B1

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.

OPEN TO ( adjective + prepositional phrase )

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 …

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not to be

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 …

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( LITTLE | NEXT | BUT ) TO NO + noun

We profile this prepositional construction at B1 because ‘no‘ can be used to pre-modify nouns at A2. However, it is usually found with extremely advanced phrases related to negative statements. A search in iWeb corpus for: to_II no _NN 1 TO NO AVAIL 26494 C2 unlisted in the EVP They tried to bring a case against her but to no avail. listen 2 TO …

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ALL ABOUT + noun phrase

“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

GET + comparative

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 …

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nowhere else

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 …

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at ITS best

In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1, is the following entry: at his/its, etc. best at the highest level of achievement or quality A search in iWeb corpus for: at _APPGE _JJT 1 AT ITS BEST 28383 I‘m a huge fan of capitalism at its best. TED 2 AT THEIR BEST 11959 3 AT ITS FINEST 8811 4 AT HIS BEST …

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frightened + PREPOSITION

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 …

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can be + VERB-ing

Although there are a number of similar points in the English Grammar Profile for modal verbs followed by continuous aspect, there is not an entry for ‘CAN + continuous’. We predict that if future continuous affirmative is A2, should + continuous B2, might or may + continuous C1 that ‘can + continuous’ is at least …

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