C1 English: advanced

C1 is for using English with control in academic and professional settings: putting the emphasis where you want it, making careful claims, and writing concisely and formally.

12 grammar lessons, 76 words in 4 topic decks, 10 graded texts, and writing and speaking practice with AI feedback.

What you can do at C1

• Listening: I can understand fast, idiomatic speech, including humour, irony and what people don't say directly.
• Reading: I can read long, complex texts in my field and outside it, noticing tone and stance.
• Speaking: I can express myself fluently and precisely, adjusting my register to the situation and the person.
• Writing: I can write well-structured reports, proposals and essays, and edit my own writing for clarity.
• Speaking: I can hedge, soften disagreement and persuade without sounding blunt.

What learners find hard at C1

Inversion (never have I seen…), cleft sentences, hedging (it would seem that…), and the compact structures of formal writing: nominalisation, participle and reduced relative clauses.

What the C1 lessons cover

All 12 C1 grammar lessons

Free to read, with examples and practice questions.

1. Never have I seen…: inversion for emphasis
2. What I need is…: cleft sentences for focus
3. It would seem that…: hedging and stance
4. Should you need…, Had I known…: inverted conditionals
5. The rapid growth of…: nominalisation in academic and professional writing
6. We recommend that she rest: the subjunctive
7. The woman sitting by the window: reduced relative clauses
8. Having finished the report, she left: participle clauses
9. The meeting over, we went home: absolute clauses
10. Much as I like the idea…: concession and contrast
11. I hope so, so do I: ellipsis and substitution
12. Owing to the delay…: cause and result in formal writing

C1 vocabulary

• Argument, evidence and stance: 18 words and phrases, each with a plain-English definition and an example
• Cause, consequence and contrast: 18 words and phrases, each with a plain-English definition and an example
• Leadership, negotiation and collaboration: 20 words and phrases, each with a plain-English definition and an example
• Science, technology and their impact: 20 words and phrases, each with a plain-English definition and an example

Reading at C1

• In defence of the four-day week, cautiously: A columnist weighs the evidence on the four-day working week, separating what the trials show from what enthusiasts claim.
• What happened when the cars left: A mid-sized city closed its centre to cars. A local journalist looks back after two years: what changed, for whom, and why the arguments haven't stopped.
• Counting what counts: An essay weighs the evidence on national life-satisfaction surveys and asks what such figures can and cannot tell governments.
• The hall that would not close: A magazine feature tells how an old fish market in a port city was saved from redevelopment, and why its success has brought new tensions.
• A child's coat: In a short story, a young woman raised abroad spends a summer with her grandmother on a Greek island and rediscovers part of the language she spoke as a child.
• Night work, seen clearly and then not: A critic reviews an exhibition of a painter's pictures of night workers, praising the early work but criticising the later paintings and the way the show is curated.
• My employer would like to know how I feel: An ironic opinion column describes a company app that asks staff about their mood, and argues that it has made employees more guarded rather than more open.
• Desk-sharing pilot: findings and recommendation: An internal memo reports on a six-month desk-sharing trial in one office and recommends extending it with changes rather than introducing it everywhere.
• Teodora Vasić, keeper of the ordinary: An obituary-style profile looks back on the life of a fictional archivist who rescued and preserved the everyday records of her small town.
• Funnier in Portuguese: A writer who learnt Portuguese as an adult reflects on whether speaking a second language really makes a person different.

Questions