Virtuous English AcademyStudy Plans
Complete English Grammar Syllabus (A1–C1) + Free Study Plan
Follow this roadmap from beginner to advanced — every grammar topic in the right order, with a free lesson, 60 exercises and a story behind each level.
Built for people learning English without a teacher. In ten seconds you will see your level. In five minutes you will know exactly what to study next.
- 278guided lessons
- 90grammar topics
- 5,400exercises
- 80graded stories
- 5,500vocabulary words
How to Use This Grammar Syllabus
Five steps. Do them in this order and the syllabus works as a system, not a reading list.
- Take the placement test
Guessing your level costs months. The free English level test takes 5–7 minutes and returns a CEFR level plus a skill breakdown.
- Find your level
Open your level below. Everything above it is confirmed. Everything inside it is your study list.
- Follow the grammar roadmap
One topic at a time: read the lesson, then do its 60 exercises. Never two topics at once.
- Practise with stories
Read a story at your level right after the grammar. This is the step most self-learners skip, and the one that makes grammar stick.
- Track your progress
A free account saves scores across devices, so your dashboard shows which topics you have finished, not which ones you feel you know.
English Grammar Levels at a Glance
| Level | Grammar focus | What you will learn |
|---|---|---|
| A1 Beginner · 27 topics | Be, pronouns, word order, present simple, present continuous, past simple | Introduce yourself, describe your day, ask simple questions, talk about yesterday |
| A2 Elementary · 31 topics | Articles, quantifiers, comparatives, present perfect, future forms, modals, conditionals | Tell a story, make plans, give advice, handle everyday situations |
| B1 Intermediate · 18 topics | All past tenses together, perfect and future forms, passive, reported speech, relative clauses | Explain, argue, narrate at length, report what other people said |
| B2 Upper-int. · 14 topics | Advanced tenses, mixed conditionals, inversion, participle clauses, advanced connectors | Control emphasis, register and nuance — not just accuracy |
| C1 Advanced · list closes | No new grammar system: precision, collocation, academic register | Sound natural, not merely correct |
Your Study Plan by Level
| Level | Study goal | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Build correct short sentences | Start the A1 learning path · A1 grammar lessons |
| A2 | Stop translating, start choosing | Start the A2 learning path · A2 grammar lessons |
| B1 | Turn forms into systems | Start the B1 learning path · B1 grammar lessons |
| B2 | Choose structures for effect | Start the B2 learning path · B2 grammar lessons |
| C1 | Trade accuracy for naturalness | C1 vocabulary · C1 collocations · IELTS practice |
Key takeaway: The topic count falls from 27 to 14 as the level rises, while study hours roughly double. Beginners need breadth. Advanced learners need depth.
Your English Grammar Roadmap: A1 → C1
Bookmark this. It is the whole route on one screen.
- A1🌱 Beginner · 27 topics
Build the sentence: be, pronouns, word order, the first three tenses. Outcome: short, correct sentences about yourself and yesterday.
- A2🌤 Elementary · 31 topics
The widest level. Articles, quantifiers, present perfect, futures, modals, conditionals. Outcome: everyday situations without rehearsing.
- B1🧭 Intermediate · 18 topics
Systems, not forms. Past tenses together, passive, reported speech, relative clauses. Outcome: explain, argue and narrate at length.
- B2🎯 Upper-intermediate · 14 topics
Choices, not rules. Advanced tenses, mixed conditionals, inversion, participle clauses. Outcome: control of emphasis and register.
- C1👑 Advanced · grammar list closes
Collocation, precision, range, production under pressure. Outcome: natural, not merely correct.
A1 English Grammar Syllabus (Beginner) — 27 Topics
A1 builds the sentence itself. Nothing here is optional — every later level assumes all of it.
Start at the top. The first four topics are your first week.
A1 sentence foundations
- **Learn the verb be — am, is, are** — the verb you will use more than any other. 60 exercises
- Learn subject pronouns — the seven words that stand in for the doer. 60 exercises
- Learn English word order — subject + verb + object, and why position is meaning. 60 exercises
- Learn conjunctions: and, but, or, because — joining short sentences into real ones. 60 exercises
A1 nouns, articles and determiners
- Learn singular and plural nouns — plural spelling, plus there is / there are. 60 exercises
- Learn a and an — which indefinite article your mouth can say next. 60 exercises
- Learn this, that, these, those — pointing: near or far, one or many. 60 exercises
- Learn countable and uncountable nouns — the split that changes six other things. 60 exercises
- Learn some and any — chosen by sentence type, not by quantity. 60 exercises
- Learn possessive adjectives — my, your, his, her, its, our, their. 60 exercises
- Learn the possessive 's — attaching ownership to the owner. 60 exercises
- Learn have got and has got — how British English says what people own. 60 exercises
A1 tenses
- Learn the present simple — habits, routines, and the third-person -s. 60 exercises
- Learn questions with do and does — why English cannot make a question by moving words. 60 exercises
- Learn the present continuous — what is happening now, or around now. 60 exercises
- Present simple vs present continuous — two tenses, one moment, different questions. 60 exercises
- Learn was and were — the past of be, split differently from the present. 60 exercises
- Learn there was / there were — what existed at a point in the past. 60 exercises
- Learn the past simple — finished actions, and the negatives and questions that trip them. 60 exercises
A1 questions, modals and everyday language
- Learn wh- questions — asking for information rather than yes or no. 60 exercises
- Learn can and can't — ability, permission and requests. 60 exercises
- Learn the imperative — instructions, orders and directions. 60 exercises
- Learn would like — the difference between blunt and civil. 60 exercises
- Learn like, love and hate + -ing — the first structure that lets you say something personal. 60 exercises
- Learn adjectives — the two positions an English adjective can take. 60 exercises
- Adjectives vs adverbs of manner — what something is like, versus how it is done. 60 exercises
- Learn numbers, dates and the time — what you meet on day one, and no tense study prepares you for. 60 exercises
Learning goal: Introduce yourself, describe your routine, ask and answer simple questions, and talk about yesterday — in short, correct sentences.
📖 Recommended stories for A1
Exercises prove you can use a structure. Stories show you someone using it without thinking — which is the state you are aiming for. Read these after the tenses above.
- Asking for Directions — imperatives and wh- questions doing their real job
- A Morning at the London Café — present simple and would like in conversation
- A Day Trip to the Seaside — the past simple told as a story, not a table
A2 English Grammar Syllabus (Elementary) — 31 Topics
A2 is the widest level on the syllabus. It is also where most self-taught learners quietly stop.
The reason is in the count: 31 topics, all needed for ordinary conversation, none optional.
A2 articles and quantifiers
- Learn articles: a, an, the, zero — the four-way choice article-less languages find hardest. 60 exercises
- Learn much, many and a lot of — which nouns English counts and which it measures. 60 exercises
- Learn a little, a few, too and enough — small quantities and the judgements attached. 60 exercises
- Learn something, anything, nothing — four beginnings, three endings, twelve pronouns. 60 exercises
A2 pronouns and adjectives
- Learn subject and object pronouns — I versus me, decided by position. 60 exercises
- Possessive adjectives and pronouns — my versus mine. 60 exercises
- Learn reflexive pronouns — myself, yourself, and the two jobs they are borrowed for. 60 exercises
- Learn comparative adjectives — -er or more, and the than that follows. 60 exercises
- Learn superlative adjectives — taking one thing out of a group. 60 exercises
- Learn -ed and -ing adjectives — where a grammatical slip becomes a social one. 60 exercises
- Learn adverbs of frequency — easy to understand, constantly difficult to place. 60 exercises
- Learn prepositions: in, on, at — the words that resist translation and reward drilling. 60 exercises
A2 past tenses and the present perfect
- Learn irregular verbs — the two hundred verbs that refuse -ed. 60 exercises
- Past continuous vs past simple — telling a story on two levels at once. 60 exercises
- Learn the present perfect — the tense that connects a past action to now. 60 exercises
- Learn just, already and yet — the words that give the perfect its everyday voice. 60 exercises
- Learn for and since — one question, two different kinds of answer. 60 exercises
- Present perfect vs past simple — what separates confident A2 English from careful A2 English. 60 exercises
A2 future forms, modals and conditionals
- Learn going to for plans — the future of the already-decided. 60 exercises
- Learn will and won't — the future of the unplanned. 60 exercises
- Learn can, could and be able to — ability across time. 60 exercises
- Learn must, have to and mustn't — where the pressure is coming from. 60 exercises
- Learn should and shouldn't — advice, and the shall that survives in offers. 60 exercises
- Learn the zero conditional — what is always true. 60 exercises
- Learn the first conditional — a real future possibility and its likely result. 60 exercises
A2 sentence building and conversation
- Learn relative clauses: who, which, where — joining two sentences about the same thing. 60 exercises
- Learn the passive voice — moving the receiver of the action into the spotlight. 60 exercises
- Learn question tags — turning a statement into an invitation. 60 exercises
- Subject and object questions — the one question type that stays wrong longest. 60 exercises
- Learn the A2 core verbs — the small group whose meaning depends on what follows. 60 exercises
- Real-life conversation patterns — the capstone: everything above, mixed and unlabelled. 60 exercises
Learning goal: Tell a story about your past, make plans, give advice, compare things, and handle the doctor, the interview and the complaint without rehearsing first.
📖 Recommended stories for A2
These are the exact situations the grammar above prepares you for. Read one immediately after each tense topic and the tense stops feeling like a rule.
- At the London Doctor's Surgery — modals of obligation and advice in use
- A Misunderstanding at the Dinner Party — past simple and past continuous woven together
- An Interview at the Design Agency — the present perfect doing what it is for
B1 English Grammar Syllabus (Intermediate) — 18 Topics
At B1 the topics get bigger and fewer. Each one now covers a whole system, not a single form.
Each also assumes the matching A2 topic is automatic rather than remembered.
B1 tenses and time
- Learn stative verbs — where the A1 "now versus routine" rule stops working. 60 exercises
- Learn past tenses and used to — running three past tenses inside one narrative. 60 exercises
- Learn perfect and future tenses — where the tense system stops being a list and becomes a choice. 60 exercises
B1 modals and conditionals
- Modals of ability, permission and advice — how English handles everything that is not a plain fact. 60 exercises
- Learn modals of obligation — three kinds of necessity, three sources of pressure. 60 exercises
- Learn the conditionals: zero, first, second — three conditionals, three jobs. 60 exercises
- Learn the third conditional — the past you cannot go back and change. 60 exercises
B1 sentence structure
- Learn gerunds and infinitives — two forms, almost no rule, one verb following another. 60 exercises
- The passive voice in every tense — why the passive is not simply a politer active. 60 exercises
- Learn the causative: have something done — I painted the kitchen versus I had the kitchen painted. 60 exercises
- Learn reported speech and backshift — every tense you know, tested at once. 60 exercises
- Defining and non-defining relative clauses — the hard line between two kinds of extra information. 60 exercises
- Learn advanced relative clauses — whose, prepositions with which, quantifier + of whom. 60 exercises
- Learn linking words and connectors — what actually separates B1 writing from A2 writing. 60 exercises
B1 accuracy repair
- Revise articles at B1 — the three tiny words you can reach a high level while still missing. 60 exercises
- Revise pronouns and possessives — the most frequent words in English, and among the last to be accurate. 60 exercises
- Revise prepositions of time and place — the smallest-looking problem, and the longest-running. 60 exercises
- Learn prepositions of movement — describing a path rather than a position. 60 exercises
Learning goal: Explain, argue, narrate at length, report what other people said, and write a paragraph that reads as one argument rather than a list of sentences.
📖 Recommended stories for B1
B1 stories are serialised, so the same structures come back across episodes instead of appearing once. That repetition is what moves grammar from studied to automatic.
- The First Day at Lumen — narrative past tenses across a whole scene
- The Antique Key — relative clauses and reported speech in a mystery
- Burning the Midnight Oil — modals and conditionals under pressure
B2 English Grammar Syllabus (Upper-Intermediate) — 14 Topics
B2 grammar is not more complicated. It is harder in a different way.
Both options are usually correct — and you are choosing for effect.
- Learn advanced present tenses — four present forms, all grammatical, all meaning something different. 60 exercises
- Learn advanced past tenses — past tenses as a way of organising a story. 60 exercises
- Learn advanced future tenses — why English has no future tense, and what it uses instead. 60 exercises
- Learn modals of deduction — modals used for certainty rather than permission. 60 exercises
- Learn mixed conditionals — why the four numbered conditionals are a teaching convenience. 60 exercises
- Learn wish and if only — where English uses a tense to mean something other than time. 60 exercises
- Learn inversion with negative adverbs — the most recognisable feature of formal written English. 60 exercises
- Advanced passive and causative — the passive as an information tool, not an agent-hiding trick. 60 exercises
- Learn advanced reported speech — reporting verbs that carry an attitude, not just a backshift. 60 exercises
- Advanced gerunds and infinitives — the verbs that take both, with different meanings. 60 exercises
- Learn relative and participle clauses — saying a lot in a short space. 60 exercises
- Advanced adjectives and comparisons — comparison beyond which one is bigger. 60 exercises
- Advanced articles and quantifiers — quantifiers at B2 are almost entirely about the word of. 60 exercises
- Learn advanced connectors — whether your writing sounds argued or merely listed. 60 exercises
Learning goal: Choose the passive because it puts the right information first, or inversion because the sentence needs weight — rather than taking whatever comes out.
📖 Recommended stories for B2
These three were written around the hardest B2 structures, so the grammar is the plot rather than decoration. This is the closest thing to seeing a native writer make the choice you have just studied.
- If Things Were Different — mixed conditionals throughout
- Not Only That — inversion after negative adverbs, in natural speech
- Reading Between the Lines — reporting verbs and the attitudes they carry
C1 English Grammar Syllabus (Advanced): What Actually Changes
Here is the honest version, and it is the part most syllabus pages get wrong.
At C1 there is almost no new grammar. Open any C1 syllabus and you will find the B2 structures again — inversion, cleft sentences, participle clauses, advanced modality — used more often and more precisely.
Our grammar lessons run A1 to B2, and that is not an omission. It is where the grammar list closes.
C1 work is four things:
- Precision over correctness — at B2 you pick between two correct options; at C1 you pick the one carrying the exact shade you meant.
- Collocation — heavy rain, not strong rain. The single biggest gap between a very good B2 and a real C1.
- Vocabulary range and register — 2,100 advanced words across 35 topics, including argument and persuasion and connectors and cohesion.
- Grammar under pressure — the B2 structures produced in real time. IELTS practice is the most structured way to train that, because it forces output against a clock.
Learning goal: Stop aiming to be correct — you already are. Aim to sound natural: the right word, the right register, structures chosen for effect.
📖 Recommended reading for C1
There are no C1 stories yet — so the honest advice is to re-read the B2 library actively rather than passively. Do not read for the plot. Read for the choices: why that connector, why the passive there, why the sentence inverts.
- The Verdict — formal register and legal precision
- Setting the Record Straight — reporting verbs carrying judgement
- The Ethics of the Thing — hedging and academic argument
The Five Gates: Where Skipping Ahead Fails
Most of this syllabus is flexible. Five points are not.
At each one, a weak topic underneath does not make the next topic hard — it makes it impossible to get right by understanding. So learners memorise, and memory fails the moment they speak.
1. **The verb be, before everything** — present and past. If was/were is not automatic, the past continuous, the passive and every perfect form inherit the error. → be · was and were
2. **Auxiliary do, before question practice** — skip it and you produce "You like coffee?" for years, because it communicates fine and nobody corrects it. → questions with do and does
3. Countability, before every quantifier — much/many, a little/a few, some/any and articles all sit downstream of one binary decision. → countable and uncountable nouns
4. Irregular participles, before the present perfect — have + participle is easy, unless the participle is a guess. → irregular verbs
5. The past perfect, before reported speech — backshift moves every tense one step back, and one of those steps lands there. → past tenses and used to
Bottom line: If something feels impossible rather than merely difficult, the cause is usually one of these five — and usually two levels below where you are working.
How to Know a Topic Is Finished
A syllabus without a completion standard is a wish list.
A topic is finished when you can produce it, not when you can recognise it. That is why every set here has three formats:
| Format | What it tests | Why it is not enough alone |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple choice (20) | Recognition — spotting the right form | The four options carry the answer inside them |
| Fill in the blank (20) | Production — generating the form unaided | Tests the form, not its place in the sentence |
| Word ordering (20) | Construction — building the sentence around it | Slower, and exactly why it is worth doing |
Sixty exercises per topic, in that order: recognise → produce → construct.
Move on at 80% or better across the full set, without going back to the lesson mid-set.
How Long Does Each Level Take?
Guided-hours figures from major examination boards are the most honest numbers available. They are cumulative from zero:
| Level | Cumulative guided hours | Topics here |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | ~90–100 | 27 |
| A2 | ~180–200 | 31 |
| B1 | ~350–400 | 18 |
| B2 | ~500–600 | 14 |
Two warnings. "Guided hours" means hours with a teacher — self-study is usually less efficient per hour.
And these are averages. Your pace depends on your first language, your frequency, and how much English you meet outside study. The longer answer: how long it takes to learn English.
Why Grammar + Stories Beats Grammar Alone
Grammar without reading produces learners who are accurate and slow. Reading without grammar produces learners who are fluent and wrong.
The pairing fixes both. That is why every level above ends with stories rather than another exercise set:
- The lesson gives you the rule.
- The exercises prove you can produce it.
- The story shows the same structure used by someone not thinking about it.
Read the story after the grammar, never before. You will see structures you have just studied jumping out of the text — and that noticing is the entire mechanism. More: learning English through stories.
Two tracks belong in a complete plan and are not grammar: vocabulary — 5,500 graded words A1 to C1 — and phrasal verbs. Grammar is one leg of three.
What's Free Here
All of it. 278 guided lessons, 90 grammar topics, 5,400 exercises, 80 stories, 5,500 vocabulary words and the placement test — no paywall, no trial, no card.
A free account adds one thing: scores saved across devices, so your dashboard shows which topics you have finished. Signed out, progress lives in your browser only.
There is no forum and no teacher marking your work here. What there is: the whole curriculum, in order, with every exercise explained.
Frequently Asked Questions About the English Grammar Syllabus
What is an English grammar syllabus?
An English grammar syllabus is an ordered list of the structures you need at each level, plus a standard for deciding when each one is finished. Unlike a grammar reference, which is organised for lookup, a syllabus is organised by dependency: every topic sits after the topics it assumes. This one covers A1 to B2 in 90 topics, then explains what replaces grammar study at C1.
How long does it take to learn English grammar?
Reaching the end of B2 grammar takes most learners 500–600 guided hours from zero — roughly two to three years of part-time study. The list itself is far shorter: 90 topics at one topic every two days is under seven months. The gap between those numbers is the time studied grammar needs to become automatic, which is why reading matters as much as lessons.
Can I learn English grammar without a teacher?
Yes — but only with the two things a teacher normally supplies: a sequence and feedback. The sequence is this page. The feedback comes from exercises that mark you instantly and explain the answer whether you were right or wrong. The one thing self-study cannot replace is speaking with a person, so plan for that separately.
What level should I start from?
Take the free placement test instead of guessing — self-assessment is unreliable in both directions. If you land between two levels, start at the lower one and use the exercise sets as a diagnostic: any topic you score 80%+ on cold is confirmed and can be skipped. Most learners clear a third of a level this way in the first few days.
What grammar do I need for B1 level?
Eighteen areas: stative verbs, the full past system with used to, perfect and future tenses, two groups of modals, conditionals zero to third, gerunds and infinitives, the passive in every tense, the causative, reported speech with backshift, both kinds of relative clause, linking words, plus a revision pass on articles, pronouns and prepositions. Each assumes the matching A2 topic is automatic.
Is this syllabus suitable for self-study?
It was written for it. Every topic links to a free lesson and a 60-question exercise set with explanations, so nobody needs to mark your work. The 80% completion standard replaces the judgement a teacher would normally make about whether you are ready to move on.
How do I practise what I learn?
In three layers: do the 60 exercises (recognise, produce, construct), read a story at your level so you meet the structure in a real text, then write three sentences of your own using it — out loud if you can. The study-method guide covers session structure and the error bank.
Is there an official CEFR grammar list?
No. The CEFR describes what learners can do at each level, not which structures they must know, because it is designed to work across many languages. Every CEFR grammar list, including this one, is an inference from those descriptors plus exam-board and coursebook consensus — a strong professional convention, not a published standard.
How many grammar topics are there in English?
It depends on how finely you slice the material. This syllabus uses 90 for A1–B2: 27 at A1, 31 at A2, 18 at B1, 14 at B2. Another course might treat "present perfect" as one topic where this one splits it into four. The content is consistent across reputable syllabuses; the count is not.
Do I need to pay for any of this?
No. The lessons, the 5,400 exercises, the 80 stories, the vocabulary system and the placement test are free, with no trial and no card. A free account only adds cross-device progress saving.
Should I study in order or jump to what I need?
Jump if you have a real deadline — a specific exam, a specific meeting. Otherwise follow the order, because the order is what stops you memorising rules you could have derived. The middle path works best: follow the list, but do each exercise set before the lesson, and skip anything you already score 80% on.