tried – English Grammar Profiler

‘would rather’ | ‘it’s time’ + PAST TENSE CLAUSE

B2, CLAUSES, cleft, FOCUS, GSE, intention, MODALITY, PAST, preferences, wish / is, it, moved, rather, time, tried, VBZ, VVD, would

Here we look at examples of using ‘the past tense’ in a way that is not referring to past time. In these EXPERT EXAMPLES: It’s time we started to think about the environment and a little bit less about money. Isle of Man Newspapers As an environmentalist, we would rather that didn’t happen. TED ‘the past tense’ expresses a wish that is distanced from the real situation. In reality, they are not thinking …

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present perfect simple negative (YET)

A2, expectation, FUTURE, NEGATIVE, PAST, perfect, PRESENT, simple / appeared, arrived, broken, checked, covered, decided, discovered, discussed, ended, expired, explored, failed, guessed, happened, has, have, haven't, installed, joined, launched, lost, mentioned, not, noticed, occurred, ordered, PELIC, played, posted, purchased, realized, received, registered, replied, responded, returned, succeeded, tested, touched, tried, unlocked, updated, upgraded, voted, VVN, won, XX, yet

Here’s a student example of ‘present perfect simple negative‘: Today I can play very well with someone, even when I haven’t played for a long time. Portuguese female level 3 writing. A2 point 5 in the category of NEGATION/AUXILIARY VERBS is defined: negative statements of main verbs in the present continuous and present perfect with ‘be’ and ‘have’ + ‘not/n’t’. A2 point 13 in the category of PAST is defined: …

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present perfect simple (just)

ADVERBS, B1, PAST, perfect, PRESENT, simple / added, announced, arrived, broken, completed, created, discovered, happened, has, have, installed, just, launched, moved, ordered, passed, PELIC, published, purchased, received, released, returned, spent, TLC, tried, turned, VH0, VHZ, VVN

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 29 in the category of PAST: present perfect simple: refer to a finished event or state in the recent past, that has a present relevance, often with ‘just’. For example: But your washing machine has broken now, too. Million Dollar Arm An iWeb search for: _VH just _VVN 1 ‘VE JUST GOT 9034 …

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present perfect simple (range)

A2, ACL, B1, NEGATIVE, PAST, perfect, PRESENT, PRONOUNS, range, simple, VERBS / acquired, checked, completed, considered, decided, experienced, figured, happened, has, have, knowledge, noticed, P, posted, received, tested, TLC, touched, tried, VVN, XX

There is no listing in the English Grammar Profile for a ‘wide‘ range of main verbs with present perfect simple. So, here’s an expert example of present perfect simple using academic collocation: In the course of my professional life, I have acquired knowledge and manual skill. (linotype.com) Here are some general range points in the English Grammar Profile in the category of …

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superlative + present pefect simple

ADJECTIVES, PAST, perfect, PRESENT, superlative, unique / anyone, become, court, discovered, emerged, encountered, experienced, fears, happened, highest, ideas, JJT, largest, lasted, latest, lowest, nightmare, performances, practices, research, results, revealed, ruled, strongest, successes, tasted, tested, tried, upheld, VH, VVN, worst

B1 Point 41 in the category of PAST is defined as: present perfect simple WITH SUPERLATIVE to talk about a unique experience. This point will clash with superlatives followed by clauses at B2. And it overlaps Point 33 B1 clauses with a present perfect or past perfect as a superlative noun phrase complement, to talk …

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present perfect simple + ALREADY

ADVERBS, B1, emphasis, expectation, perfect, PRESENT, simple, time / achieved, added, adopted, already, announced, applied, attracted, booked, built, caused, committed, completed, covered, created, decided, developed, discovered, discussed, earned, entered, established, experienced, expressed, happened, has, have, implemented, installed, invested, led, lost, mentioned, moved, noted, occurred, passed, pointed, posted, proved, provided, purchased, raised, reached, received, recommended, registered, released, set, signed, sold, spent, stated, submitted, tried, VVN, won

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 22 in the category of PAST is defined as: present perfect simple with ‘already’ to emphasise that something is done, often before the expected time. FOR EXAMPLE: He is the most joyful person that I have ever met, and in just over a year, he has already made the world a better place. A search in iWeb for: _VHZ already _VVN 1 HAS ALREADY BEGUN 7505 2 …

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had not + PAST PARTICIPLE

B1, PAST, perfect, simple / anticipated, arrived, bothered, committed, completed, considered, expected, experienced, forgotten, had, happened, intended, lost, moved, not, noticed, occurred, PELIC, planned, provided, reached, realized, received, responded, returned, tried, VHD, VVN, won, XX

Point 24 in the category of PAST perfect simple: negative forms. PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: At that time, I had not found my job and I had a lot of free time. Chinese male, level 3 writing class. A search on iWeb for: _VHD _XX _VVN 1 HAD N’T SEEN 10519 2 HAD NOT SEEN 8370 3 HAD N’T HEARD 6433 4 HAD N’T THOUGHT 5405 5 …

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THIS + time word

B1, date, demonstrative, DETERMINERS, PAST, time / announced, arrived, earlier, got in, happened, held, managed, moved, NNT1, published, received, reported, season, this, TLC, tried, VVD, won

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 42 in the category of DETERMINERS/demonstratives is defined as: ‘this’ with time and date words to refer to the past. Speaking test example: When did you go to London? I went this year. TLC, Male, Italy, B1 A search in iWeb for: _VVD this_D _NNT1 1 SAID THIS WEEK 5943 2 ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK 3344 …

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BOTH | A FEW

B1, object, PRONOUNS, subject / a few, allow, another, appear, became, believed, both, contain, could, DB2, few, include, involve, managed, mentioned, might, must, offer, provide, remain, require, seem, seemed, serve, share, should, stand, TLC, tried, try

Point 61 in the category of PRONOUNS/quantity is defined as: ‘BOTH’, ‘A FEW’, ‘ANOTHER’ as subject and object pronouns. *We have covered the use of ‘another’ here. A search in iWeb corpus for: . both _V 1 . BOTH ARE 48684 2 . BOTH HAVE 15241 3 . BOTH WERE 15188 4 . BOTH WILL …

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said | told * that + CLAUSE (tense shift)

B1, REPORTED SPEECH, tense / could, decided, experienced, had, killed, lost, received, said, spent, told, tried, VVN, would

Point 8 in REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: report statements using a reporting clause with ‘say’ or ‘tell’ + ‘that-‘clause, with a pronoun and tense shift where relevant *At A2 students can already use ‘said’ or ‘tell’ with a pronoun shift. Therefore, we might surmise that at B1 it must include a tense shift. There …

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question with adverb

ADVERBS, B1, CLAUSES, QUESTIONS / actually, agree, already, anyone, care, cares, else, even, ever, everyone, explain, happen, just, matter, mean, most, once, own, possibly, received, RR, someone, still, tried, were

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 51 in CLAUSES is defined as: INTERROGATIVE + ADVERB in mid-position, between the subject and the main verb. For example: And if he still understood it, why does it even matter? A search in iWeb for _P _RR _V ? 1 IT REALLY MATTER ? 1368 2 IT REALLY WORK ? 747 3 YOU REALLY NEED ? 657 4 …

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second & third conditonal

advice, B1, CLAUSES, conditional, imagine, opinion, PAST, regret / added, decided, followed, forgot, grew, had, happened, if, invested, lost, meant, PELIC, received, tried, VVN, would

Here is another post of some overlapping and clashing grammar points from different categories in the English Grammar Profile. B1 point 72 clashes with the general definition at C1. B1 Point 42 in the category of CLAUSES is defined as: ‘IF’ + PAST SIMPLE + WOULD, FUTURE, (SECOND CONDITIONAL) imagined situation, often in the context …

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defining relative clause without a relative pronoun

A2, CLAUSES, defining, relative / care, checked, collect, information, offer, PELIC, price, reason, serve, spend, tried, try, way

Point 36 in CLAUSES/relative is defined as: defining relative clause, without a relative pronoun This is a hard structure to locate in corpora. We can start by searching for: _NN _PP _VV 1 TIME IT TAKES 41863 2 INFORMATION YOU NEED Korean,Male,5,w Every system, such as ticketing, baggage checking, hotel booking and schedule changing is controlled by computers , and you can get information you need at nearby computers. *our grammar gets hidden by B1 …

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Verb + VerbING

B1, B2, gerund, pattern, range, VERBS / adding, avoid, building, built, calculated, checking, consider, continue, created, experience, keep, keeps, kept, missing, moving, planning, pushing, recommend, suggest, tried, try, trying, VV, VVG

Point 29 in the category of verbs/patterns is B1 and defined as: limited range of verbs followed by an ‘-ing’ form. Point 56 in Verbs/patterns is B2 and defined as an increasing range of verbs followed by an ‘-ing’ form. A search for _VV _VVG in iWeb corpus: 1 KEEP GOING 656012 STARTED USING 54040 …

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past simple affirmative (range)

A1, A2, affirmative, B1, PAST, simple, VERBS / added, arrived, became, broke, brought, built, called, decided, earned, ended, explained, failed, fell, followed, grew, happened, held, hit, included, information, joined, kept, lost, meant, moved, offered, passed, PELIC, posted, received, served, set, spent, tried, turned, VVD, won

Here’s an example of past simple with academic collocation: I added some information now. (listen to this sentence) There are 3 entries in the English Grammar Profile for past simple affirmative range. This point is best covered by the English Vocabulary Profile since it offers much more detail about vocabulary. A1 point 1 is defined: past simple affirmative form …

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