Links: grammar

There are literally thousands of pages where you can find grammar explanations and practice exercises. The links I've listed below are suggestions rather than recommendations. When you enter a site you can follow links to other pages that may be more useful to you.

It may be difficult at first to find the concentration needed to do exercises on the computer, especially when there are so many other pages you'd prefer to visit. Keep trying, though, and perhaps start off with some grammar that you already know. It'll be worth it in the end.

Before anything else, the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is very useful for reference while you're doing any exercises you find. As well as being available in book form and on CD-ROM, you can also access it from the Oxford University Press website. Apart from helping you with any words you're not sure of, the site also provides vocabulary worksheets and crosswords on different subjects.

about.com

This is one of the biggest sites I've found. There are plenty of different grammar points available, but to give a more precise idea of what they've got I chose a specific topic: reported speech. First there's a fairly detailed explanation about what it is. This is followed by references showing how adverbs and pronouns change in reported speech, and how to form indirect questions. Finally there is a chart showing direct speech and the equivalent indirect speech. On another page you can practise the structure in a transformation exercise (where you have to rewrite sentences keeping the meaning of the original). The answers are given immediately.

english@home

You'll need to enter this site from the home page, but then you get a great choice of topics and activities. Look at the box on the right and choose from grammar, speaking, vocabulary, verbs & tenses and various other subjects. I looked for reported speech again and was shown a grammar explanation but no practice exercises. However, I also looked up passive forms and was given grammar and practice exercises, which had the answers shown only at the end of the test so you can go back and correct your own mistakes.

University of Victoria, Canada

On the page that shows the grammar index you can see immediately what's on offer. For a change I chose an exercise to practise the various types of conditionals and explain when to use them. In this exercise they tell you why you've made any mistakes. More exercises for the zero, first, second and third conditionals include full explanations and at least one practice exercise.

EduFind

A fairly big site where you'll find all the explanations you need. It also includes practice exercises.

BBC

The BBC has some excellent activities on its site - and you'll find them more attractive because some of the instructions are in Spanish. Details of what activities are available are given on a single page. There are so many activities that I'm not going to describe them here, and they're also being updated constantly. There are various examples of reading and listening to news extracts to learn vocabulary and tests to be completed within a time limit and lots more.

Flo-Joe's FCE+Advanced Trainer

This site is aimed at all those doing the FCE and Advanced exams. I looked at the content for FCE students. The home page gives details of all the activities, suggestions and advice contained on the site. The content ranges from practice tests and advice on how to pass the Use of English, and every day from Monday to Friday they give you new words to learn instead of having to memorise long lists by heart.

esl-lab.com

This is where you can practise listenings. There are different levels and topics, but I haven't had time to look into it more. However, it looks very promising. Later... I've seen that they give you ideas of what to think about before you start. Then you listen, and while you listen you do an exercise. Sometimes there's an exercise to do after the listening's finished as well. It looks pretty good.

The Grammar Aquarium

There's loads of information here: the first page has a subject index with explanations, online exercises and exercises to print out. And it's free.