Complete the relationship coach's advice column about healthy communication. Drag the correct words to complete the sentences.
When couples follow good advice, they communicate better. If you break promises repeatedly, trust will suffer. Always try to settle arguments calmly rather than letting them escalate.
When couples follow good advice, they communicate better.
We "follow advice" when we act according to the guidance we've received.
If you break promises repeatedly, trust will suffer.
We "break promises" when we fail to keep our commitments.
Always try to settle arguments calmly rather than letting them escalate.
We "settle arguments" when we resolve disagreements peacefully.
Verb
- walk → walk / walks / walked / walked / walking (5 forms, regular)
- go → go / goes / went / gone / going (5 forms, irregular)
- be → am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been (8 forms)
- can → can / could (modal: only 2 forms, no -s, no -ing)
A verb is the one word class every English sentence requires. Carries tense (when), aspect (duration), mood (attitude), and voice (active/passive). Regular verbs add -ed; ~200 irregular verbs have unpredictable past forms.
Key insight: fix your verbs and most grammar problems disappear. Wrong tense, wrong agreement, wrong form — verb errors account for the majority of grammatical mistakes.
Phrasal verb
- give up = quit — ≠ give + up literally
- come across = find by chance — ≠ come + across literally
- put up with = tolerate — 3-word phrasal verb
- look into = investigate — ≠ physically look inside something
Phrasal verbs = verb + particle/preposition forming a unit with non-literal meaning. There are thousands, and they dominate casual native English. They must be learned as whole units.
Key fact: the particle completely changes the verb's meaning. Look up (search), look after (care for), look into (investigate), look down on (disrespect) — all different.
Collocations
- ✅ make a decision — ❌ do a decision
- ✅ strong coffee — ❌ powerful coffee
- ✅ heavy rain — ❌ strong rain
- ✅ highly unlikely — ❌ very unlikely (grammatical, but less natural)
Collocations are word pairs that English habitually puts together. Both options may be grammatically valid, but one sounds native and the other doesn't.
Pattern: there's no logic to predict them — you make decisions but do homework, you have strong coffee but heavy rain. They must be learned as chunks, not deduced from rules.
B2 | Upper Intermediate
- ✅ If I had studied harder, I would have passed. — third conditional
- ✅ The report is being reviewed by the committee. — passive progressive
- ✅ Having finished the exam, she left. — participle clause
- ✅ He denied having taken the money. — complex verb pattern
These are B2 patterns — the CEFR upper-intermediate level. At B2 you handle mixed conditionals, all passive forms, participle clauses, and can argue a point clearly. This is the level most universities and employers require.
Marker: if you can write a structured essay and debate an abstract topic, you're B2.
Medium
- If I were you, I would apologise. — one rule (second conditional), but distractors like was tempt you
- Answers require active thought, not instant pattern recognition
- Vocabulary and context are realistic, not artificially simplified
- Usually tests one rule, but the wrong answers are plausible
Medium marks middle-difficulty challenges: A2–B1, one rule tested, but with realistic distractors that require genuine understanding.
Use "Medium" when Easy feels too obvious but Hard feels overwhelming. This is where most productive learning happens — the sweet spot of difficulty.