phrases

  • A phrase is one or more words working together meaningfully.  (most people call a phrase two or more words)
  • Phrases have many grammatical functions in the clause. For example, in the sentence “They call this place their home.” The noun phrase ‘their home‘ is an object predicate.
  • There are five types of phrases:
    • Noun phrases have a noun, pronoun, nominal adjective (‘the elderly’) or a numeral as the ‘head’ (main word) which can be joined with modifiers, determiners, and complements.
    • A verb phrase consists of one or more auxiliaries plus the main ‘head‘ verb. For example, “has been used
    • Adverb phrases have an adverb as the ‘head’.  For example, “more frequently
    • Prepositional…
    • Adjective phrases.  For example: “far more attractive.”  Here ‘attractive’ is the head and has been pre-modified.
  • Phrases can be premodified and/or postmodified.  Here’s an example of a pre and post modified adverb: ‘very luckily for me’
  • Noun phrases can post be modified by a clause: ‘the house which we lived in
  • Phrases can contain one or more other phrases inside them.  For example:
  1. The name of the story = noun phrase with ‘name’ as the head noun.
  2. of the story = prepositional phrase
  3. the story = noun phrase
  • phrases can be extended with co-ordinating conjunctions or with apposition.

There’s this + noun phrase (immediacy in a narrative)

C2 point 64 in DETERMINERS/demonstratives is defined as: ‘this’ with nouns and noun phrases in a narrative to create a sense of immediacy. All the examples in the English Grammar Profile follow the pattern ‘There + BE + this + noun phrase’ A search on iWeb for: there_EX _VB this _N 1 THERE ‘S THIS […]

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superlative + prepositional phrase ‘the most natural thing in the world’

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 37 in the category of ADJECTIVES is defined as: an increasing range of complex noun phrases with a superlative adjective + prepositional phrase, to talk about something unique. *In both EGP examples the prepositional phrase that follows is either: of_IO my_APPGE life_NN1 in_II our_APPGE lives_NN2 A search in COCA for:

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NOUN + ‘s (possession)

The English Grammar Profile claims there are over 1000 points in their database.  This post is another example of why it is not true.  One of the greatest problems with listing points is finding which category to list them in without merely duplicating the same points.  Both the following points are one point at the same CEFR level of A2.

Point 14 in the category of NOUNS/phrases is defined:

possessive determiner ‘s with a singular noun.

Point 14 in the category of DETERMINERS/possessives is defined as:

‘S after singular or proper nouns to indicate possession.

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MORE + adjective

The main point is the use of ‘more’ as an adverb to form comparatives of adverbs and adjectives. This is seen at A2 level in the English Grammar Profile. Examples from the iWeb corpus include ‘more likely’, ‘more important’, and ‘more difficult’. The term ‘more’ can also be used with adverbs, which is considered B2 level. Additionally, the term ‘more’ is used with a range of vocabulary in the English Vocabulary Profile, such as ‘advanced’, ‘attractive’, ‘comfortable’, and others.

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noun phrase + prepositional phrase

Here are student examples of using noun phrases + prepositional phrases: On the whole, I believe that it is a good choice for the development of our children. PELIC Arabic Male level 4 writing class I can take a picture at the top of the mountain but also draw a picture at the same place. PELIC Korean female level 4 writing class. *note, ‘at the top of the‘ is the third most frequent 5-word Ngram in English. iWeb 178,011 Here’s an expert example of a prepositional phrase

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10 ways ‘FAR’ is used in English grammar.

Here are 10 ways ‘far’ is used ranked by order of frequency: 1. A2 general adverb *Numbers on the right are the frequency in iWeb corpus: (RR) 1578722 ‘far‘ means ‘at, to or from a great distance in space or time‘  For example: Is it far away? I don’t live far from here. Thailand is not far from Vietnam. 2. B1 phrase ‘so far‘ means ‘until now‘ So far

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AS

conjunction as 1 ‘AS’ is mostly used as a subordinating conjunction. Therefore a clause will follow. (CSA) A search in iWeb for _CSA * * * * 1 AS YOU CAN SEE , 77008 2 AS ONE OF THE MOST 35020 3 AS IT TURNS OUT , 26141 4 AS YOU CAN SEE FROM 23386

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adverbial phrases with AT

AT is by far the most common as a simple preposition.  AT is also used in adverbial phrases which we have listed in order of most frequent according to iWeb corpus and then given examples of their usage in sentences: 1 AT ALL 1232801 Maybe they weren’t thinking about anything at all. listen Actually, in traumatic situations,  it‘s not at all uncommon. listen 2 AT FIRST 403759

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DOWN

Down can be used in many ways! The most common is following a verb as an adverb or preposition particle. 1 DOWN (RP) 6295531 4 DOWN (II) 388611 5 DOWN (RP_NN1%) 74762 6 DOWN (NN1) 69979 7 DOWN (RL22) 67905 9 DOWN (RP_VV0%) 43485 10 DOWN (JJ) 39955

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OUT

1 OUT (RP) Out is most common as a particle: A search in Now corpus for: * * out_RP * * 1 CAN FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 100063 Gentlemen, we can find out more about a man by his dreams. listen 2  BY FILLING OUT THIS FORM 50797 3  TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 32803 4  TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO 29116 5  TO GO

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