Your friend suggests going to a noisy club tonight, but you're not feeling it. Choose the correct way to express your preference.
I'd rather ___ at home tonight.
The correct answer is stay.
After "would rather," we use the bare infinitive (the verb without "to"). So it's "I'd rather stay," not "I'd rather to stay" or "I'd rather staying."
Modal verb
Must vs should vs might: the most confused modal trio. Must = strong obligation/near-certainty. Should = advice/expectation. Might = possibility. Getting these wrong changes the force of your statement: You must see a doctor (urgent) vs You should see a doctor (advice) vs You might need a doctor (maybe).
Modal verbs are auxiliaries that encode modality: ability (can), permission (may), necessity (must), advice (should), possibility (might), future (will).
Diagnostic: what meaning are you adding? Obligation → must/have to. Advice → should. Possibility → might/could. Ability → can. Future → will.
Verb mood
Mood vs tense: tense tells you WHEN (past/present/future). Mood tells you the speaker's ATTITUDE (fact/command/hypothetical). She goes (indicative + present) vs Go! (imperative) vs I wish she went (subjunctive + past form but present meaning). Mood and tense work independently.
Verb mood = attitude marking. Indicative (facts), imperative (commands), subjunctive (unreal), conditional (dependent). Each uses different verb forms or auxiliaries.
Diagnostic: is the speaker stating a fact? → indicative. Commanding? → imperative. Imagining something unreal? → subjunctive. Expressing what would happen under a condition? → conditional.
Infinitive
Infinitive vs gerund: the #1 verb-pattern confusion. Some verbs take only infinitive (want to go ✅), some only gerund (enjoy going ✅), some both with different meanings (stop to smoke ≠ stop smoking). No logical rule exists — learn by verb.
The infinitive = base verb form used non-finitely. To-infinitive (to go) after certain verbs. Bare infinitive (go) after modals and causatives.
Diagnostic: what's the main verb? Check whether it takes to-infinitive, bare infinitive, or gerund. If unsure, try both and see which sounds natural to native speakers.
A2 | Elementary | Pre-intermediate
A2 vs B1: A2 handles routine transactions and simple past narration. B1 handles connected discourse, explaining reasons, and understanding main points in clear standard speech. If you can tell what happened but not why it matters, you're still A2.
A2 is the elementary level of the CEFR: past simple, present perfect, first conditional, basic modals, and routine communication about familiar topics.
Diagnostic: can you link ideas with because, although, so that and hold a conversation beyond scripted topics? No → A2. Yes → moving into B1.
Medium
Medium vs Easy: Easy has one obviously correct answer and clearly wrong distractors. Medium has one correct answer but plausible distractors — you need to actually know the rule, not just guess from sound.
The Medium tag filters for A2–B1 challenges with realistic difficulty: one rule per question, plausible alternatives, everyday contexts.
Diagnostic: if you're scoring 90%+ on Easy, move here. If you're below 60% on Medium, go back to Easy for that topic. Target 70–80% accuracy for maximum learning.