A fixed expression is a phrase with a specific meaning. The combination of words doesn’t change = fixed.
Here are the most common examples with explanations of ‘would you mind‘: Would you mind if I took your picture? *notice the past form ‘took’ to be polite. Listen to the pronunciation In the English Grammar Profile, point 83 at B1 in the category of MODALITY is defined as: ‘would’ to make polite requests, often in the fixed expression ‘would you …
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 72 in the category of MODALITY is defined: the fixed expression: ‘I have to admit’ for emphasis PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: When I want to talk about my weaknesses in writing in English, I have to admit the new words are my main problem. Arabic male, level 4 writing class. TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE: Therefore, I have to admit that it’s true with most old people, but with my parents, I think that before I was born they hoped that they were going …
C1 The present simple with ‘by the time’ to refer to the future.
English Grammar Profile
Here is an example of a B2 fixed expression: It just came out of nowhere. listen C2 point 13 in the category of FOCUS is defined as: more than one fixed expression in the front position for added focus. The English Grammar Profile examples include: But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, All in all, taking everything …
‘at the end of the day‘ can be used literally, meaning the time of day, but is also an informal phrase that means: when everything is taken into consideration. *It contains the most common 5 part N-gram in English: ‘at the end of the’ iWeb 392146 English Grammar Profile C1 Point 8 in the category …
In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 186 in MODALITY is defined as: Expressions with ‘can’ or ‘can’t’ to give focus or add emphasis, such as ‘as you can see’, ‘I can’t say’, ‘I can tell you that’, ‘as you can imagine’, ‘I can say that’, ‘I can assure you that’ For example: I can’t …
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 165 in the category of MODALITY is defined as: the fixed expression ‘I must admit’ or ‘you must admit’ to express concession. The verb ‘admit’ is B1 in the English Vocabulary Profile with the meaning: agree that something is true, especially unwillingly A search for collocates of ‘must admit’ …
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 124 in the category of modality is defined as using: the fixed expression ‘I must say’ to give emphasis, usually about something positive. An iWeb search for I must say * * * * 1 I MUST SAY THAT I AM VERY 144 EU-Startups “Computer vision can have …
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 8 in the category of DISCOURSE MARKERS in writing is defined as a: range of phrases as discourse markers to open and close texts and point to conclusions, often in formal contexts. From the examples in the EGP searched in iWeb: In the English Vocabulary Profile: ‘to begin …
C1 point 206 in Modality, in the English Grammar Profile, is used to say that something is probably true. Looking at 4 spaces to the right of the expression on iWeb corpus we find the following collocates which point to the fact the expression is often used with more modality. Two of those are contractions …
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 151 in MODALITY “be forced to’ is used to talk about an unnamed obligation, where the circumstances are beyond the control of the speaker/writer. I was interested to see what some of the stand-out infinitives would be with this structure. On the iWeb corpus _vb* forced to _v?i* …
C2 point 91 in the category of PAST in the English Grammar Profile is defined: fixed expressions: if it hadn’t been for / had it not been for + modal which collocates with: If it hadn’t been for + up to 9 spaces to the right in the COCA corpus (I changed to this corpus …
If it hadn’t been for / had it not been for + modal Read More »
