CEFR

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is one standard for describing English language ability. It is divided from A1 for beginners to C2 for mastery. English Grammar Pro uses this for all of its grammar posts.

SO MUCH | A LOT adverbial phrases in end position

A2, ADVERBS, amount, B1, cause, consequence, degree, emphasis, end, frequency, intensity, modify, position, result, VERBS

The text discusses the use of “so much” and “a lot” as adverbs of degree in English grammar. These phrases modify verbs to indicate a high degree or intensity of an action. For example, in the sentence “You bother me a lot”, “a lot” intensifies the verb “bother”. Similarly, in “He loved it so much that he continued to show up every week”, “so much” intensifies “loved” and the phrase “so much that” establishes a cause-effect relationship between the high degree of love and the action of showing up every week.

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BEFORE

A2, ADVERBS, CONJUNCTIONS, PAST, PREPOSITIONS, subordinate, time

“Before” is a versatile word in English, functioning as a preposition, subordinating conjunction, and time adverb. As a preposition, it connects a noun or pronoun to another word, indicating something happens earlier than the time or event mentioned. As a subordinating conjunction, it connects two clauses, showing a relationship between them. As a time adverb, it modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb to indicate when something happens. Examples from various corpora illustrate these uses.

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so much as | in as much as

ADVERBS, alternative, amount, C2, CLAUSES, conditional, CONJUNCTIONS, contrast, degree, DETERMINERS, emphasis, NEGATIVE, reason

A search in playphrase.me for “so much as” reveals the following 3 most common collocations/multi-word units containing negative meaning or being surrounded with negation:  You let your wife throw you out of your own house  without so much as a whimper. listen to the example The phrase “without so much as a” means “not even the slightest amount of“. In the example above, it emphasizes that the

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ONCE phrases

A2, ADVERBS, CONJUNCTIONS, DETERMINERS, frequency, phrases, time

Words like ‘once’ and ‘twice’ can be predeterminers as multipliers.  For example: “Once every two weeks”  “Twice a day” A search in the iWeb corpus for: once _AT1 _NNT 1 ONCE A WEEK 75774 We are proposing to meet at least once a week  and just to do as many collections as we can. listen 2 ONCE A MONTH 44242 3 ONCE A YEAR 43510 4 ONCE A DAY

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MINUTE

ADJECTIVES, C2, NOUNS, phrases, time

See, this is really weird,  but I had this feeling the minute that the phone rang,  I said, Jackie, pick it up, you‘ve got a grandchild. listen Minute is usually a noun, but in the above usage ‘the minute + that CLAUSE‘ it means as soon as. Similary, in the next example, ‘any minute‘ means ‘very soon‘: Colin could you possibly find somewhere else to pray,  your brother and sister will be here any minute now. listen 1 MINUTE (NNT1) 645067 (A1 noun) = 60 seconds.

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NONE other than | nonetheless | NONE the wiser | NONE too pleased

ADVERBS, B2, NEGATIVE, phrases, PRONOUNS

In this post, we look at more complex phrases using the word NONE.  Here are the frequency and tagging results in iWeb for the word “NONE“: 1 NONE (PN) 929301 Although the English Vocabulary Profile lists ‘none’ at B1 as a pronoun, meaning ‘not any’, there is also B2 idiom: This is none of your business. listen

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ALL | SOME | BOTH | HALF + OF + noun phrase

A2, DETERMINERS, NOUNS, phrases, PRONOUNS, quantity

Here’s an example of determiners premodifying nouns: I regret some of the things I said to you. A2 point 18 in the category of NOUNS/phrases is defined: form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners. A2 point 17 in the category of PRONOUNS: limited range of pronouns (‘all’, ‘both’) with ‘of’ followed by an object pronoun, to

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passive with two objects

B1, B2, object, PASSIVES, phrases, PREPOSITIONS, range, subject, VERBS

The text discusses the complexities of English grammar, focusing on the category of passives and verbs that require two objects. It explains how these grammatical elements can indicate different CEFR levels and the importance of understanding direct and indirect objects. The text provides examples of these concepts, highlighting how the direct object is usually not a person, while the indirect object is a person and typically comes first in a sentence. The text also discusses different points at B2, A2, and B1 levels, and how they are defined in relation to these grammatical structures. Finally, it presents corpus research results from iWeb to illustrate these concepts in practice.

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a much better + NOUN

B2, NOUNS

A search on iWeb corpus for a much better _nn offers these most frequent B1 nouns: approach, bet, chance, choice, design, experience, method, mood, option, performance, position, product, quality, result, sense, situation, solution, system, user, value 1 A MUCH BETTER JOB 4957 2 A MUCH BETTER CHANCE 4140   The Motley Fool Canada Fortunately,  those

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present continuous + adverbs of indefinite frequency

ADVERBS, B2, C2, continuous, frequency, indefinite, PRESENT, range, surprising, undesirable

Let’s look at two expert examples of ‘BE + adverbs of indefinite frequency + VERBing‘: At the time of application for Russian citizenship, the spouses must be permanently residing in Russia  and must be married for three years.    Russia Beyond – 16 Feb 2021 There are a few ways to approach loved ones  who are persistently asking the same question.  elmcroft.com The first example above is a modal verb + BE + adverb + present participle and the second

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