Almost every time a preposition, article or determiner is before a word ending with -ern and followed by a noun the word is an adjective or the name of a place. 1 IN (II) NORTHERN (NP1) IRELAND (NP1) 29239 2 IN (II) SOUTHERN (JJ) CALIFORNIA (NP1) 26031 3 OF (IO) SOUTHERN (JJ) CALIFORNIA (NP1) 20522 […]
-ERN adjective suffix Read More »
A search in playphrase.me for “so much as” reveals the following 3 most common collocations/multi-word units containing negative meaning or being surrounded with negation: You let your wife throw you out of your own house without so much as a whimper. listen to the example The phrase “without so much as a” means “not even the slightest amount of“. In the example above, it emphasizes that the
so much as | in as much as Read More »
‘Until’ is usually conjunction, but sometimes it functions as a preposition. 1 UNTIL (CS) 2251777 4 UNTIL (II) 358880 6 UNTIL (II22) 73389
There are only a few in a hundred times that ought does not mark a past particple after a form of the ‘BE’ verb. 1 BE (VBI) BROUGHT (VVN) 83149 2 WAS (VBDZ) BROUGHT (VVN) 73072 3 IS (VBZ) THOUGHT (VVN) 64778 4 BE (VBI) TAUGHT (VVN) 43927 5 IS (VBZ) BROUGHT (VVN) 42006 6
BE + -ught word ending Read More »
PUBLIC RIGHT HUMAN TOP GENERAL FINAL OTHER MULTIPLE FUTURE FAVORITE STANDARD KEY MOBILE TOTAL AVERAGE POTENTIAL FUN LIGHT INDIVIDUAL FRONT PAST PRIMARY OVERALL RED INITIAL DARK ENGLISH OFFICIAL MAXIMUM GREEN CANADIAN CLASSIC PRESENT CANT CONTENT CHIEF FRENCH MINIMUM AUDIO CRIMINAL FEMALE BOTTOM MIDDLE BLACK GERMAN LEFT WHOLE REAR NET BLUE LEVEL ALTERNATIVE WHITE SAFE COLD
In this post, we are most interested to find the most advanced uses of the word ‘even‘. At C1, The phrase “even so” is used to introduce a surprising fact or conclusion that contrasts with what has been said before. It can be used to express a sense of defiance or determination or to simply
have + any word ending in -N is mostly the past particple. 1 HAVE (VH0) BEEN (VBN) 4654731 2 HAVE (VHI) BEEN (VBN) 1747554 3 HAVE (VH0) AN (AT1) 717741 4 HAVE (VHI) AN (AT1) 535041 5 HAVE (VH0) SEEN (VVN) 392450 6 HAVE (VH0) TAKEN (VVN) 185129 7 HAVE (VH0) IN (II) 155754 8
-N present perfect suffix Read More »
Apart from a very small amount of words, ‘-ness’ almost always marks a noun. BUSINESS FITNESS AWARENESS ILLNESS HAPPINESS EFFECTIVENESS DARKNESS CONSCIOUSNESS WEAKNESS He has a weakness for beautiful women. listen THICKNESS WITNESS GOODNESS WILDERNESS WELLNESS BRIGHTNESS WILLINGNESS KINDNESS MADNESS FORGIVENESS SICKNESS READINESS FAIRNESS RIGHTEOUSNESS SADNESS HARNESS SWEETNESS WITNESS (VVI) GREATNESS WELLNESS (NP1) STIFFNESS REDNESS HOMELESSNESS HOLINESS OPENNESS
1 FROM (II) 56595317 3 FROM (II22) 925535 4 FROM (RR41) 192515 5 FROM (RG22) 61816 6 FROM (RT31) 47137
1 OUT (RP) Out is most common as a particle: A search in Now corpus for: * * out_RP * * 1 CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 100063 Gentlemen, we can find out more about a man by his dreams. listen 2 BY FILLING OUT THIS FORM 50797 3 TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 32803 4 TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO 29116 5 TO GO
1 OUT (II21) OF (II22) 6044503 2 SUCH (II21) AS (II22) 5449751 3 ACCORDING (II21) TO (II22) 2869261 4 DUE (II21) TO (II22) 2384806 5 BECAUSE (II21) OF (II22) 2052897 6 UP (II21) TO (II22) 1826998 7 ALONG (II21) WITH (II22) 1692520 8 INSTEAD (II21) OF (II22) 1335372 9 PRIOR (II21) TO (II22) 1110670 10
two part prepositions Read More »
Words like ‘once’ and ‘twice’ can be predeterminers as multipliers. For example: “Once every two weeks” “Twice a day” A search in the iWeb corpus for: once _AT1 _NNT 1 ONCE A WEEK 75774 We are proposing to meet at least once a week and just to do as many collections as we can. listen 2 ONCE A MONTH 44242 3 ONCE A YEAR 43510 4 ONCE A DAY
1 ONLY (JJ) 15190271 2 ONLY (RR) 2915525 5 ONLY (CS) 5100 A search in iWeb corpus for: * only so many|much * 1 ‘S ONLY SO MUCH YOU 831 There’s only so much you can do with a BA in theater. Long Lost 2 IS ONLY SO MUCH YOU 712 3 ARE ONLY SO MANY HOURS 633 There are only so many hours in the day. Real Genius
On the right are the exceptions to the -LY equals an adverb rule. 1 ONLY (JJ) 15190237 2 REALLY (RR) 9725060 3 FAMILY (NN1) 5751119 4 ACTUALLY (RR) 4265923 5 PROBABLY (RR) 3391732 6 ESPECIALLY (RR) 3047727 7 USUALLY (RR) 2937777 8 ONLY (RR) 2915522 9 SIMPLY (RR) 2911174 10 CURRENTLY (RR) 2349421 11 EASILY
Here is the ranked frequency of contracted ‘NOT’ in iWeb corpus: _V n’t 1 DON’T 8794067 2 CAN’T 2949838 3 DOESN’T 2921306 4 DIDN’T 2857442 5 ISN’T 1917031 6 WON’T 1605476 7 WASN’T 1225689 8 WOULDN’T 963740 9 AREN’T 912023 10 COULDN’T 867686 11 HAVEN’T 835010 12 SHOULDN’T 385701 13 HASN’T 367136 14 WEREN’T 315174
‘s firstly following proper noun as a possessive marker, or contracted ‘is‘. Then it could be ‘has‘ or the second part of a modal: ‘Let‘s go!’ 1 ‘S (GE) 36030994 genetive 2 ‘S (VBZ) 24517319 is 5 ‘S (VHZ) 1063909 has 7 ‘S (VM22) 864498 ‘let’s not’ is B2 If we look at large Ngrams
What does ‘s mean? Read More »
See, this is really weird, but I had this feeling the minute that the phone rang, I said, Jackie, pick it up, you‘ve got a grandchild. listen Minute is usually a noun, but in the above usage ‘the minute + that CLAUSE‘ it means as soon as. Similary, in the next example, ‘any minute‘ means ‘very soon‘: Colin could you possibly find somewhere else to pray, your brother and sister will be here any minute now. listen 1 MINUTE (NNT1) 645067 (A1 noun) = 60 seconds.
Here are over a dozen ways that the word ‘up’ is used in English. Firstly, ‘up’ is most commonly used as a part of phrasal verbs. 1 UP (RP) adverb particle: 1 SET UP 1105960 Well, I suppose I‘d set up a meeting with the State Committee for Scientific Research in Moscow. listen 2 IT UP 713509 1 PICK IT UP 40589 We just need him to pick it up, and then I can lift the print using this 3D laser scanner. listen
MATERIALS (NN2) GOALS (NN2) INDIVIDUALS (NN2) ANIMALS (NN2) PROFESSIONALS (NN2) OFFICIALS (NN2) MEALS (NN2) HOSPITALS (NN2) CHEMICALS (NN2) TRIALS (NN2) REVEALS (VVZ) DEALS (NN2) SIGNALS (NN2) PROPOSALS (NN2) MINERALS (NN2) LOCALS (NN2) FINALS (NN2) METALS (NN2) CREDENTIALS (NN2) TUTORIALS (NN2) FESTIVALS (NN2) INTERVALS (NN2) APPEALS (NN2) DEALS (VVZ_NN2) ESSENTIALS (NN2) JOURNALS (NN2) CRIMINALS (NN2) DEALS
