said

WHAT | WHATEVER noun clause

In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1, listed as pronouns: WHAT = THE THING = used to refer to something without naming it WHATEVER = anything or everything However, one of their examples is a cleft for focus: What I like most about her is her honesty.  is C1 when it is a noun CLAUSE subject. Similarly, we cover ‘whatever’ in more detail […]

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subject + verb

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).

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It can | could + be + said | argued | concluded | considered

The pronoun ‘it’ can be used where the subject is unclear at C1, and verbs such as ‘conclude’ are only used by C1 learners.  For example: It was concluded that it never existed. However, this post is about reporting with modal verbs. C1 point 208 in MODALITY is defined as: ‘can’ in passive reporting clauses in a more formal impersonal

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‘It is said that …’ (IT + passive)

Let’s take a look at an IELTS writing task 2 example with this grammar: It is argued that volunteering should be made a part of the school curriculum. In the above example, ‘is argued‘ forms the passive part.  The active form of this is probably: ‘People argue that…” In our example, ‘people’ is not important or maybe we don’t know who

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BEFORE

“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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could (reported speech)

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 138 in the category of MODALITY is defined as: could as the past form of ‘can’ in reported speech For example: Victim support arrived at our door and told us that we could expect to write off the next five years to grief. TED The following clusters from iWeb were searched with varying the spaces between said|told * * * could 1 SAID HE COULD 13770 1 SAID

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