It's Sunday β chore day! π§Ί Choose the correct word to complete this common household collocation.
"I really need to ___ the laundry. I'm running out of clean socks!"
The correct answer is do.
We say do the laundry (= wash clothes as a household task). While "wash the clothes" is grammatically fine, the fixed collocation with "laundry" is do the laundry. We use "do" with many household chores: do the laundry, do the dishes, do the cleaning.
Verb
- walk β walk / walks / walked / walked / walking (5 forms, regular)
- go β go / goes / went / gone / going (5 forms, irregular)
- be β am/is/are/was/were/be/being/been (8 forms)
- can β 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 β verb errors account for the majority of grammatical mistakes.
Collocations
- β make a decision β β do a decision
- β strong coffee β β powerful coffee
- β heavy rain β β strong rain
- β highly unlikely β β 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 β you make decisions but do homework, you have strong coffee but heavy rain. They must be learned as chunks, not deduced from rules.
Vocabulary
- A1: ~500β800 words (survival: family, food, numbers)
- A2: ~1,500β2,500 (routine: work, leisure, basic phrasal verbs)
- B1: ~2,500β4,000 (opinions, news, abstract topics)
- B2: ~4,000β6,000 (register precision, hedging, idioms)
- C1: ~6,000β10,000 (academic, register sensitivity)
- C2: 10,000+ (literary, rare, full style range)
Vocabulary covers word-level practice: individual words, collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms. Organised by CEFR level. Grammar tells you HOW to build sentences; vocabulary gives you WHAT to put in them.
A2 | Elementary | Pre-intermediate
- β I went to the cinema yesterday. β past simple
- β I have visited Paris twice. β present perfect (life experience)
- β If it rains, I'll take an umbrella. β first conditional
- β You should see a doctor. β modal for advice
These patterns are A2 β the second CEFR level. At A2 you move past survival phrases into real grammar: past tenses, the present perfect, basic conditionals, and modals for advice/obligation.
Marker: if you can describe yesterday and give simple advice, but struggle with abstractions or nuance, you're at A2.
Easy
- She is a teacher. β one verb form, one rule
- I have two cats. β basic possession, short sentence
- He doesn't like coffee. β simple negation with do-support
- Only one answer is clearly correct; distractors are obviously wrong.
Easy marks beginner-level challenges: A1βearly A2, one rule at a time, everyday vocabulary, no trick questions.
Use "Easy" when you want to build confidence on a specific rule without interference from other grammar or tricky contexts.