a wide range of linking verbs used in other complex ways

To get started, let’s look at some spoken student examples that show a wide range of linking verbs with very literal meanings:

It‘s like a fairy tale

because it doesn’t seem real.

TLC female Mexico B1

To remain healthy, we have to exercise.

TLC female India B1

The verbs ‘remain’ and ‘seem’ link the adjective complements: ‘real’ and ‘healthy’ in a more detailed way than the usual ‘BE’ linking verb. To expand on this grammar, we are interested in a IT construction that often goes before these ‘linking’ verbs and other phrases that are common after. Sometimes ‘it’ just refers back to a subject. For example:

It remains important to us.

TED

There are now dozens,

perhaps hundreds of studies

showing that if you believe you ‘re drinking

the expensive stuff,

it tastes better to you.

TED

The examples above are followed by a TO prepositional phrase. But a TO infinitive is also common and note ‘it’ does not refer back and the verbs start to be more about hedging (caution).

It seems mad to talk about nothing.

TED

If we disregard the need for a following adjective, the verbs already point to upper-intermediate ability. At B2, in the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP), the pronoun IT can be the subject of verbs such as seem, appear and look, related to existence or truth. Here are sentence examples:

It seems to me that

the best way of employing

the first part of this period

would be for all of you to attempt the verse again.

listen

It appears that

the chancellor is behind everything,

including the war.

listen

At C1, a modal verb can appear in this IT construction:

It would appear that

you have.

listen

At B1,

It looks like

you got a sweet little operation.

listen

It looks as if

the doctor was right about bed rest.

listen

Finally, there is often a clause after these grammar structures. So, we do a search in NOW corpus for:

it_P seems|appears|looks|tastes|remains _JJ _TO _VVI

1 IT SEEMS SAFE TO SAY 490 (clearly hedging)

Having played a number of roles over the course of his Hollywood career,

it’s hard to pick a favourite but each,

it seems safe to say,

has their own distinct sense of style

that ‘s seen Evans himself

become something of a sartorial stylist

known for inspiring the wardrobes of many.

menshealth.com.au

2 IT SEEMS HARD TO BELIEVE 427
3 IT SEEMS SAFE TO ASSUME 387
4 IT SEEMS FAIR TO SAY 303
5 IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO ASSUME 268
6 IT SEEMS HARD TO IMAGINE 144
7 IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO EXPECT 142
8 IT SEEMS FAIR TO ASSUME 130
9 IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET 92
10 IT SEEMS STRANGE TO THINK 60
11 IT SEEMS FAIR TO ASK 56
12 IT SEEMS STRANGE TO SAY 50
13 IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO CONCLUDE 45
14 IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO ASK 44
15 IT SEEMS REASONABLE TO SUGGEST 42

In the next search, we drop ‘seems‘ and the actual infinitive to get other linking verbs:

it_P appears|looks|tastes|remains _JJ _TO

1 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO 650

A further search in iWeb corpus:

1 It remains difficult to predict. 16
2 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO KNOW 10
3 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO GET 10
4 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO ASSESS 8
5 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO SEE 8
6 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO PINPOINT 7
7 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO FIND 6
8 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO QUANTIFY 5
9 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO JUDGE 5
10 IT REMAINS DIFFICULT TO GAUGE 5

2 IT LOOKS LIKELY TO 344
3 IT REMAINS IMPORTANT TO 291
4 IT REMAINS ILLEGAL TO 125
5 IT REMAINS IMPOSSIBLE TO 125
6 IT LOOKS UNLIKELY TO 122
7 IT REMAINS COMMITTED TO 122
8 IT APPEARS LIKELY TO 95
9 IT APPEARS UNLIKELY TO 86
10 IT REMAINS SAFE TO 81
11 IT REMAINS CRITICAL TO 74
12 IT LOOKS READY TO 73
13 IT REMAINS POSSIBLE TO 73
14 IT LOOKS CERTAIN TO 48
15 IT REMAINS OPEN TO 45
16 IT REMAINS NECESSARY TO 44
17 IT REMAINS ESSENTIAL TO 43
18 IT REMAINS READY TO 43
19 IT APPEARS READY TO 42
20 IT LOOKS DIFFICULT TO 41
21 IT REMAINS CRUCIAL TO 39
22 IT APPEARS SAFE TO 38
23 IT LOOKS GOOD TO 38
24 IT APPEARS REASONABLE TO 37
25 IT REMAINS APPROPRIATE TO 37
26 IT REMAINS LEGAL TO 37
27 IT REMAINS WILLING TO 37
28 IT APPEARS IMPOSSIBLE TO 33
29 IT LOOKS EASY TO 33
30 IT REMAINS VITAL TO 33
31 IT REMAINS EASY TO 32
32 IT APPEARS DIFFICULT TO 31
33 IT REMAINS IMPERATIVE TO 30
34 IT REMAINS PREMATURE TO 30
35 IT APPEARS NECESSARY TO 24
36 IT REMAINS DETERMINED TO 24
37 IT REMAINS PREPARED TO 24
38 IT APPEARS DETERMINED TO 23
39 IT LOOKS IMPOSSIBLE TO 23
40 IT REMAINS INSUFFICIENT TO 21
41 IT APPEARS EASIER TO 20
42 IT APPEARS POSSIBLE TO 20
43 IT LOOKS BETTER TO 20
44 IT LOOKS BAD TO 18
45 IT REMAINS AVAILABLE TO 18
46 IT REMAINS FREE TO 18
47 IT LOOKS TERRIBLE TO 17
48 IT REMAINS PRUDENT TO 17
49 IT REMAINS TOUGH TO 17
50 IT REMAINS RELUCTANT TO 16

TASTE does not fit this structure

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 48 in the categories of VERBS / linking is defined as:

wide range of linking verbs with complements

(seem|taste|remain|appear) + adjective or noun phrase are among the example sentences given. We can imagine that all the sense verbs will be included, but to keep this post focussed, we will cover only these 4 vocabulary items.

APPEAR

A search for nouns up to 4 spaces to the right on iWeb corpus:

1 [COURT] 20218

2 [LIST] 10943
3 [SCREEN] 9728
4 [TIME] 8479
5 [PAGE] 8437
6 [TOP] 6026
7 [SITE] 4269
8 [SEARCH] 4118

9 [RESULT] 3852
10 [SIDE] 3752

REMAIN

1 SAME (DA ) 74793
2 SEEN (VVN ) 35000

3 UNCHANGED (JJ ) 29974

4 ACTIVE (JJ ) 20244
5 INTACT (JJ ) 17938
6 ANONYMOUS (JJ ) 15995
7 SILENT (JJ ) 15444
8 RELATIVELY (RR ) 13414
9 UNCLEAR (JJ ) 13199
10 CONSTANT (JJ_NN1@ ) 12864