/cancelled, center/centre and practice/practise are all correct somewhere; mixing them in one document is the real mistake. |
| Lose vs loose | Another spelling problem rather than a grammar one: spellcheckers accept both words. |
Each exercise page has between 25 and 30 questions, an explanation for every answer, and a short summary of the rule.
Getting the most out of an exercise page
Doing the questions is only half the work. Three habits make the difference between getting the answers right on the page and getting them right in an email:
- Read the explanation for every miss, and say what you were thinking. “I chose since because in Spanish I’d say desde” is far more useful than “I got 7 wrong”. Once you can name the pattern you are carrying over, you can watch for it.
- Write your own sentences. Recognizing the right option is easier than producing it. After an exercise page, write five sentences about your own week or job using the structure — for example, five sentences with for and since about how long you have done things.
- Come back after a few days. Redo only the questions you missed. If they are now easy, move on; if not, they are your real weak spot.
Checking your own writing
To see which of these topics show up in your real writing, paste a paragraph into the free English grammar checker. It marks errors and explains the rule behind each correction. The timed tools allow ten starts per day, shared by public IP address and reset at midnight UTC.
For mistakes that native speakers make too, see 10 Grammar Mistakes Native English Speakers Make; for work email, see grammar mistakes in business emails. If you already use a general language app, see how focused grammar practice differs in PromGee vs Duolingo.