Perfect English Grammar Top Mistakes at b2 Level

Top mistakes at B2 level
1: Confusing the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous.
We use the present perfect simple:
• For life experience

• For 'how long' with stative verbs and work / live / study
• For recent things with just / yet / already
• For recent things that are completely finished with a present result
We use the present perfect continuous:
• For 'how long' with for and since, except with stative verbs
• For recent things that are not completely finished with a present result
• For continuous actions with a present result
Learn more about the present perfect and present perfect continuous in our Ultimate B2 Grammar
Course here.
www.perfect-english-grammar.com
2: Not using grammar to be polite.
In English, we often use grammar to be polite. As you get more advanced, it’s important to know how
to do this, so that you can avoid being misunderstood.
For example, we often use the past simple or continuous with the verbs 'wonder', 'think' and 'hope' to
be less direct.
This is similar to the way that we use past modals in English to be more polite. With modal verbs,
‘could’ is more polite than ‘can’.
• I wondered if I could borrow your car? (More polite than ‘I wonder …’.)
• I was thinking that you could bring lunch.
• I was hoping you could help me.
Learn more about using past tenses for politeness in our Ultimate B2 Grammar Course here.
3: Confusing ‘stop + gerund’ and ‘stop + to + infinitive’.
There are a set of verbs that change their meaning when they’re followed by a gerund or infinitive.
These include ‘stop’, ‘remember’ and ‘try’.
Stop + gerund
When we stop doing something it means the verb in the gerund is the thing that we stop. It can mean
'stop forever' or 'stop at that moment'.
• I stopped working when I was expecting a baby. (Working is the thing I stopped).
• My grandmother stopped driving when she was 85. (Driving is the thing she stopped).
Stop + to + infinitive
In this case, we stop something else in order to do the verb in the infinitive.
• I stopped to eat lunch. (I stopped something else, maybe working or studying, because I
wanted to eat lunch.)
• She was shopping and she stopped to get a cup of coffee. (She stopped shopping because she
wanted to get a cup of coffee.)
Practise using tricky gerunds and infinitives with our Ultimate B2 Grammar Course here.
4: Not mastering the conditionals
At B2, it’s time to be really confident about using the conditionals, including the third conditional.
Conditionals are very useful and it’s hard to talk about some topics without them. The important thing
is to practise them enough so that you can use them without thinking.
We can use 'if + past perfect, would + have + past participle' to talk about things that are not real in
the past.
• If I had studied more, I would have passed the exam. (But really, I failed the exam.)
• If it hadn't rained, we would have gone to the beach. (But it rained, so we didn't go.)
• If he had made a cake, we would have eaten it. (But he didn't make a cake.)
Practise the third conditional with our Ultimate B2 Grammar Course here.
5: Not learning enough phrasal verbs and idioms
At B2, it gets more and more important to know phrasal verbs and idioms. They’re the key to
speaking and writing natural English at an advanced level. And it’s really important to know a lot of
them.
For example, ‘bang on about’ is a natural and informal way to say ‘continue talking about something’.
It gives the feeling that the person is talking too much about a topic.
• Do stop banging on about your trip to Thailand.

• The teacher banged on and on about phrasal verbs.
‘Knuckle down’ means ‘start working hard’.
• She didn't do much over the summer but she's really knuckled down since September. She's
done heaps of work.
• Could you please just knuckle down and get your homework done!
And ‘fizzle out’ means ‘end slowly and gradually’.
• Our book group met every month for a year but then it fizzled out.
• Our coffee meetings fizzled out a few months ago.
Practise these phrasal verbs with our 30-Day Advanced Phrasal Verbs Challenge.
6: Not having a clear strategy and a way to remember what you’ve learned.
We think there are two parts to this.
First, there’s understanding the grammar properly. We think that it’s really important to have a
systematic map of the grammar system and clear, short explanations.
Second, there’s making the grammar automatic. We think that it’s really important to review often and
to test yourself so that grammar goes into your long-term memory. This is how you can speak
correctly without thinking.
Read more about the Perfect English Grammar Method here.

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Top mistakes at B2 level

1: Confusing the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous.

We use the present perfect simple:

• For life experience

We use the present perfect continuous:

• Do stop banging on about your trip to Thailand.

‘Knuckle down’ means ‘start working hard’.

And ‘fizzle out’ means ‘end slowly and gradually’.

We think there are two parts to this.

Read more about the Perfect English Grammar Method here.

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