The CLAWS7 tag:
VVN
refers to a past participle of lexical VERB (given, worked)
You can give background information in a past perfect simple relative clause. For example:
The people WHO ATTENDED the lecture knew about the test.
The teachers WHO HAD DEVELOPED the test explained what to study the night before.
past perfect simple in relative clauses Read More »
Point 75 in the category of PAST is defined as: Past perfect simple to report statements, where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *This point overlaps B1. So we might surmise that ‘said’ and ‘told’ are B1 and other reporting verbs might be B2 within this structure. A search
past perfect simple (report of statements) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 74 in the category of PAST is defined as: leave out the subject before the past perfect simple where it is understood from the previous clause. _c _had _vvn *However the common that clauses do not really locate ellipsis. 1 THAT HAD COME 3547 2 THAT HAD HAPPENED
past perfect simple (ellipsis) Read More »
‘never + inversion‘ is B2 with or without past perfect. The following examples use present perfect simple + inversion: Never before has man possessed so much power. listen Never before have so many people risen so far so fast, on so many different dimensions. listen Here’s an example with past perfect inversion without ‘before’: Never had I felt such an incomprehensible emptiness within myself. listen In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 68 in PAST is defined as: past perfect
NEVER BEFORE + perfect inversion Read More »
Point 66 in the category of PAST is past perfect simple used for a CHANGE OF SITUATION. The EGP uses HAD + ‘planned’ and ‘wanted’ + ‘but’ in their examples. Since this is a difficult structure to find in corpora due to the length of sentences, we have looked directly in Google news for examples:
past perfect simple (change of situation) Read More »
Here is an example of a past perfect simple question: What had I done to deserve it? TED Past perfect simple questions are formed by putting had before the subject and the past participle of the verb. They are used to ask about an action or event that happened before another past action or event, or before a specific time in the
past perfect simple question Read More »
B2 English Grammar Profile point 61 in the category of PAST is defined as: negative form of the present perfect simple with ‘still’ to emphasise that something that was expected to happen continues not to happen. An iWeb search for: still have|has _xx _vvn 1 STILL HAVE N’T FOUND 1847 2 STILL HAVE N’T GOTTEN
STILL + present perfect simple negative ‘still haven’t found’ Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 59 in the category of PAST is defined: past perfect simple AFTER ‘BECAUSE’ giving explanatory information. Here are examples of past perfect simple used to give explanations. Someone even wiped away tears because she had done it, she had connected them to information differently, she helped them see something they couldn’t unsee. TED Vicky called because her husband had suddenly collapsed in the hallway of their home. TED A search in iWeb for because _P had _VVN 1 BECAUSE I HAD HEARD
BECAUSE + past perfect simple Read More »
B2 Point 57 in the category of past and perfect simple is defined as: REPORTS OF QUESTIONS where the main verb in the reporting clause is in the past simple. *However, only by investigating the rest of the EGP do we discover that there is an B1 point that clashes here for yes-no questions in
past perfect simple (report of question) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 56 in PAST perfect simple is defined as: invert the subject and auxiliary verb with ‘no sooner … than’ to talk about something that happened immediately before something else, often in formal contexts This is quite a rare structure. 1 NO SOONER HAD HE SAID 30 2 NO
NO SOONER + past perfect – than Read More »
B2 point 54 in the category of PAST is defined as: past perfect simple with a wide range of adverbs (including ‘finally’, ‘recently’, ‘simply’) in the normal mid-position. B1 point 46 in the category of PAST is defined as: past perfect simple with a limited range of adverbs (including ‘never’, ‘ever’, ‘just’, ‘always’, ‘already’) in
past perfect simple + adverb Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 51 in the category of PAST and present perfect simple is defined as: question form with an increasing range of verbs. For example: How much sleep have they actually lost? TED Looking for variable-length questions on iWeb is always a hard task. Here is only one set pattern that finds some. Note that we
present perfect simple questions + increasing range of verbs Read More »
Here’s an example of someone or something causing something to happen to you while you are passive: All I can say is, get ready to have your mind blown. listen ‘Proactive’ means ‘taking action by causing change and not only reacting to change when it happens.’ In this post related to causative verbs, we look at two different resources. In the English Grammar Profile
GET | HAVE + object + past participle Read More »
This grammar entry is very broad. B2 Point 29 in the category of PASSIVES and INFINITIVE is defined as: affirmative and negative forms after an increasing range of main verbs, modal verbs, adjectives and nouns, in impersonal constructions. All the range entries in the English Grammar Profile are left to interpretation and not so clear.
passive infinitive + range Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 28 in the category of PASSIVES is past simple negative. In iWeb corpus we find the following: WERE NOT ALLOWED JAMnews Georgian opposition party hosted a rally for football fans who were not allowed to enter the stadium. *This example may be B1 based on ‘allowed
past simple negative passive Read More »
1 SPLIT (VVN) 88303 2 SPLIT (VVI) 85577 6 SPLIT (NN1) 26531 7 SPLIT (JJ) 17450 12 SPLIT (VVD) 9537 16 SPLIT (VV0) 7780
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 27 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as: present perfect simple passive affirmative Here’s an example from englishclass101.com: Traditionally, these meetings have been held Wednesday at noon, every other week. Here are 50 head verbs that go in the present perfect simple passive affirmative verb phrase from the iWeb corpus. 1
present perfect simple passive affirmative Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 Point 23 in the category of PASSIVES is PAST PERFECT SIMPLE AFFIRMATIVE. 1 HAD BEEN MADE 19943 2 HAD BEEN GIVEN 14661 3 HAD BEEN TAKEN 13070 4 HAD BEEN USED 11665 5 HAD BEEN KILLED 10350 6 HAD BEEN TOLD 9141 7 HAD BEEN FOUND 8666 8 HAD
past perfect passive Read More »
It is very possible to have a noun after a past participle. 1 TAKEN (VVN) PLACE (NN1) 57019 2 TAKEN (VVN) CARE (NN1) 52472 3 TAKEN (VVN) ADVANTAGE (NN1) 15507 4 MADE (VVN) PUBLIC (NN1_JJ_RR@) 14502 5 ELECTED (VVN_JJ@) PRESIDENT (NN1) 10852 6 TAKEN (VVN) PART (NN1) 9235 7 BUILT (VVN) ENVIRONMENT (NN1) 7734 8
past + singular noun Read More »
The word with an ‘-ed’ ending is usually a past particple. The adjective exceptions such as ‘interested’,’involved’,’used to’ are rarer. 1 IS BASED (VVN) ON 327426 The system is based on the rules of a building. The Matrix Reloaded 2 BE (VBI) USED (VVN) FOR (IF) 273383 3 ARE (VBR) INTERESTED (JJ) IN (II) 192417 4 BE (VBI) USED (VVN) IN (II)
BE + *ed + PREPOSITION Read More »
