off

What a + NOUN PHRASE

Here are examples of exclamatory sentences starting with “What”. They express strong emotions or feelings.
“What” is a predeterminer that precedes the indefinite article “a”.
The phrases following “What a” are noun phrases, often modified by adjectives for emphasis (e.g., “great”, “wonderful”).
Many sentences are followed by adverbial phrases (e.g., “to save time”, “to be alive”) that provide more information about the noun.
These sentences are common in spoken English to convey strong feelings. They’re less common in formal written English but might appear in dialogue or informal writing.
In the English Grammar Profile, such usage of ‘What’ falls under A2 level for expressing strong opinions.
The most common collocates in corpora are words like “great”, “waste”, “idea”, etc., often followed by infinitive phrases or prepositional phrases acting as adverbs.
This structure allows for a wide range of expressions, from surprise (“What a surprise!”) to disappointment (“What a waste of money!”) to admiration (“What a great idea for a party!”). It’s a versatile and expressive part of English grammar.

What a + NOUN PHRASE Read More »

preposition (wide range)

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 8 in the category of prepositions is defined as a wide range of simple (single word) prepositions. *Note this first search on iWeb is not only for instances as a preposition: above|along|according|because|beside|but|despite|off| onto|regarding|towards|through|underneath|via|within 1 BUT 52015729 2 BECAUSE 13807430 3 THROUGH 12732122 4 OFF 9025030 5 WITHIN 5473926

preposition (wide range) Read More »

indefinite pronouns: SOMEBODY SOMEONE EVERYBODY EVERYONE

Here are the search results in iWeb corpus for the frequency of indefinite pronouns with the tag: _PN1 1 SOMETHING 7038440 B1  (want + object + infinitive) Are you sure you don’t want something to eat? No, thanks.  I‘m fine. listen 2 ONE 7014912 3 EVERYTHING 3661675 4 SOMEONE 3447852 5 ANYTHING 3347394 6 EVERYONE 3007402 7 NOTHING 2966176 8 ANYONE 2741077 9 NO

indefinite pronouns: SOMEBODY SOMEONE EVERYBODY EVERYONE Read More »

10 ways ‘FAR’ is used in English grammar.

Here are 10 ways ‘far’ is used ranked by order of frequency: 1. A2 general adverb *Numbers on the right are the frequency in iWeb corpus: (RR) 1578722 ‘far‘ means ‘at, to or from a great distance in space or time‘  For example: Is it far away? I don’t live far from here. Thailand is not far from Vietnam. 2. B1 phrase ‘so far‘ means ‘until now‘ So far

10 ways ‘FAR’ is used in English grammar. Read More »