C2 Mastery: The Grammar of Proficient English
Write dense noun phrases, design cohesion and stance, and use the articles, clauses, conditionals, modals and passives of formal English, then check it all in a checkpoint.
The whole course is free with an EnglishGrammar account. Create one to open every module and save your progress.
Lessons in this module
- Complex noun phrases: noun modifiers, apposition and the double genitivePack information into a noun phrase without losing the reader: modifiers before the noun, clauses after it, and apposition.
- Cohesion by design: given and new, summary nouns and referenceMake a paragraph hold together: put known information first, name what a sentence is about with a summary noun, and keep reference unambiguous.
- Stance: attribution, evaluation and concession at text levelShow whose view a claim is, how much you support it, and where you concede a point, across a whole text and not only in one sentence.
- Articles and determiners: generic reference and the fine printUse the article choices that still trip advanced learners: generic reference, no article after certain prepositions and with institutions, and the quantifiers that change meaning with of.
- Participle, absolute and verbless clausesShorten and vary your sentences with -ing, -ed, having done, absolute and verbless clauses, and keep every one attached to the right subject.
- Conditionals: mixed, inverted and without ifHandle the conditionals of formal writing: mixed time references, inversion without if, and the alternatives to if that change the meaning.
- Formal subordinators: whereas, albeit, lest, much as and the more … the moreUse the subordinators of formal English with the clause types they take, and know which ones belong to speech.
- Modals: distance, deduction and past obligationUse modal verbs for distance and tact, for deduction about the past, and for obligation and arrangements seen from the past.
- The passive in formal writing: it is said that, passive infinitives and causativesReport without naming a source, choose the passive for the reader’s sake, and use the passive forms of infinitives, -ing forms and causatives.
- Negation and focus: transferred negation, semi-negatives and onlyPut not where a proficient speaker puts it, use the words that count as negatives, and place only, even and also where they change the meaning.
- C2 workshop: edit like a proficient writerRevise a dense formal text, and give the reason for each change.
- Stage 4 checkpoint: check your masteryCheck what you can do after Module 11, and find the lessons to study again.