may | might + as well
May as well and might as well are phrases that mean there is no better alternative or the situation is the same or almost the same as if something else were true.
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alternative
word OR word ? (alternative questions)
An alternative question is a question that asks the respondent to choose between two options. In the case of alternative questions with two words from the same class combined with “or,” the two options are words that belong to the same grammatical category. For example, you could ask the following alternative question: Do you prefer
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or something else?
Point 15 in the category of QUESTIONs is defined as: VAGUE alternative question with ‘or something else’ as the second alternative to a noun phrase, to refer to something non-specific. FOR EXAMPLE: Ultimately, does longer life as we know it come down to diet, exercise, medicine, or something else? A search in iWeb for: _N or something else ? 1 ISSUE OR SOMETHING ELSE ?
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phrase + OR + phrase ? (alternative question)
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 22 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions with two phrases combined with ‘or’. If we follow the patterns in the EGP examples and search in iWeb with them: or _I _A _NN ? 1 OR IN THE FUTURE? 152 EXAMPLE: Where can we see you perform next or in the future? missguided.co.uk
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or not?
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 23 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions using ‘or not’ to substitute for a clause, sometimes to express annoyance or impatience An iWeb search for: * * or not ? 1 THIS EARNING OR NOT? 287 2 GOOD IDEA OR NOT? 122 Is drinking fruit juices a good idea or not? cityspidey.com 3
clause OR clause ? (question)
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 27 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions with two clauses combined with ‘or’. A search in iWeb for or _V _P * ? 1 OR AM I WRONG? 621 2 OR DOES IT MATTER? 287 Villanovan Do you view all these changes in entertainment as good or bad, or does it matter at all? *Note
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alternative question (ellipsis)
The C2 Point 34 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions with two or more clauses and ellipsis in the second or third clause. *However, if the ellipsis is of a verb after a Modal it is actually only listed at C1. Considering how odd this complexity is and how difficult it
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or (STRONG ALTERNATIVE)
Point 31 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions using an extreme alternative to give greater pragmatic force. This grammar requires manual interpretation, so it is not really something we can automatically find in corpora. There is only one example in the EGP (the fact that there is only one means it
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ellipted modal – alternative question
C1 English Grammar Profile point 30 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: alternative questions with two clauses and ellipsis (of the modal) in the second clause, often as a hedging device. *Both of the English Grammar Profile examples contain ‘maybe’ and do not invert as questions usually do. They both seem like weak
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either * or
As a conjunction, ‘either’ is used before the first of two or more alternatives, and then the other alternative is introduced by ‘or’. Here’s an example of using the ‘either or’ structure. And so, to be anti-racist, again, is to recognize that there are only two causes of racial inequity: either there’s something wrong with people, or there’s something wrong with power and policy. listen There are two almost identical points in the English Grammar Profile for the following grammar. C1
WHETHER * OR NOT (conditional clause)
C2: it is not important which possibility is true
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IF meaning WHETHER
The words “if” and “whether” are both used to introduce indirect questions or to express doubt or uncertainty. However, there are some differences in their usage: Conditional vs. Choice: “If” is primarily used to introduce conditional clauses or to express a condition that must be met for something else to happen. It implies a cause-and-effect
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so much as | in as much as
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
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