B1 is an intermediate level of English. It is where most ESL students tend to be and also where most errors are made as they are learning new grammar and vocabulary. To see our full list of B1 grammar points with examples click here.
After a passive verb phrase (or a past participle as an adjective), the preposition “for” indicates purpose or reason. Here are the results of a search in the iWeb corpus for: _VB _VVN for 1 BE USED FOR 284604 Crush. It‘s funny how the same word for the feeling of attraction can be used for the feeling of disappointment. listen 2 IS KNOWN FOR 97688 And he is known for being a liar. listen The sentence “he is known […]
BE + past participle + FOR Read More »
Are you allowed to say that?
Are you attracted to me?
Were you born in a barn?
What’s it called?
passive questions VS questions with adjectives Read More »
LEAVE ME ALONE
TAKE IT EASY
GET IT RIGHT
DRIVING ME CRAZY
lexical verb + noun phrase + adjective Read More »
We are interested in finding the most common noun phrases after ‘open to‘ that complete more abstract ideas such as willingness to consider something or something is likely to happen. In the English Vocabulary Profile: open to discussion/suggestions, etc. = C1 willing to consider a discussion/suggestions, etc. open to abuse/criticism, etc. = C2 likely to
OPEN TO ( adjective + prepositional phrase ) Read More »
In this post, we explore long complex noun phrases in the object position after the verb ‘have‘. Here is a search in the iWeb corpus for: _VH _A _JJ _NN of 1 HAS A LONG HISTORY OF 12459 C1+ Huff Hoyle has a long history of bad business practices. listen 2 HAVE A WIDE RANGE OF 9459 B1 You have a wide range
HAVE + article + adjective + noun + OF Read More »
Verb patterns with ‘not to be’ generally fall between A2 and B1. If they are also negated, non-finite, passive or ellipted they should be at least B2. A search in the NOW corpus for: not to be * * 1 NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH 10259 Not to be confused with the diary of Anne Hathaway which we stole out of her purse at the Gotham Awards. listen 2 NOT
I have little to no interest in politics. (I have very little or no interest in politics.)
There is next to no evidence for his claim. (There is almost no evidence for his claim.)
She left but to no avail. (She left but it was useless.)
( LITTLE | NEXT | BUT ) TO NO + noun Read More »
I don’t get time for a cup of coffee? Nobody’s Fool A search in iWeb corpus for: _VV _NN _II 1 TAKE PART IN 104907 What brought you to take part in this outrage? listen 2 PAY ATTENTION TO 93080 Don’t pay attention to him. Pay attention to me. listen 3 TAKE PLACE IN 63015 Our marriage will take place in the Poconos. listen 4 TOOK PLACE IN 55684 5 TAKES PLACE
lexical verb + noun + preposition Read More »
A phrase is a group of words that functions as a unit in a sentence. A phrase can have different types depending on the word that heads it. A phrase that includes the word order lexical verb + article + noun + preposition is called a verb phrase. A lexical verb is a verb that has meaning by itself, such as run, eat, or sleep. An article is a word that modifies a noun, such as the, a, or an. A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence, such as in, on, or to.
lexical verb + article + noun (+ prepositon) Read More »
‘a bit‘ can modify verb phrases with the meaning ‘by a small degree or amount‘ Here’s a search in NOW corpus to find words before this time/distance etc. adverbial phrase: * in|for a bit . 1 THAT IN A BIT. 572 We‘re going to come to that in a bit. TED 2 OUT FOR A BIT. 191 I‘m going
“ALL ABOUT” is used to describe the purpose or an aspect of something. (OXFORD B1)
For example ‘Some days, we forgot all about getting to Italy.’ ‘It’s all about the money.’
2 ALL ABOUT MAKING 4081
3 ALL ABOUT WINNING 1859
4 ALL ABOUT GIVING 1851
5 ALL ABOUT CREATING 1801
6 ALL ABOUT FINDING 1480
7 ALL ABOUT TAKING 1397
8 ALL ABOUT TRYING 1340
9 ALL ABOUT PUTTING 1279
10 ALL ABOUT KEEPING 1279
ALL ABOUT + noun phrase Read More »
B1: NO PROBLEM GETTING | NO EVIDENCE LINKING | NO TROUBLE FINDING | NO POINT TRYING
NO + noun + verbING Read More »
At 55 B1+ on the GSE, in the vocabulary section, YET = used to emphasize that something could still happen in the future, or that there is still enough time to do something For example: There’s plenty of time yet to enter the competition. *The second sense is not listed in the EGP or EVP. It
TIME YET TO infinitive Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile, be welcome to do sth B1 used to tell someone that they can certainly do something, if they want to A search NOW corpus for: welcome _TO _V 1 WELCOME TO COMMENT 8459 2 WELCOME TO JOIN 7347 3 WELCOME TO USE 6739 4 WELCOME TO ATTEND 5863 You‘re welcome to attend all meetings.
welcome + to-INFINITIVE Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP), ‘Still‘ is listed at B1 with the meaning ‘despite that‘, where ‘that’ refers back to the previous thing talked about. This is slightly different to: ‘despite‘ as a preposition, which is also listed at B1 with the meaning: without taking any notice of or being influenced by; not prevented
still (despite that) Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile, listed at B1 is: get worse = to become more ill, unpleasant, difficult, severe, etc. than before For example: But if this thing gets worse, we must close. listen There is no English Grammar Profile point that specifically focuses on GET + comparative A search in NOW corpus for: GET _JJR 1 GET WORSE 42282 2 GETTING
In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1, the adverb ‘nowhere‘ means ‘not anywhere’. At A2, ‘else’ means ‘in addition,’ ‘different’ or ‘other’. Together the words means ‘no other place‘ Collocates of ‘nowhere else‘ in the NOW corpus: 1 GO 5041 There was nowhere else to go after Australia. TED 2 THERE 3063 3 FOUND 1726 4 WORLD 1399 5 BECAUSE 1190
In general, the phrase “at its best” is used to convey the idea that something is performing or being experienced at the highest possible level. It is a way of saying that something is as good as it can possibly be.
frightened = feeling fear or worry. To find the frequency of prepositions that come after the adjective frightened, we can search in iWeb corpus for: frightened _I We have added example sentences containing frightened preposition: 1 FRIGHTENED OF 4688 What have you got to be frightened of? listen 2 FRIGHTENED BY 4585 People are frightened by the way that I look, especially children. listen 3 FRIGHTENED AT 703
frightened + PREPOSITION Read More »
