In the Reader · English books

Grammar explained in the line you are reading

A textbook gives you the rule first and an invented sentence second. The Reader turns that around: you read a real book, and when a sentence has a construction worth knowing, a Grammar row under it opens the rule for that very line.

Open the Reader How it works

Free to try, no card. The rule comes in your language; the English examples stay English.

How it works

Read first, look the rule up when you want it

There is no separate lesson to schedule. The grammar comes from the book you are already reading.

  1. 1

    A construction is marked

    The Reader looks at the structure of every sentence and underlines the constructions it recognises. Under a sentence that has one, a small Grammar row appears.

  2. 2

    Tap it for the rule

    A short card opens: the pattern, what it means in plain words, a few examples and the mistake people usually make. It is written once in English and translated into your language; the English examples stay as they are.

  3. 3

    The rule stays with your sentence

    The card shows the sentence you are reading with the construction highlighted, so the rule is attached to something you have just read, not to an invented example.

Which book for which grammar

Pick a book for the grammar you want to meet

We counted how often each kind of grammar is marked in every book of the library. These are the books at B1–B2 that use each kind the most, per 10,000 words, beside the median book.

Relative clauses

who, which, that, whose or where after a noun: the man who called, the house where I grew up.

  1. Frankenstein Mary Shelley · B2 100 per 10,000 words
  2. The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas · B1 83 per 10,000 words
  3. Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne · B1 83 per 10,000 words

Median book of the library: 55

Modal verbs

can, could, may, might, must, should, would and their relatives.

  1. Dracula Bram Stoker · B2 57 per 10,000 words
  2. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen · B2 57 per 10,000 words
  3. The Sign of the Four Arthur Conan Doyle · B1 56 per 10,000 words

Median book of the library: 34

Counted from the constructions the Reader marks, and rounded. A family groups dozens of constructions, so one wrongly matched pattern moves a number only a little. Read the figures as what a book leans on, not as a measure of its style. The level is the library's CEFR label for the whole book.

Limits

What the Grammar row is, and what it is not

What it does

  • Marks constructions in the text of real books and opens a short card in your language, tied to the sentence.
  • Labels every card with a CEFR level, and hides the levels you have switched off.
  • Shows at most five cards for one sentence, the most specific first.
  • Works the same in the books you upload yourself (EPUB, FB2 and TXT).

What it does not do

  • It is not a grammar course. A card explains; it does not drill. The lessons with exercises and a grammar map from A1 to C1 are in the full app.
  • It does not mark everything. A sentence with nothing worth teaching gets no row, and an unusual construction can be missed.
  • It is not always right. On samples we checked by hand, about nine in ten of the cards shown were correct, and the figure differs by construction.

FAQ

Questions about grammar in the text

Can you learn grammar just by reading?

Reading shows grammar in use, and meeting the same construction again and again in real sentences is how it starts to feel natural. For many learners a rule stated once helps it along. The Reader puts that rule next to the line where you met the construction, so you can read on and look it up only when something looks odd. Writing and speaking are still where a rule becomes yours, and the full app has both.

How does the Reader know which grammar a sentence contains?

It analyses the structure of each sentence with a dependency parser (spaCy) and matches the result against patterns written for each construction and tuned by hand on real books. That is pattern matching, not understanding, which is why it is sometimes wrong.

How accurate is it?

We checked samples of the cards it shows against the sentences by hand: about nine in ten were right, and the share differs by construction. The example sentences on the book pages come only from constructions that scored 90% or more.

Which levels does it cover?

The constructions run from A1 to C1 and each card carries its CEFR level. In the Reader you choose which levels are shown, so a B1 reader is not buried in C1 constructions.

Can I use it with my own books?

Yes. Upload an EPUB, FB2 or TXT file and it gets the same dictionary and grammar notes as the books in the library.

Which book should I read to practise one kind of grammar?

See the shelf above: for each kind of grammar it lists the three B1–B2 books that use it the most. Pick the one at your level. The library page shows every book with its level. Browse the library

Open a book and watch for the Grammar row

Choose a book at your level and read a chapter. When a sentence has a construction worth knowing, the row appears under it.

Open the Reader

Free to try, no card. Not sure which book? See the library.