TL;DR. Sixty English grammar quiz questions sorted by level (A1–A2 beginner, B1–B2 intermediate, C1 advanced) across tenses, articles, prepositions, conditionals, modal verbs, and passive voice.
A1–A2 Beginner (20)
Verb to be & present simple
She ___ a teacher. — **is**They ___ from Spain. — **are**He ___ at the office now. — **is**We ___ students. — **are**I ___ a banana every morning. — **eat**She ___ to school by bus. — **goes**___ you like coffee? — **Do**He ___ TV in the evening. — **watches**Articles & plurals
I have ___ apple. — **an**___ sun rises in the east. — **The**The plural of “child” is ___. — **children**The plural of “goose” is ___. — **geese**Pronouns & basic prepositions
This is my book. ___ is on the desk. — **It**The cat is ___ the table. — **on**We meet ___ Monday. — **on**The shop opens ___ 9 a.m. — **at**Past simple
I ___ to Paris last summer. — **went**She ___ him yesterday. — **saw**They ___ a great dinner. — **ate**He ___ home at six. — **came**Present perfect vs past simple
I ___ this book before. (have read / read) — **have read**She ___ to London twice. — **has been**They ___ in 1990. — **married**We ___ him since 2010. — **have known**Conditionals
If it ___ tomorrow, we will stay home. — **rains**If I ___ rich, I would buy a house. — **were**If she ___ harder, she would have passed. — **had studied**If you heat water to 100°C, it ___. — **boils**Passive voice
The book ___ by him last year. — **was written**English ___ in many countries. — **is spoken**The window ___ by the wind. — **was broken**Modal verbs
You ___ smoke here — it's forbidden. — **mustn't**She ___ be at home; her car is in the driveway. — **must**We ___ leave early because the meeting is cancelled. — **needn't**He ___ swim when he was 5. — **could**Relative clauses
The man ___ called you is my brother. — **who**The book ___ I bought yesterday is interesting. — **which**The town ___ I was born is small. — **where**Reported speech
He said he ___ tired. — **was**She asked if I ___ Spanish. — **spoke**Prepositions of time
He was born ___ 1995. — **in**The class starts ___ 8 o'clock. — **at**They met ___ a Sunday. — **on**Comparatives & superlatives
This box is ___ than that one. — **heavier**Mount Everest is the ___ mountain in the world. — **tallest**C1 Advanced (15)
Inversion
___ had I arrived than the phone rang. — **No sooner**“Not a single mistake did she make” — emphatic inversion correct.Cleft sentences
___ John spoke to first was Mary. — **The person** (or “It was Mary whom John spoke to first”)___ he wants is a holiday. — **What**Mixed conditionals
If she ___ harder when she was young, she would be successful now. — **had worked**Subjunctive
The teacher insisted that he ___ on time. — **come**It is essential that everyone ___ the form. — **sign**Phrasal verbs
We need to ___ the meeting until next week. — **put off**Please ___ the lights when you leave. — **turn off**Articles (advanced)
He plays ___ piano beautifully. — **the**___ life is full of surprises. — **— (zero article)**Subjunctive in “if” clauses
If I ___ you, I would call her. — **were**Question tags
He's coming, ___? — **isn't he**Let's go, ___? — **shall we**You don't mind, ___? — **do you**Using these in class
A1–A2 → warm-up for beginners.B1–B2 → main quiz for intermediate students.C1 → diagnostic for advanced students.To generate more grammar quizzes, use the English Quiz Generator.
[English Vocabulary Quiz Examples](/blog/english-vocabulary-quiz-examples)[ESL Quiz for Adult Learners](/blog/esl-quiz-for-adult-learners)[Grammar Quiz with Answers and Explanations](/blog/grammar-quiz-with-answers-and-explanations)[ESL/EFL Quiz Strategies](/blog/esl-efl-quiz-strategies)Pure "find the error" quizzes have a place, but they're not the only — or best — way to assess grammar. Variety produces stronger transfer.
Multiple choice with context. "Which word completes the sentence correctly?" Tests grammar in a real sentence rather than isolated rule recall.Sentence rewriting. "Rewrite this sentence to use the present perfect tense." Forces production rather than recognition.Cloze (fill-in-the-blank) on specific structures. "Yesterday, I [go] to the store." Tests one targeted skill.Error correction. "This sentence has one error. Find and fix it." Develops editing skills.Translation drills (for ESL contexts). Translate from L1 into English. Production reveals what recognition hides.Picture-prompt writing with rubric. Student writes 2-3 sentences describing an image; rubric checks specific grammar targets.Topics that show up on every grammar test
Cross-cutting structures that need regular practice:
Verb tenses. Present simple, present continuous, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, past perfect, future forms.Articles (a/an/the). One of the hardest things to acquire; needs frequent practice.Subject-verb agreement. Singular/plural matching; tricky with collective nouns.Pronouns. Subject, object, possessive, reflexive.Modals. Can, could, may, might, must, should, would.Conditionals. Zero, first, second, third, mixed.Reported speech. Direct to indirect transformation.Passive voice. When to use it and how to form it.Prepositions. In/on/at for time and place; phrasal verbs.Conjunctions and complex sentences. Coordinating and subordinating.A balanced grammar program rotates through all of these rather than focusing on tenses to the exclusion of other structures.
CEFR level vs. grammar focus
Calibration matters; teach the right structures at the right time:
A1: Present simple, basic articles, subject pronouns, basic word order.A2: Present continuous, past simple, possessives, basic comparatives.B1: Present perfect, all major tenses, modal verbs, conditional (first), passive voice.B2: All tenses including past perfect, conditionals (all types), reported speech, complex sentences.C1: Subtle uses of all structures, register awareness, advanced linking words.C2: Edge cases, archaic forms, literary register, ambiguity in usage.Common grammar quiz design mistakes
Decontextualized questions. "Choose: A) go B) goes C) going." Without a sentence, the right answer depends on grammar that hasn't been asked. Context is mandatory.Trick questions. Wording designed to confuse rather than measure. Doesn't reveal grammar competence; punishes careful reading.Mixing too many structures in one item. A sentence requiring correct tense + correct article + correct preposition tests three skills in one. If a student gets it wrong, you don't know which.Overcorrection of native-speaker patterns. Many "errors" appear in casual native speech. Calibrate to formal register if that's what you're testing.Ignoring regional variation. British and American conventions differ on some structures. Specify which is being tested.Distractor design in grammar MCQs
Strong distractors represent specific errors students actually make:
Wrong tense. "Yesterday I [go/went/will go]" — go is the predictable error from L1 transfer.Wrong number. "[Each/All] student bring their book" — singular/plural confusion.Wrong article. "[A/An/The] elephant lives in the forest" — article use is a top error area.Wrong preposition. "I'm interested [in/of/at] history" — preposition use is largely idiomatic.Wrong word form. "She runs [quick/quickly]" — adjective vs. adverb confusion.Generic random distractors waste the format.
Cambridge English exercises. High-quality grammar question banks; aligned with CEFR.Grammarly's grammar quizzes. Free, mixed quality.British Council LearnEnglish. Free, well-graded, used worldwide.AI quiz generators with grammar-specific prompting.Coursebooks (Murphy's English Grammar in Use is the canonical reference, with question banks).Generate a grammar quiz →
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