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.

BE + past participle + FOR

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 […]

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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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lexical verb + article + noun (+ prepositon)

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.

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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

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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 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.

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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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