English B1 Part 4: Relative Clauses, Reported Speech, Verb Patterns & Comparisons

The fourth batch of B1 lessons is live. Two lessons help you build longer, more precise sentences, one lets you retell what someone else said, and one rounds out how English compares things when they're equal rather than different.

Four new B1 lessons are open. Together they add real range to your sentences: pointing out exactly who or what you mean, reporting someone else's words accurately, choosing the right verb pattern, and comparing things that are equal rather than different.

🆕 Four New B1 Lessons

• Defining relative clauses — using who, which, whose, and whom to say exactly which person or thing you mean
• Reported speech: statements — retelling what someone said, with the tense backshift, pronouns, and time words that go with it
• Gerunds & infinitives — knowing which verbs take -ing and which take to + verb
• As...as comparisons — saying two things are equal, and softening or strengthening that comparison

👉 All four are on the English B1 learning path.

🔗 Defining Relative Clauses

A defining relative clause tells you which person or thing you mean — take it away, and the sentence loses essential information: The woman who lives next door is a doctor. Without the clause, the woman could be anyone.

If you already know who, which, and that for simple cases, this lesson adds two more pronouns.

Whose shows possession and works for people and things alike: That's the man whose dog barks all night. I met a writer whose first novel became a bestseller.

Whom is the formal object form of who — natural in writing, and required directly after a preposition: The professor whom I emailed replied quickly. The topic about which we spoke / the person about whom we spoke. In everyday speech, who or that — or dropping the pronoun altogether — is far more common: the professor I emailed.

Everyday English usually moves the preposition to the end instead of fronting it: the house I grew up in rather than the house in which I grew up.

👉 Defining relative clauses covers whose, whom, prepositions in relative clauses, and the everyday vs. formal choice between them.

💬 Reported Speech: Statements

When you tell someone what another person said, you usually don't repeat their exact words. Instead of "I'm tired," she said, you'd naturally say she said (that) she was tired.

The main rule is backshift: if the reporting verb (said, told) is in the past, the original verb usually moves one step back in time too.

Pronouns and time words shift too — today becomes that day, tomorrow becomes the next day, here becomes there — because reported speech is usually said at a different time or place than the original.

Backshift isn't automatic, though: if the reporting verb is present or future, or the statement is a general truth, the tense stays as it was. And say and tell behave differently — she said she was busy, but she told me she was busy, never she told she was busy.

👉 Reported speech: statements covers the full backshift table, pronoun and time-word shifts, when backshift isn't needed, and say vs tell.

🔀 Gerunds & Infinitives (Verb Patterns)

Some English verbs are followed by a second verb — but that second verb doesn't always look the same. After enjoy, it takes the -ing form: I enjoy cooking. After want, it takes to + verb: I want to cook. You can't swap them — ❌ I enjoy to cook, ❌ I want cooking.

There's no single rule that predicts the pattern; it mostly has to be learned verb by verb. Common -ing verbs include enjoy, avoid, finish, suggest, and mind. Common to + verb verbs include want, decide, hope, promise, and need.

A handful of verbs take both patterns with a real change in meaning — these are the ones worth learning carefully:

• I remember locking the door. (I have a memory of doing it) vs. I remembered to lock the door. (I didn't forget)
• He stopped smoking. (he quit) vs. He stopped to smoke. (he paused something else in order to smoke)

👉 Gerunds & infinitives covers both verb lists, the verbs that take either pattern freely, and the meaning-changing pairs like remember, forget, stop, and try.

⚖️ As...As Comparisons

Comparative adjectives like taller or more expensive show that two things are different. But what if they're the same? English has a separate structure for that: as + adjective + as — My brother is as tall as me.

To say two things are not equal, add not: This test wasn't as hard as the last one. You can soften or strengthen the comparison with words like just as (equal, with emphasis), nearly as / almost as (very close), or not nearly as (a big gap): She's almost as tall as her mother. This café isn't nearly as cheap as the one near my home.

To measure the gap exactly, put a multiple in front: This flat is twice as expensive as my old one. Their new office is three times as big as the old one.

👉 As...as comparisons covers the negative form, all the softening and strengthening modifiers, multiples like twice as and half as, and how as...as differs from a plain comparative.

📈 More Than Free Reading

These four lessons — like every article on the learning path — are free to read, no account needed. But GrammarMama's practice side is where the real progress happens, and that part gets personal:

• Know your level. A quick placement conversation places you on the CEFR scale (A1–C2), so practice starts exactly where you are — not from zero, and not too easy.
• Follow a curriculum, not random exercises. Practice is steered by the same curriculum behind these articles, with a visual roadmap showing what's next and what you've already mastered.
• It remembers your mistakes — and your vocabulary. Every mistake and every new word gets scheduled for review with spaced repetition, so it resurfaces right when you're about to forget it.
• A few minutes a day, every day. Daily exercises adapt to what you need most: a new grammar point, a review of yesterday's mistakes, or vocabulary that's due.

👉 Head to Practice to find your level and start your first exercise.

⭐ Keep Going

👉 Open the English B1 learning path and continue where you left off.