The most difficult grammar from level 7 and how to

handle it
Here we’re going to go through the most difficult grammar from
this level again. As you know, we have reviewed the grammar which we
knew before at this level, however there are some things we should be
able to use fluently and understand completely. This document is for you
to check your knowledge once again and clear all of your
misunderstandings.
1. Verb 1 + ing after some words.

During this level we have learned how to use Ving after such
words as ‘besides’, ‘in spite of’, ‘instead of’, ‘without’, ‘before’,
‘after’.
You could think that it’s not the best way to shorten an English
sentence, however, when a person uses such sentences fluently and
without thinking much, it does sound very natural and makes
people feel like you do know this language 😊. So, let’s review this
part of our material.
First of all, I’d like to remind you the translation and the meaning
of these words. So:
BESIDES – помимо/кроме того, что/окрім.
IN SPITE OF – несмотря на/не дивлячись на/не зважаючи на.
INSTEAD OF – вместо того, чтобы/замість того, щоб.
WITHOUT – без, не делая чего-то/без, не роблячи чогось.

After we have reviewed the translation, I’d like you to take a look
at the examples below and how these words work in sentences
again. So, let’s do it.
Examples:

Besides
Besides doing sports, he runs a business.
He is looking after his neighbor’s daughter besides working now.
Besides visiting a doctor regularly, you should also have a check-up at
least (как минимум) once a year.
He made a decision to borrow money from his acquaintances besides
taking out a loan in a bank.

In spite of
In spite of being a well-off businessman, he is afraid of going bankrupt.
He fell down on the exam in spite of knowing everything.
He has been chasing after her in spite of hating her.
I will answer any of your calls in spite of being busy the whole day.

Instead of
Instead of preparing for the test, he decided to work on his project.
We all know that he preferred to drop off at the lesson instead of listening
to the teacher attentively.
Instead of fulfilling your goal, you’re just lazing around.
Instead of using your opportunity to find out who is the murderer, you just
decided not to deal with the police.

Without
I don’t have any idea of how they live without talking to each other.
Our special forces broke into the building without agreeing to the
terrorists’ demands.
He started working in this company without signing any documents.
He is going to deal with his competitors without asking anybody’s advice.
2. Using the word ‘could’.

You already know several meanings of this word. Some of them

had been known to you before this level started. Let’s have a look
at those meanings:
1) We use ‘could’ to mean ‘can’ in the past. For example: He
could make right decisions when he was younger.
2) We can use this word when we want to ask somebody for
something or to do something politely. For example: Could
you give me some advice on how to solve this task?
3) We are able to use this word when we speak about unreal
situations at present. For example: If he wasn’t that lazy, he
could work in such a famous company.

However, there are also some meanings that we haven’t learned

before. And now it’s about time we reviewed the new meanings
of this word. Let’s have a look at them.
1) We can use this word to mean that we are not sure that something
is true, for example. In this meaning, this word is a synonym to
‘Maybe’ and ‘Perhaps’ and we can use it to describe some actions
in the future or at present.

Examples:
He could be a good man, but he has been lying to us all our life.
– Может быть, он и хороший человек, но он нам врал всю
жизнь.
I don’t know what to say. I think there could be more solutions to
this problem. – Не знаю, что сказать. Думаю, что,
возможно, существуют другие решения этой проблемы.
 He could know it. However, he never shows that he does. –
Может быть он это и знает. Однако, он никогда не
показывает этого.
2) The last but most difficult meaning of this word. We use ‘could
have _________(ed)’ when we want to say that something could
have happened in the past but it didn’t. We also use it as a part of
unreal situations in the past, which is close to our new meaning.

Examples:
If you hadn’t been that annoying, you could have had many
more friends. (In fact, you were pretty annoying and you didn’t
have many friends)

I don’t really know why you decided to quit the company. You
could have been promoted and achieved a pay rise easily. (But in
fact, you weren’t promoted and didn’t achieve a pay rise because
you quit the company)

It was amazing that we managed to come home without

problems. It could have been rainy all day. (In fact, it wasn’t
rainy).

You could have realized everything if you had read more. (In
fact, you didn’t realize anything because you didn’t read much)

This man could have become a famous musician. However, he

ended up playing the guitar in underpasses. (In fact, that man
didn’t become a famous musician and now he only plays music in
underpasses).

It could have been hard to solve this situation. I was really glad
that we managed to reach an agreement without quarreling. (In
 fact, it wasn’t hard to solve that situation because they were able
to reach an agreement)

3. Using the word ‘Must’

We also know this word well from previous levels. However, there
are some meaning that are new for us. Let’s go through the
meanings that we have known before.
1) We use this word in positive sentences to say that somebody has
to do something because of having some duties, responsibilities.
When we say that somebody must do something, we mean that
it’s an order (приказ) and must be done. We can also use this
word to describe our personal decisions or recommend
something to somebody strongly.

For example:
I must work much harder to defeat my competitors. (It’s my
personal decision and I follow it).
You must accomplish your tasks until tomorrow not to be
sacked. (It’s an order, if you don’t accomplish your tasks, you
will be sacked).
You must watch that movie, I’ve never seen anything more
exciting before! (You like the movie so much that you insist on
somebody watching it)

2) We use this word in questions to show that somebody’s

behavior is terrible and annoys us. We use it to say that
somebody’s actions are awful and should be stopped.

For example:
Must you always speak so loudly? It’s fucking annoying.
 Must he be late again? Must we always wait for this idiot?
Must your parents control you that much? You’re already an
adult and can make decisions yourself!

3) We use ‘must not’ to say that something or somebody doesn’t

let us do what we want to. For example, there is a law that
doesn’t let us steal cars. So, we mustn’t steal cars. (Note: the
letter ‘t’ in the word ‘mustn’t’ isn’t pronounced)

Examples:
You mustn’t shout your parents.
Their children mustn’t touch my laptop.
You mustn’t smoke here. Leave this place or you’ll have to
face the police.

We have learned one more meaning of this word during this

level. It’s high time we had a look at it but in two different
situations. First of all, we are going to review this word at
present, then in the past.

So, when we use this word, we mean that we are pretty sure
that something is true. As you can see, this word is opposite to
‘Could’, here we are convinced that we are right, for example.

Examples:
He must be a good employee if he is so punctual.
Our chief must upgrade his qualification regularly, I see that
he always learns something new.
You do know all of these actors. You must be a fan of them.
 We can also use this word to say that we are sure that
something happened or has happened before. To use it in
such a meaning, we have to use ‘have ______ed’ after ‘Must’.

Examples:

Nobody knows where this crook is. He must have left the
country. (I am sure that he has left the country).
There is a person standing next to the door who knows much
about our competitors. He must have dealt with them before.
(I am sure that he has dealt with them before).
I can’t understand the meaning of this sentence pattern. You
must have learned it at the previous lesson that I missed. (I am
sure that you learned it at the previous lesson)
He says he needs a lot of water to drink. He must have run a
long distance before coming here. (I am sure that he had run a
long distance before he came here)

4) What the hell is the reported speech and how to use it?

We are often in situations when we have to express

somebody’s words to our partner / colleague / chief / friend /
acquaintance and so on. When we do it, we don’t use the words
and tenses that the person used while they were telling us
something. We should know that he or she was telling us
something in the past, so the situation must have already
changed. That’s why we have to follow some rules of how to
say what somebody said before.
Let’s imagine a dialogue between two people:
- I’m listening to you, what did you wanna say?
- Yesterday I invited Jane for a date. She agreed, so now I
am trying to choose some flowers to gift them to her. Can
you advise me which flowers to buy?
- Of course, let’s have a walk to the shop, it’s near.
There is a small dialogue between two people. And then,
for example, two days later, the person who was helping
his friend to buy flowers, wants to express the words of his
friend (who he was helping) to his acquaintance. Here is
how he should do it to avoid misunderstandings:

My friend had invited Jane for a date the day before. She
had agreed, so then he was trying to choose some flowers
to gift them to her. He asked me if I could advise him
which flowers to buy.

Here we can see that we should change tenses

(времена) to let our partner know when the events
happened and what was the sequence
(последовательность). If we can’t use it right, we can
confuse our partner and he won’t be able to understand the
timeline.
Here is one more example of a dialogue between two
people:

- Do you know our superior is going to quit?

- Really? What’s the reason?
- I don’t know, I only know he’s actively job hunting now.
They say he is about to start working in our competitor’s
company.
- He’s so qualified. What will we do if this happens?
 - I don’t know what we’ll do, however, I know that it’s
extremely necessary for us to think over our future steps
right now.

Let’s imagine that this conversation was heard by somebody else. And
the person who heard it is expressing it to his or her chief. Let’s have a
look at how he or she must be doing it:

Jack asked Mac if he knew that their superior was going to quit. Mac
answered and asked what was the reason. Then Jack said that he didn’t
know and he only knew that he was actively job hunting then. They
said he was about to start working in their competitor’s company. Mac
answered that their superior was so qualified and asked what they
would do if that happened. Jack then told him that he didn’t know what
to do, however, he knew that it was extremely necessary for them to
think over their future steps right then.

So, if you wanna say what somebody else said, you should change the
tenses like this:
Am/is/are  was/were
Was/were  had been
Will be  would be
V1  V2
V2  had + V3
Will  would
Can  could
More examples:
I am a good teacher. – He said he was a good teacher.
They were friends two months ago. – He said they had been friends
two months before.
Will you attend these courses? – He asked me if I would attend these
courses.
He can’t answer anything now. – He said he couldn’t answer anything
then.
I haven’t seen you today. – He said he hadn’t seen me that day.

5) I wish (or how to say that you want something to be

different)

Sometimes we want to say that we regret that something is

happening and we wouldn’t like it to happen anymore. To say so, we
have a special sentence pattern which is connected with the unreal
present and past. Let’s have a look at the examples below and
explanations to them.
Examples:
I wish you weren’t here. I can’t stand you. (In fact, you are here,
but I don’t want you to be here).
I wish there weren’t any of his classmates at our party. (In fact,
there are some of his classmates at our party, but I don’t want them to
be here).
I wish I was reading an interesting book now, but I have to listen
to his complaints. (In fact, I am not reading an interesting book, in spite
of the fact that I want to).
 I wish they had gone earlier. (In fact, they went late).
I wish the teller had been polite to me. (In fact, the teller was
impolite to me).
I wish it had been rainy the whole day and I hadn’t had to go
outside. (In fact, it wasn’t rainy and I had to go outside).
So, we use the sentence pattern ‘I wish I ______(ed)’ when we
speak about some situation at present. If we want to say that we regret
that something happened or was happening, we have to use the sentence
pattern ‘I wish I had _______(ed)’.

6. dare
We use this word to say that somebody is risky enough to do
something. This word is special, we can use it in many different ways
from the viewpoint of the grammar. The main point is that this word is
both strong and weak at the same time. We can translate this word as
‘рискнуть/осметилиться/сметь ‘. Let’s have a look at some
examples:
Examples:
How do you dare to say it to me? = How dare you say it to me?
He didn’t dare to argue with me. = He dared not argue with me.
Did he dare to ask her out? – Dared he ask her out?