The pattern

"I'm good at" tells someone what you do well. After "at" you put a noun or a verb with -ing: good at chess, good at cooking. Never the bare verb. "Good at cook" is the mistake people hear most from learners, and it is the one fix that makes this pattern sound right.

People rarely say they are good at something without softening it. "Pretty good at", "not bad at" and "not very good at" are what you will actually hear. The soft versions are also the polite way to say you cannot do something.

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

  3. The polite negative. On a first meeting, this beats "I'm bad at parking".

Check yourself

1Which sentence is correct?
2You want to sound natural, not boastful. Which one do people actually say?
3Which is the polite way to say you can't do something well?

Practice · 3 min

Say the honest version about yourself. The prompt is on the left, one possible answer on the right.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4

Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.