chance

HAVE NOT + noun phrase

English grammar tells us that: I haven’t got a clue. I don’t have a clue. are the correct ways to express negative possession.  However, there is the rarer, older British sounding: I haven’t a clue. Notice that a superlative phrase is common to give emphasis: I haven’t the slightest idea how he works. listen Here are the search results from […]

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pre-modified superlative phrase

Here are more advanced examples of premodified superlative phrases: It‘s the next best thing to having you beside me. listen It was the second-largest gold rush in American history. Rat Race Note, the phrase “the second largest” is a compound modifier, where “second” modifies “largest”. It usually takes a hyphen before its noun. US customs officials report that  tomato smuggling is at its highest level  since the Great Tomato War. listen its = B2 possessive determiner   In the English Grammar Profile,

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a much better + NOUN

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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THE + comparative phrases ‘The more you have, the better it is.’

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 56 in the category of DETERMINERS and articles is defined as “the” in comparative phrases ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘worse’, ‘better’ * the more’, ‘less’, ‘worse’ * to talk about one thing that is affected by another. comparative clauses For example: The broader the sentiment across business, the more influence and power there is to make change. timesnewsgroup.com.au   The more guns there are here, the more likely there is to

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