Subject pronouns (I, you, he/she)

Object pronouns (me, you, him/her)

Verb be present tense (I am, you are)
This, that, these, those
Basic prepositions (in, at, to)
Beginner
Articles (a, an, the)
Singular/plural nouns
Possessive adjectives (my, your, his/hers)
Possessive s
Likes and dislikes
Verb be present tense questions and negatives
Present simple (I walk, she walks)
Present continuous (Im walking, shes walking)
Adverbs of frequency (sometimes, often, never)
Elementary
Possessive pronouns (mine, yours)
Past simple, regular and irregular (play> played, go>went)
Like + -ing (I like swimming)
Want, like and would like
Telling the time
Past simple, regular and irregular verbs
Past continuous (she was going, they were walking)
So, because, but, although
Future forms: going to/present continuous for future arrangements/will/wont
Present perfect + ever, never, for and since
Pre-Intermediate
Comparatives (more/lessthan, as.as)
Superlatives (the most/least.)
Modals of obligation (have to, dont have to, must, mustnt)
Used to
so/neither + auxiliaries (so do I, neither has he)
Present perfect vs continuous
Past simple vs past continuous vs past perfect
Future forms: going to vs present continuous vs will/shall
Usually vs used to
Reported speech (Im going to the park > he said he was going to the park)
Intermediate
Passives (the church was painted by Michelangelo)
Relative clauses (the girl who is sat over there)
Modals of obligation and deduction (must, may, might, cant)
Can, could, be able to (ability)
First conditional and future time clauses (If I pass the exam, Ill celebrate)
Second conditional ((If I was famous Id give money to charity))
Upper Intermediate The...the + comparatives (the more you learn the more you know)
Using adjectives as nouns (rich people are privileged > the rich are privileged)
Adjective order
Narrative tenses

Advanced

Adverbs and adverbial phrases

Passive structures (it is said that, he is believed to)
Future perfect and continuous (the ice caps will have melted, we will be
using solar powered cars)
Reporting verbs (recommend, threaten, advise)
Third conditional (if I had known, I would have come)
Past modals, would rather and had better
Gerunds and infinitives
Used to, be used to, get used to
Structures after wish Quantifiers
Inversion for emphasis (little did he know that the dog had escaped)
Linkers (although, nonetheless, whilst)
Mixed conditionals (If her eyesight was better she would have seen the squirrel)
Cleft sentences (the reason why Ive come is, the thing that annoys me
most is)
Compound nouns
So and such
Gerunds and infinitives
Phrasal verbs (go up, go in, go out, go on, go for)
Unreal uses of past tenses (its time we left, suppose we opened our own shop)
Uses of the verb get
Participle phrases (the horse, trotting up to the fence, hopes you have a carrot)
Passive and active voice

When teaching absolute beginners it is crucial to grade your language as much as possible
because even some of the simplest sentences may confuse your students. At this level you
really need to be animated and reduce the complexity of anything you say.
If, for example, you start your lesson with, Okay guys, today were going to cover subject
pronouns you will probably be greeted by a sea of blank stares. Instead, it is essential to use
visuals, for example, Look (point to eyes) at the board (point to board) before clearly writing
the title subject pronouns.
This is a technique called modelling and is really necessary at this level.
Basically, it means demonstrating exactly what youre talking about by pointing and using
visuals. In case youre unsure, subject pronouns are used to replace the noun which is the
subject of the sentence.

If we take the sentence Mary is American, we can replace the noun (Mary) with she, a
subject pronoun. The subject pronouns in English are:
I 1st person singular
you 2nd person singular
he/she/it 3rd person singular
we 1st person plural
you 2nd person plural
they 3rd person plural
Rather than simply writing this list on the board and getting your students to copy it, you first
need to demonstrate. Look at the example below of how to present a lesson on subject
pronouns

I (point to yourself) am a teacher. Write the word I on the board, then repeat the
sentence, again pointing at yourself as you emphasis the word I.

you (point to an individual student) have a red bag (e.g.). Write you on the board
underneath I and repeat.
Say both sentences together, always demonstrating as you speak, I am a teacher. You
have a red bag

he (point to a male student) is tall (indicate height with your hand).

Continue with this pattern until you have demonstrated all the subject pronouns.
Get the students to repeat after you and drill pronunciation.
At this point there are a variety of activities you could do from matching activities to
sentence completion but remember not to ignore the visual aspect: any handout should
include clear pictures that the students can relate the pronouns to.

At elementary level your students should already be able to grasp the absolute basics but
dont get carried away thinking you can present a lesson to them in the same way you would
to an English native speaker!
Your students should hopefully be familiar with the subject pronouns and the verb be in
positive sentences (I am, you are, he/she/it is) but its always useful to do a quick recap. At
this stage you can also introduce whatever vocabulary theme you are linking the lesson to
e.g. nationalities (I am English, you are Italian) or feelings perhaps (she is happy, they are
tired).

Write "+" on the board and a variety of sentences with the verb 'be' using all the subject
pronouns.
Next to this list write " - " symbol and try to elicit from the class the negative equivalent
of each sentence, e.g:
+
I am English
You are Italian
He is Scottish
She is French

I am not English
You are not Italian

At this stage you can show the negative contractions, highlighting the fact that with every
subject pronoun except I there are two possibilities (Im not compared to youre
not/you arent etc.). Get the class to practice writing a variety of sentences about
themselves and other students to then read aloud. Drill pronunciation.
You can then introduce the question statements using a listening task where the students
must complete the gaps with the correct form of the verb be for example:
Teacher gives this instruction: "Listen and complete the dialogue"
Man: ____ you Scottish?
Woman: No, Im Irish! Where ___ you from?
Man: Im from the USA.
Woman: ___ he from the USA too?
Man: Yes, we ___ both from California.
Elicit correct answers on the board then write:
+
?

You are Scottish

Are you Scottish?

Ask, Whats the difference? Highlight the inversion of subject and verb using arrow
symbols
Again once the grammar point has been presented there are any number of different
task-based activities you can give to the class to ensure they have understood and to
practice.

At pre-intermediate level we often introduce modal verbs of permission and

obligation.
Modal verbs are verbs such as can, must, may etc. which are always followed by another verb
but they tell us the function of that main verb.
For example, you can run is very different in meaning from you must run. Many preintermediate students will have heard a lot of these verbs before but may not be completely
sure of their meaning.
Especially because some of the modals of permission/obligation (must, may, can, should,
have to) have negatives (must not, may not, dont have to etc.) which arent exactly opposite
in meaning.
There are numerous resources online and in EFL books which cover this topic but an idea of
how to present the lesson is shown below.
Write the title School Rules on the board and try to elicit as many as possible from the
students e.g. you must switch off mobile phones in class, you have to wear a school
uniform etc.
Go back through the rules and highlight all the modals of permission/obligation. If there
are any missing you can try to elicit them by writing the first letter of each in hangmanstyle (e.g. m_ _ ) until all are on the board.
Write a list of definitions on the board or have a handout prepared and ask students to
match the modals (positive and negative versions) up with each definition.

Intermediate Level
Relative clauses are used to give additional information about something without starting a new
sentence. They combine sentences in a way that is natural and avoids repetition. Without relative clauses,
speech and writing can sound heavy and strange, for example:
Mark is talking to a girl. Do you know the girl?

Here we have two very short sentences, repeating the word girl. Instead we could join the two together
using the relative pronoun who
Do you know the girl who Mark is talking to?

There are five different relative pronouns (who, which, whom, that and whose) and three
relative adverbs (where, when, why) which can be used to link sentences together.
A typical exercise used to present relative clauses is to give students a number of sentences that they have
to link together using an appropriate relative clause. At intermediate level the essential ones are who, which,
that, where and when. Whom, whose and why can be taught at higher levels.