almost all & very few

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 51 in the category of adverbs/phrases is defined as:

degree adverbs (‘almost’, ‘very’) to modify determiners.

Adverbs phrases can be put together with degree adverbs such as “almost” and “very” to modify determiners, such as “all” and “few”.

*.[RR] *.[DB]

After removing a few unrelated results to the intention of finding degrees, the search on iWeb for any general adverb tagged as RR next to any DB results in the following frequency sets:

“almost all”

“much all” is actually mostly “pretty much all” so quite an unexpected find here. Most importantly though, “almost all” is by far the most common of all and worthy of further collocation. A search on iWeb for collocates 4 slots either side of “almost all” with no codes added returns:

Examples in the “news”:

*.[RG] *.[DA2]

*.[RG] *.[DB]

As we know taggers are not perfect and to see what “RG” the code for adverbs of degree finds instead of RR, we get the following frequency results:

1 thought on “almost all & very few”

  1. English Grammar Pro

    ‘Almost all cases’ in iWeb collocate most often with ‘cancer’. Making this a good topic for nursing students or those interested in medicine.

    1 healthycures.org A B C related disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost all cases of cervical cancer can be attributed to HPV. HPV is the most common viral
    2 innerbody.com A B C cell growth causes tumors to form and spread through the body. # Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, with two strains (16 and 18
    3 medigo.com A B C and a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer increase with age. Almost all cases of breast cancer occur in women over the age of 40. # Genes and
    4 honorhealth.com A B C assistance at every stage of your cancer journey. Cervical cancer # Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus. The two primary types of
    6 ascopost.com (1) A B C used to prevent adolescents from contracting the HPV virus, which causes almost all cases of cervical cancer in women, as well as several other cancers. # ”
    7 jostrust.org.uk A B C women aged 50-64 did not know the Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes almost all cases of cervical cancer and many failed to link historic sexual activity as a threat to
    8 jostrust.org.uk A B C that are not cancer related. What causes cervical cancer? # Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV
    9 jostrust.org.uk A B C developing cervical cancer by becoming sexually active again later in life? # Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). High-risk
    10 pharmpro.com A B C cancer prevention portfolio. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of almost all cases of cervical cancer, a leading cause of death in women. # The cobas

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