Where should beginners start learning English?

Start with sounds, then move on to topics close to your own life. After that, learn just enough grammar and listen every day. This order works whether you know nothing yet or studied at school and have lost your foundations, because each step makes the next one easier.

You don't need to learn everything at once. You only need to know what to do next today.

First: know why you're learning

Write down a specific goal, such as "understand simple everyday conversations" or "prepare to study for TOEIC later". The clearer your goal, the easier it is to choose what to learn and what to skip.

A goal like "be good at English" is too broad. It doesn't tell you what to do today, so it's easy to lose heart.

Step 1: Get to know English sounds

Why pronunciation should come first

• You can hear the words you know. If you remember a word's pronunciation wrongly, you'll struggle to recognise it when you hear it, even if you know what it means.
• You can't guess pronunciation from spelling. In English, spelling and sound often don't match. For example, "ough" sounds different in "though", "through" and "tough".
• You avoid confusing meanings. One different sound can make a different word, as with "ship" and "sheep".
• You won't have to fix bad habits later. Learning a sound correctly from the start is much easier than correcting a pronunciation you've grown used to.

How many consonants and vowels English has

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) chart commonly used to learn British English has 44 sounds:

Don't confuse these with the alphabet, which has only 26 letters: 5 vowels and 21 consonants. There are more sounds than letters, so one letter can be pronounced in several ways. The figure of 44 can also vary slightly by accent and source, such as for American English, so there's no need to worry too much about it.

The most common sounds

• The vowel /ə/ (schwa). This is the most frequent sound in spoken English. It's a weak, very short sound, like the "a" in "about". Not recognising it is why many words seem to disappear when native speakers talk quickly.
• The consonants /n/, /t/ and /r/. These are among the most common consonants, although their exact order can change with accent and how they're counted.

Focus on these sounds first, because you'll meet them in almost every sentence.

When you learn a new word, learn its stress too, as one syllable is usually stronger than the others. You don't need perfect pronunciation yet. The goal for now is to hear the differences and avoid learning a sound wrongly from the start.

Step 2: Learn from familiar, everyday topics

Once you know the sounds, learn vocabulary through topics you meet every day, rather than from a long word list running from A to Z.

Which topics to start with

Choose one or two topics closest to your own life:

When you learn a word, learn a short sentence with it too. For example, instead of noting only "coffee" and its translation, write down the whole sentence: "I'd like a coffee, please." A short sentence shows you how the word is used and how it sounds together with the words around it.

Tip: after learning a sentence, change one word so it's about you, such as replacing "sales" with your own job.

Why to start with these

• You meet them often, so they're easier to remember. Words from daily life keep coming back, giving you many chances to see them again instead of learning and forgetting them.
• You can use them straight away, which builds confidence. When you can say a sentence about yourself or use one in a real situation, you can clearly see your progress.
• You avoid too much theory and the boredom it brings. Beginners easily give up when they only learn rules and can't use anything yet. Starting from what's familiar connects your learning to your life.

Step 3: Learn just enough grammar

You don't need to learn every tense before you start listening or speaking. A small number of structures come up very often, so start with those.

Which grammar is used most

Counts of English usage don't match exactly, but they all show the present simple and past simple being used far more than other tenses.

After that, you can move on to the future with "will", the present perfect and the present continuous. Harder points can wait until you meet them in your listening.

Ways to make grammar stick

• Learn from example sentences, not just formulas. Read and listen to a few short sentences with the same structure in a row, such as "I work here.", "You work here." and "They work here." You'll spot the pattern more easily than by memorising a formula.
• Make sentences about yourself. After learning the past simple, write three sentences about what you did yesterday. Sentences about you are usually easier to remember than ones in a book.
• Recall rather than reread. Close the book, then try to write the structure and one example from memory. If you can't remember it, look again and try once more.
• Review after a gap. Go back to the grammar point the next day, then a few days later. Several short reviews usually work better than one very long one.
• Learn one point at a time. Get comfortable using one grammar point before starting the next, so you don't mix them up.
• Listen to and type sentences with that grammar. For example, the A2 lessons on Infasto have many sentences in the past simple. Typing them helps you recognise the structure when you hear it, not only when you read it.

Step 4: Listen to and type short sentences every day

Once you know the basic sounds and some words from familiar topics, start listening regularly. A method that suits beginners is dictation: listen to a sentence, type what you heard, then check it.

This shows you exactly which words you missed, instead of just feeling that you understood. You can see how to do it in detail in How to practise dictation so your listening really improves.

Which lesson to start with

The easiest lessons on Infasto are currently at A2 level. They're natural conversations, so they'll be easier to follow once you've worked through the three steps above.

Start with Unit 1, then try the other A2 lessons. You can practise straight away without an account.

If it feels too hard

It's normal to find it hard the first few times. Try these:

• Play the sentence at a slower speed, then speed up as you get used to it.
• Listen to the sentence several times, focusing on one part each time.
• Show the answer once you've done your best, then listen again to catch the word you missed.

If you can barely catch a word, go back to steps 1 and 2 for a while. That isn't failure. It's choosing the right place to start.

Common beginner mistakes

• Wanting to learn all the grammar first. You'll spend a long time and still not understand a single sentence by ear. Learn just enough and use it straight away.
• Learning isolated words. A long list of words and meanings is quickly forgotten. Short sentences help you remember how to use them.
• Reading without listening. A word you can read isn't always a word you can hear. Listen every day, even if it's only a few sentences.
• Constantly switching materials. Changing books or apps whenever you get bored keeps sending you back to the start. Choose a few materials and see them through.
• Cramming, then taking long breaks. A little and often is usually easier to keep up than many hours in one day followed by a week off.

You now have a place to start. Today, write down your goal and get to know the most common sounds. When you're ready, Unit 1 is your next step.