In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 42 in the category of DETERMINERS/demonstratives is defined as: ‘this’ with time and date words to refer to the past. Speaking test example: When did you go to London? I went this year. TLC, Male, Italy, B1 A search in iWeb for: _VVD this_D _NNT1 1 SAID THIS WEEK 5943 2 ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK 3344 […]
The following two B1 points are only different in the order. Point 4 in REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: DIRECT SPEECH, REPORTING CLAUSE, INITIAL POSITION: report speech and thought directly, using the reporting verb before the reporting clause Point 9 is END POSITION: report speech and thought directly using the reporting verb after the reporting
DIRECT SPEECH (initial or end position) Read More »
Let’s take a look at an IELTS writing task 2 example with this grammar: It is argued that volunteering should be made a part of the school curriculum. In the above example, ‘is argued‘ forms the passive part. The active form of this is probably: ‘People argue that…” In our example, ‘people’ is not important or maybe we don’t know who
‘It is said that …’ (IT + passive) Read More »
Point 75 in the category of PAST is defined as: Past perfect simple to report statements, where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *This point overlaps B1. So we might surmise that ‘said’ and ‘told’ are B1 and other reporting verbs might be B2 within this structure. A search
past perfect simple (report of statements) Read More »
Here are some sentences of PRESENT CONTINUOUS AFFIRMATIVE PASSIVE, using the most common B1 past participles: Accepted: The new employee is being accepted by the team. The proposal is being accepted by the board of directors. Applied: The job application is being applied for by the candidate. The paint is being applied to the wall.
present continuous passive + range of verbs Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 20 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as: PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE, NEGATIVE often in the context of reporting reported speech A search on iWeb for _vh _xx been _vvn: 1 HAS NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED 3143 2 HAS NOT BEEN SEEN 3058 3 HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED
present perfect simple negative passive Read More »
The past perfect passive simple negative is a verb form that expresses an action that had not been done to someone or something in the past. For example:
The cake had not been baked when the guests arrived.
He had not been told the truth by his parents.
To form this verb tense, you need to use had not (or hadn’t) + been + the past participle of the main verb.
had not been + PAST PARTICIPLE Read More »
B2 COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVE + ‘THAN’ + NON-FINITE CLAUSE
‘than’ + an increasing range of non-finite clauses (to-infinitive, reduced clause) forming the second part of a comparison after a comparative adjective.
(ENGLISH GRAMMAR PROFILE)
comparative non-finite clause Read More »
