passive questions VS questions with adjectives
Are you allowed to say that?
Are you attracted to me?
Were you born in a barn?
What’s it called?
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.
lexical verb + noun phrase + adjective
LEAVE ME ALONE
TAKE IT EASY
GET IT RIGHT
DRIVING ME CRAZY
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 …
HAVE + article + adjective + noun + OF
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 …
or two
one or two things |
a day or two
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 …
( 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 …
lexical verb + noun + preposition
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 IN 50638 6 TAKING PART IN 44691 7 …
lexical verb + article + noun + prepositon
A search in iWeb corpus for Lexical verb + noun phrase + prepositional phrase _VV _AT _NN _II 1 TAKE A LOOK AT 296242 B1 Let’s take a look at the rest of the house first. listen 2 KEEP AN EYE ON 61814 B2 We will definitely keep an eye on her for you. listen 3 MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 32648 B2 I‘d like to help my country make a difference …
IN | FOR + A BIT
‘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 + 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
NO + noun + verbING
B1: NO PROBLEM GETTING | NO EVIDENCE LINKING | NO TROUBLE FINDING | NO POINT TRYING
TIME YET TO infinitive
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 …
welcome + to-INFINITIVE
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. …
still (despite that)
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …