_AT – English Grammar Profiler

_AT is a tagging code that refers to an article (the, no)

_AT1 singular (a, an, every)

NOUNS, phrases / a, about, almost, AP, believe, did, do, for, give, hear, his, in, it, keep, kept, loss, lost, my, NN, not, other, president, same, say, take, the, understand, utter, VH, VV, with, word, words, XX, _AT

In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1: not believe/understand/hear/say, etc. a word = anything A search in iWeb corpus for: _XX _VV a word 1 N’T SAY A WORD 1726 Don’t say a word against my father. listen 2 NOT SAY A WORD 756 3 N’T UNDERSTAND A WORD 608 It was brilliant, even though I didn’t understand a word of it. listen 4 N’T BELIEVE A …

WORD (phrases) Read More »

B2, gerund, PREPOSITIONS, VERBS / achieving, creating, developing, ensuring, establishing, maintaining, plugging, processing, reducing, strengthening, VVG, work, working, _AT

In the English Vocabulary Profile at B2: work at sth = to try hard to achieve something A search in the NOW corpus for: WORK at _VVG 1 WORK AT GETTING 170 2 WORK AT MAKING 156 3 WORKS AT EXPERIENCING 126 4 WORKING AT GETTING 118 5 WORK AT KEEPING 94 6 WORK AT …

WORK AT + Verb-ing Read More »

C1, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / feet, fixed, flat, in, no, normal, time, _AT

In the English Vocabulary Profile at C1, ‘in no time’ means ‘very soon’ A search for collocates in THE MOVIE CORPUS: 1 AT 138 I know this is a big change for you, but it‘ll feel like home in no time at all. listen 2  FIXED 29 Never fear.  We‘ll have Alice fixed in no time. listen 3 FEET 25 4  NORMAL 14 5  FLAT 12

B1, superlative / active, APPGE, basic, best, efficient, JJ, JJT, most, narrowest, nearest, powerful, purest, recent, thickest, weakest, _AT

In the English Vocabulary Profile at B1, is the following entry: at his/its, etc. best at the highest level of achievement or quality A search in iWeb corpus for: at _APPGE _JJT 1 AT ITS BEST 28383 I‘m a huge fan of capitalism at its best. TED 2 AT THEIR BEST 11959 3 AT ITS FINEST 8811 4 AT HIS BEST …

at ITS best Read More »

research / campus, comparison, contrast, guidelines, hatred, II, NN, partnership, reality, risk, scratch, stake, tribute, _AT

Here are 8 basic sub-categories of grammatical collocations:  preposition + noun (see below) noun + preposition (see below) noun + to-infinitive (research on another page) noun + that-clause (click here) adjective + preposition adjective + to-infinitive adjective + that-clause  There are 19 different verb patterns including verb + to-infinitive,  verb + bare infinitive etc. For more information read. — …

grammatical collocations Read More »

B2, numbers, phrases, PREPOSITIONS, time / APPGE, II, in, MC2, _AT

Here’s an example of the time phrase that means the person is at the age of 20-29: I‘m not even in my twenties anymore. NSFW This phrase is B2 in the English Vocabulary Profile: (be) in your eighties to be aged between 80 and 89 the eighties the years from 1980-1989 A search in iWeb corpus for: _I …

preposition + determiner + plural numeral Read More »

A2, FUTURE, plan, PRESENT, simple, time / begins, ends, finishes, II, is, NPD, on, PELIC, starts, _AT

Here are some examples of how the present simple tense is used in planning a future event that is also on a regular schedule or timetable.

Tell me about our date. Well, how about dinner and this movie that BEGINS at 7 pm.

Tonight? I thought it IS on Saturday.

B1, complements, modify, PRONOUNS, specify, substitution / anyone, around, by, everybody, everyone, god, humans, kids, nobody, ones, someone, the, without, worth, _AT

Point 59 in the category of PRONOUNS/substitution is defined as: POSTMODIFYING, SPECIFYING: ‘the ones’ with a complement, to refer to something specific. the_AT ones _P 1 THE ONES WHO 62764 2 THE ONES I 34421 3 THE ONES YOU 33077 4 THE ONES WE 15126 5 THE ONES THEY 6636 6 THE ONES HE 3382 …

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ADVERBS, B1, DETERMINERS, quantity / all, almost, any, approximately, area, AT1, basically, case, company, corner, DB, every, full, half, hardly, least, level, nearly, NN, once, online, piece, probably, roughly, RR, so, TLC, turn, twice, type, virtually, VV, way, worse, yet, _AT

Here are a few examples of determiners premodified by intensifiers. There are hardly any phone booths left in this city.   TLC male India B1 We have nearly all the big automobile companies. TLC male India, B1   It took me virtually no time at all. Listen to this expert example B1 point 48 in the category of DETERMINERS/quantity is defined as: modify determiners with adverbs. There is clashing information in the English Grammar Profile.  The example …

adverb + determiner Read More »

ADJECTIVES, B1, GSE, NOUNS, phrases, plural, PREPOSITIONS, superlative / amazing, among, areas, coaches, companies, coolest, differences, earliest, finest, forms, gifts, highest, IO, is, JJT, largest, levels, MC1, mistakes, models, moments, most, NN2, of, one, pieces, points, popular, reasons, rgt, riches, richest, simplest, sites, some, songs, stars, surprises, teams, the, types, useful, views, ways, worst, _AT

Here are two expert examples of complex noun phrases as subject complements: Ocean worlds are some of the most fascinating places. Listen to this sentence   This is one of the most important things that any man can do. Listen *Note, ‘is one of the most‘ is the second most frequent 5-word Ngram. iWeb 262,288 In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 41 in ADJECTIVES is defined as:  ‘ONE OF …

one | some + of the + SUPERLATIVE + PLURAL NOUN Read More »

ADJECTIVES, B1, NOUNS, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / challenging, common, efficient, II, in, JJ, likely, method, natural, PELIC, powerful, recent, reliable, rgt, security, the, world, _AT

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 37 in the category of ADJECTIVES is defined as: an increasing range of complex noun phrases with a superlative adjective + prepositional phrase, to talk about something unique. *In both EGP examples the prepositional phrase that follows is either: of_IO my_APPGE life_NN1 in_II our_APPGE lives_NN2 A search in COCA for: …

superlative + prepositional phrase ‘the most natural thing in the world’ Read More »

A2, ADVERBS, emphasis, hedging, MODALITY, position / bottom, could, definitely, just, of, PELIC, probably, R, should, the, VM, _AT

Point 24 in MODALITY is defined as: adverbs in mid position or after main verb ‘be’, to modify an assertion, either through hedging or emphasis For example: I should probably start by looking at the bottom of the river. listen *side note, ‘at the bottom of the‘ is the 8th most frequent 5-word Ngram in English. iWeb 129,473 An iWeb …

adverb (hedging | emphasis) Read More »

ADVERBS, C1, fixed expressions, FOCUS, fronting, GSE, phrases / about, all, comes, considered, day, down, end, II, in, IO, it, long, NN1, of, PELIC, practically, speaking, taking, the, things, think, to, view, when, you, _AT

‘at the end of the day‘ can be used literally, meaning the time of day, but is also an informal phrase that means:  when everything is taken into consideration.   *It contains the most common 5 part N-gram in English: ‘at the end of the’ iWeb 392146 English Grammar Profile C1 Point 8 in the category …

At the end of the day (FOCUS EXPRESSIONS) Read More »

B1, NOUNS, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / of, PELIC, the, top, _AT

Here are student examples of using noun phrases + prepositional phrases: On the whole, I believe that it is a good choice for the development of our children. PELIC Arabic Male level 4 writing class I can take a picture at the top of the mountain but also draw a picture at the same place. PELIC Korean female level 4 writing class. *note, ‘at the top of the‘ is the third most frequent 5-word Ngram in English. iWeb 178,011 Here’s an expert example of a prepositional phrase …

noun phrase + prepositional phrase Read More »

ADVERBS, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / all, anything, best, first, II, large, last, length, long, most, once, present, random, RR21, RR31, RR32, thought, _AT

‘AT‘ is by far the most common as a simple preposition. (II) 2 AT is also used in two-part adverbial phrases. (RR21) 1 AT ALL 1232801 Maybe they weren’t thinking about anything at all. listen 2 AT FIRST 403759 At first, I thought they worked for the government. listen 3 AT ONCE 222526 4 AT BEST 111972 5 AT PRESENT 83432 6 AT LAST 77484 7 AT MOST …

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ADJECTIVES, DETERMINERS, phrases, PRONOUNS / all, DA, RR33, same, the, time, to, _AT

1 SAME (DA) 9442876 A search in iWeb corpus for: * * same_DA * * 1 AT THE SAME TIME, 242223 B1 phrase in the English Vocabulary Profile. At the same time, we are doing business with the very same government that is flooding our streets with cocaine. listen 2 AT THE SAME TIME. 185792 3 AT THE SAME TIME AS 38091 4 IN THE SAME WAY AS 27695 5 IN …

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ADVERBS, article, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / all, being, better, by, for, II42, in, JJ43, light, main, minute, most, none, of, on, order, part, RG42, richer, RR22, RR32, RR42, RT42, same, the, time, to, up, wiser, worse, _AT

You might know how ‘the’ is used as an article. But did you know all the different phrases it is found in?

A2, FOCUS, fronting, phrases, PREPOSITIONS / as, by, case, cases, end, fact, first, for, in, information, more, of, on, other, point, reason, that, the, time, to, way, with, _AT, _I

“At the time, I had a girlfriend, so I didn’t talk to her.” This is an example of putting a prepositional phrase at the start of a sentence which is what pre-intermediate students can do.

B2, expectation, FUTURE, gerund, PAST, phrases, time / of, on, point, the, VBD, VVG, was, were, _AT

The English Vocabulary Profile entry: be at/on the point of doing sth = B2 to be going to do something very soon The English Grammar Profile B2 Point 57 in the category of FUTURE in the past is defined as: ‘simple past form of ‘be’ + ‘on the point of’ + ‘-ing’ to talk about …

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ADJECTIVES, C2, CLAUSES, comparatives / DD, JJR, XX, _AT

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