unless

phrase ellipsis

Here’s a student example of verb phrase ellipsis: You need to study hard to pass the test unless you don’t want to. PELIC Arabic female level 4 grammar class Although there are a number of grammar points in the English Grammar Profile to do with Ellipsis, there are none that cover the ellipsis of phrases before or after the ‘TO’ infinitive.  Therefore, we turn to Pearson’s GSE […]

phrase ellipsis Read More »

actually | unfortunately | of course | I’m sorry

Stance adverb phrases express the speaker’s attitude towards a statement. It covers four examples: “actually” (used to emphasize truth), “unfortunately” (expresses regret or bad news), “of course” (emphasizes that something is expected or well-known), and “I’m sorry” (expresses regret or softens an unpleasant statement).

actually | unfortunately | of course | I’m sorry Read More »

MUST (ellipsis of following verb)

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 71 in the category of MODALITY is defined: ‘must’ with the following verb ellipted where the previous main verb is understood *an ellipted subject is also B1. PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: [The] coach must have a capability to solve problems of teammates, just as business managers must. Korean Female level 5 writing class   EXPERT EXAMPLE: We can do this because we must. We did an iWeb search

MUST (ellipsis of following verb) Read More »

conditional subordinate clauses & range of complex conjunctions

A search on iWeb corpus for 3 part subordinating conjunctions reveals the following frequency: They point to another group of multiple overlapping points on the English Grammar Profile. B2 point 91 in CLAUSES & conditional is defined as: conditional subordinate clauses with a range of conjunctions ‘as long as’, ‘provided’  + present simple or present

conditional subordinate clauses & range of complex conjunctions Read More »

unless

In the English Vocabulary Profile, the pictured item “unless” has one level = B1.  However, in the English Grammar Profile: 18 CONJUNCTIONS subordinating B2 wide range of simple subordinating conjunctions (‘once, whereas, unless, except (that) provided (that)’), to introduce a subordinate clause. Getting to work by car is comfortable, and faster unless you are caught

unless Read More »