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, completed, created, discovered, happened, installed, just, launched, moved, ordered, passed, published, purchased, received, released, returned, spent, TLC, tried, turned, VH0, VHZ, VVN

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’. An iWeb search for: _VH just _VVN 1 ‘VE JUST GOT 9034 2 HAVE JUST STARTED 7540 4 HAS JUST RELEASED 6156 5 HAS JUST ANNOUNCED …

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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

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 HAS ALREADY MADE 6871 3 HAS …

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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

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 3 PUBLISHED THIS WEEK …

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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

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 YOU PLEASE HELP ? …

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second & third conditonal

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

Here is another post of some overlapping and clashing grammar points from different categories in the EGP. B1 point 72 clashes with the a 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 of …

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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

A1, A2, PAST, 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) A2 point 5 in the category of PAST/ simple: affirmative form with an increasing range of verbs A1 point 1 is defined: past simple affirmative form with a limited range of regular and irregular verbs. A search in iWeb for _VVD …

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