Here are some student writing examples of present continuous highlighted with details: I am typing English words right now. PELIC Chinese female level 2 writing class However, we also can interpret from the graph that we aren’t preparing for it yet. PELIC Korean female level 3 writing class I am always falling over one of his toy cars or trucks. PELIC Arabic male level 3 writing class There are at least 30 points to do with the present […]
Present Continuous Read More »
Present continuous is best given a CEFR level by lexical VERBing in the English Vocabulary Profile. The English Grammar Profile has many levels that are mostly based on range. There is also a point at C1 for rhetorical questions with present continuous. B2 point 45 in the category of FUTURE with present continuous is defined
present continuous questions (range) Read More »
There are three B2 future perfect continuous points in the EGP that are all very rare. B2 Point 54 is defined as LOOKING BACK FROM A POINT IN THE FUTURE and to emphasise the duration of an activity or event. B2 Point 49 is AFFIRMATIVE with ‘will’. B2 Point 42 is NEGATIVE *Actually we have
will (not) have been verbING Read More »
There are 5 formally related grammar points in the English Grammar Profile in the category of FUTURE/perfect simple with ‘will.’ Many of them overlap and at C1 they are very rare and hard to find in corpora. An example from the iWeb corpus of the future perfect form used for a polite assumption about the
will have + PAST PARTICIPLE (future perfect) Read More »
Let’s look at an example of ‘should be ing‘ in student writing: In Korea, it is so common that women should be looking for a job after divorce. PELIC Korean female level 4 writing. ‘Should’ can express obligation or expectation. ‘Should’ can be used with a continuous form: Should be + lookING In the English Grammar Profile at B2, there are 3 points covering ‘should + continuous form’. Points
SHOULD BE + verb ING ‘She should be looking for a job’ Read More »
Let’s look at two examples to explain this grammar. The first is from a student writing example using past continuous with an adverb that shows he didn’t control the situation with his friend and the second one is from an expert speaker using passives: For example, he was always playing soccer when I played baseball. PELIC Korean male level 4 grammar class. They were
(always | constantly) + past continuous Read More »
These are fixed expressions that are used to express a counterfactual or hypothetical situation in the past. They mean “if something had not happened, then something else would not have happened”. For example:
If it hadn’t been for your help, I would have failed the exam.
Had it not been for the storm, we would have arrived on time.
You can use different modals after these expressions, such as would, could, might. You can also invert the word order and omit “if”, as in the second example.
If it hadn’t been for / had it not been for + modal Read More »
How do you express regret?
If only + past perfect simple negative Read More »
C1 | C2:
Had I known | Should you desire | Were I allowed + WOULD | COULD
Inversion in clauses with conditions and formality Read More »
The future perfect continuous negative tense allows us to express the absence of an ongoing action leading up to a specific future point. It highlights the non-occurrence or lack of continuity of the action within the given timeframe.
future perfect continuous negative Read More »
One of the rarest C2 grammar structures is the present perfect continuous passive
present perfect progressive passive Read More »
How do we find rare grammar so that we can give our student real examples?
of having been born Read More »
