April 27, 2025

Grammar

a wide range of linking verbs used in other complex ways – English Grammar Profiler

maximios

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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.