The English B1 curriculum is complete — 22 lessons, from the present perfect all the way to phrasal verbs.

Now it's time to go further.

English B2 is open. Four new lessons are live, and they take on some of the trickiest territory in English grammar: imagining a different past, mixing time frames in one sentence, and expressing regret precisely.

🆕 Four New B2 Lessons

The first batch falls into two natural pairs:

  • Imaginary and mixed pasts — the third conditional for how the past could have gone differently, and mixed conditionals for when a past cause has a present-day result, or a present truth explains a past outcome.
  • Regret and voice, done precisely — wish and if only for regrets and unreal desires, and the passive extended across every tense and modal verb.

👉 You'll find them all on the English B2 learning path.

⏪ Imaginary and Mixed Pasts

Third conditional

The third conditional looks back at the past and imagines a version of it that never happened.

If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam. If she had left earlier, she wouldn't have missed the train.

The if-clause uses the past perfect — one step further back than the second conditional's simple past — and the result clause uses would have + past participle. It's the grammar of regret, hindsight, and relief about things that didn't happen.

👉 Third conditional covers the form, could have / might have as softer alternatives to would have, and how it compares to the second conditional.

Mixed conditionals

Not every unreal sentence stays in one time frame. A mixed conditional takes the if-clause from one conditional and the result clause from another, because the situation itself spans two different times.

If I had studied medicine, I would be a doctor now. (a past decision, a present result) If she weren't so afraid of flying, she would have visited us last year. (a present trait, a past result)

The trick isn't new forms — it's recognizing which clause belongs in which time.

👉 Mixed conditionals works through both patterns side by side, with a quick test for telling them apart from a plain third conditional.

🎯 Regret and Voice, Done Precisely

Wish / if only

I wish I spoke French. If only I had booked that flight earlier. I wish you would stop interrupting me. Three different kinds of unreal desire, three different verb forms.

Wish/if only + past simple regrets the present. + past perfect regrets the past. + would asks for someone or something to change. + could wishes for a different ability. Same idea underneath — an unreal desire — but the form has to match exactly what's unreal about it.

👉 Wish / if only covers all four patterns, the difference in tone between wish and the stronger, more emotional if only, and why I wish I would have known is best avoided in careful writing.

The passive: all tenses & forms

The passive is always the same idea — be + past participle — but by B2 you need it to work across every tense, not just present and past simple.

A house is being built. The house has been built. The house will have been built by June. It must be built safely.

The tense or modal only ever changes the be part; the past participle never changes.

👉 The passive: all tenses & forms builds on the present & past simple passive and covers continuous, perfect, future, and modal passives in one place.

🆓 Still Free, Still Open

All four lessons are free to read — no account, no login, no paywall. Each one ends with a short quick-check so you can test yourself on the spot.

📈 More Than Free Reading

These lessons are free — 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.
  • 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.

⭐ Take a Look

The B2 path is just getting started.

👉 Open the English B2 learning path, begin with third conditional, and take the next step into upper-intermediate English.