A search in iWeb corpus for: at the _NN of 1 AT THE END OF 947125 2 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF 332126 3 AT THE TIME OF 315200 4 AT THE TOP OF 304001 5 AT THE BOTTOM OF 207682 6 AT THE BEGINNING OF 193966 7 AT THE AGE OF 140280 8 AT THE […]
at the + NOUN + of Read More »
B1: NO PROBLEM GETTING | NO EVIDENCE LINKING | NO TROUBLE FINDING | NO POINT TRYING
NO + noun + verbING Read More »
This structure is generally B2 grammar because it often comes with a wide range of general reference nouns without a determiner. However, more detail can be found in the English Vocabulary Profile regarding meaning and level: make fun of sb/sth = B2 to make a joke about someone or something in an unkind way make
MAKE + noun phrase + OF Read More »
We‘re keeping an open mind about the causes of the fire. listen A search in NOW corpus for: _VV _AT _JJ _NN _RP *note that particles and prepositions are sometimes incorrectly tagged. 1 TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT 761 (C1) You didn’t take the easy way out. listen 2 VISITED THE RIVAL NATION IN 734 3 TAKING THE EASY WAY OUT 465 4 KEEP
lexical verb + article + adjective + noun + particle | preposition Read More »
Why say “is of interest” instead of “is interesting“? ‘is of + noun‘ is more formal and in academic writing, we use the noun form of a word more often. More importantly, ‘of+noun’ functions as a noun in this position. Therefore, it can often collocate correctly with modifiers. For example: “greatest interest” is much more
BE + of NOUN PHRASE Read More »
Much to my surprise, and Much to the surprise of someone, are ‘comment adverbial phrases’. This structure is not listed in the English Vocabulary or Grammar Profile, so we turn to the Longman dictionary: FORMAL used to say that someone feels very surprised, embarrassed etc when something happens A search in NOW corpus for: .
MUCH TO + possessive noun phrase Read More »
A search in the NOW corpus for: _V to the _N 1 GO TO THE HOME 158924 2 CONSENT TO THE COLLECTION 127114 3 WELCOME TO THE DISCUSSION 120567 4 CONSENT TO THE USE 115313 5 STICK TO THE TOPIC 90554 6 RELATING TO THE ACCESSIBILITY 54792 7 DIRECTED TO THE FCC 54790 8 DEDICATED
verb + TO THE + noun Read More »
A search in NOW corpus for: with _JJ _NN 1 WITH INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS 53037 2 WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT 45008 3 WITH OTHER COMMENTS 37269 4 WITH MENTAL HEALTH 28159 5 WITH TAILORED CONTENT 27842 6 WITH OTHER PEOPLE 26595 7 WITH PRIME MINISTER 22167 8 WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 20738 9 WITH OTHER COUNTRIES 19341 10
WITH + adjective + noun Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1: not believe/understand/hear/say, etc. a word = anything A search in iWeb corpus for: _XX _VV a word 1 N’T SAY A WORD 1726 Don’t say a word against my father. listen 2 NOT SAY A WORD 756 3 N’T UNDERSTAND A WORD 608 It was brilliant, even though I didn’t understand a word of it. listen 4 N’T BELIEVE A
In the English Vocabulary Profile at B2: to make matters worse = to make a situation more difficult, unpleasant, etc. If the most common example of to-infinitive + noun + comparative is listed at B2, then it would make sense that other less common should also be considered as B2. The closest form which is clearly
to-infinitive + noun phrase + comparative Read More »
A search in iWeb for: annual conference|meeting|rate|report|review 1 ANNUAL REPORT 47760 Sustainability goals have been written into annual reports all over the world. 2 ANNUAL MEETING 45673 I hadn’t seen Melquiades for about 10 years and when we had our annual meetings in Lima, Peru a couple of years ago, the filmmakers found him. 3 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 24962 4 ANNUAL RATE 11484 5 ANNUAL REVIEW 6732
Here are 8 basic sub-categories of grammatical collocations: preposition + noun (see below) noun + preposition (see below) noun + to-infinitive (research on another page) noun + that-clause (click here) adjective + preposition adjective + to-infinitive adjective + that-clause There are 19 different verb patterns including verb + to-infinitive, verb + bare infinitive etc. For more information read. —
grammatical collocations Read More »
Here’s the most common vocabulary in the grammar collocation of ‘noun + to-infinitive’: An iWeb search for _NN _TO _VVI 1 WAY TO GET 225421 2 WAY TO GO 139189 3 TIME TO GET 116358 4 WAY TO MAKE 110685 5 YEARS TO COME 102714 This ‘future’ time expression is unlisted in the English Vocabulary
noun TO-infinitive ‘way to get’ Read More »
A1 point 9 in the category of DETERMINERS is defined:
possessive determiners ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’ and ‘our’ before nouns.
my | your | his | her | our + NOUN Read More »
The usage of simple affirmative and negative declarative clauses in English, particularly focusing on the verb ‘be’.
Simple affirmative declarative clauses are basic statements in English. Examples include “We’re different” and “People see us as being different anyway”.
Negative statements of the main verb ‘be’, with contracted and uncontracted forms, are also at the A1 level. Examples include “I’m not a doctor” and “It’s not bad for a couple of lawyers”.
The text also provides a list of common phrases found in the iWeb corpus where a noun is followed by a verb, such as “People are” and “Problem is”.
A search in the NOW corpus for pronoun + lexical verb shows that the present tense is about as common as the past tense, with examples like “He said” (past tense) and “I think” (present tense).
Affirmative declarative clauses are statements that express how things are. Modal verbs are verbs that indicate possibility, ability, permission, obligation, etc. Affirmative declarative clauses with modal verbs combine the subject, the modal verb and the bare infinitive of the main verb.
CAN | WILL (affirmative declarative clause) Read More »
Here’s a student example of a determiner + uncountable noun: My teacher told me “enjoy the music and you will dance naturally.” PELIC Taiwanese female level 3 writing class A2 point 18 in the category of NOUNS is defined: form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners. A2 point 24 in the category of NOUNS: form
determiner + noun phrase (increasing range) Read More »
It is easy to find noun phrases functioning as a subject-predicate in a clause. For example, “I was a kid.” ‘a kid’ is a noun phrase after the copular verb ‘was.’ An iWeb search for: _P _VB _A _NN . 1 I WAS A KID . 7523 2 I WAS A CHILD . 2942 3
noun phrase (subject predicative) Read More »
Using noun phrases as objects of the clause helps provide more information about the action or state described by the verb in a sentence. It helps answer questions about the direct recipients of the verb’s action or the entities affected by it.
noun phrase (direct object) Read More »
Here is an example of a longer noun phrase as the subject of a sentence: The rest of the time is spent in classes. spectator.org Not all of these will be the subject of the sentence… A search in iWeb corpus for . _A _N _I _A 1 . THE REST OF THE 36076 COCA 1 . THE REST OF THE
noun phrase (subject) Read More »
