A2 – English Grammar Profiler

At A2, English learners can understand short, simple texts on familiar matters of a concrete type which consist of high frequency, everyday or job-related language. Students can understand short, simple texts containing the highest frequency vocabulary, including a proportion of shared international vocabulary items.

This page includes posts related to A2 grammar in chronological order. To see a full list of all A2 grammar in categories, click here.

At A2 level in the Oxford learner’s dictionary, ‘All’ as an adverb can mean ‘completely’. Adverbs pre-modifying prepositions are found at A2, B1, and C1 levels in the English Grammar Profile. The iWeb corpus was searched for ALL + prepositional phrases using the pattern _DB _II _A _NN. However, not every result represents ‘all’ as an adverb. Some of the most common phrases include ‘All around the world’, ‘All across the country’, and ‘All along the way’, among others.

Each phrase is used in a unique context. For example, ‘All around the world’ is often used when referring to a global phenomenon or distribution, as in “Television rights have been sold all around the world”. Similarly, ‘All along the way’ can be used to indicate a consistent pattern or presence across a process or journey, as in “Black girls are overrepresented all along the way”.

ALL + preposition + noun phrase Read More »

A detailed analysis of the structure “BE + past participle + BY”, which is commonly used to form passive voice sentences in English. This structure consists of a form of the verb “to be”, a past participle, and the preposition “by”. The webpage also includes examples from the iWeb corpus, showcasing how this structure is used in various contexts. Some of the most common phrases include “BE USED BY”, “IS CAUSED BY”, and “IS DETERMINED BY”. The examples illustrate how this structure allows us to focus on the action and its impact, rather than on who or what performed the action.

BE + past participle + BY phrase Read More »

The text discusses the use of interjections in language, which are words that express sudden feelings and emotions such as pleasure, anger, disappointment, shock, surprise, and excitement. These words often come with punctuation marks and are usually inserted between sentences.

The text also presents a search result from the NOW corpus for the frequency of interjections. The most frequent interjections are ‘YES’ and ‘NO’, which are sometimes classified as interjections but do not always express emotion or act as calls for attention. They are sometimes classified as a part of speech in their own right: sentence words or word sentences.

The text provides examples of how ‘YES’, ‘NO’, and other interjections like ‘OH’, ‘YEAH’, ‘HEY’, etc., are used to express various emotions. It also notes that there is no entry in the English Profile or Collins dictionary for ‘yes’ used to express emotion, suggesting this is not an A1 cando. However, ‘Yeah’ is listed at A2 as an exclamation, and ‘No’ as an exclamation is listed in the Collins dictionary at A2.

The text concludes with a list of the top 100 most common interjections according to the NOW corpus, with ‘YES’, ‘NO’, and ‘OH’ being the top three.

interjections & other sentence words Read More »

At A2 level in the English Vocabulary Profile, the adjective ‘own’ is used with a possessive to emphasize ownership or belonging. This usage is common in advanced phrases, sometimes in C1 adverbial phrases describing the manner in which something is done. ‘Own’ can also function as a pronoun, referring back to a noun phrase. Additionally, ‘own’ can mean ‘alone’ at B1 level.

Examples of usage include sentences like “The least you could do is allow me to live here in my own way,” emphasizing personal ownership, and “Feel free to use our pool, but use it at your own risk,” indicating individual responsibility. Moreover, phrases like “on their own” and “of their own” are frequently used to express independence and ownership.

Furthermore, ‘own’ can be part of idiomatic expressions such as “mind your own business,” which means to tell someone in a rude way not to inquire about something private.

possessive determiner + OWN Read More »

This content aims to elucidate the meaning of the phrase ‘All the Time’ as it falls within the A2 proficiency level of English Vocabulary. It delves into its definition, emphasizing its continuous usage. The content offers real-life examples to illustrate its application and explores its collocates to provide a comprehensive understanding of the phrase.

all the time Read More »

Had better is used to express a stronger warning or suggestion. It implies that there will be negative consequences if the advice is not followed. For example, you might say “You had better start studying now, or you’ll fail the test.”

HAD BETTER + bare infinitive Read More »

Listed at A2 in the English Vocabulary Profile: go + verb-ing to go somewhere to do a particular activity For example: If you guys aren’t doing anything, we‘re all gonna go surfing. listen An iWeb search for: GO _VVG 1 GO SHOPPING 15263 ‘GO SHOPPING’ is listed at A1. Yeah, that‘s a good idea, because I was gonna go shopping for a wheelchair anyway. 2 WENT MISSING 12104 ‘GO MSSING’ is not an activity,

GO + verbING Read More »

In the English Vocabulary Profile, ‘one’ is listed as a determiner at A2 = to refer to a particular person or thing in a group This is one of the most important documents in history. listen In this context, “one” is used to indicate a particular but unspecified example of something, in this case, a document. It’s part of the phrase

one of Read More »

The irregular superlative adverb or adjective of ‘far‘ is ‘farthest‘ or ‘furthest.’  For example: If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.   From the furthest corners of the world where the dark arts still hold sway,  he returns to us to demonstrate how nature‘s laws may be bent. listen In the English Vocabulary Profile, at A2, ‘far‘ as an adverb means: at, to or from a great distance in space or time It is also listed at B2 as an adjective

far superlative Read More »

The phrase “enjoy + ing” is used to describe an activity that someone finds pleasurable. In the sentence “Panda enjoyed reading, building, and solving puzzles,” the word “enjoyed” is in the past tense and is used to describe an action that has already happened. The words “reading,” “building,” and “solving puzzles” are all in the

ENJOY + verb-ING Read More »

Here’s an example of the possessive pronoun ‘yours’ in object position. It’s just like yours. Listen to the pronunciation. A2 point 21 in the category of PRONOUNS: the possessive pronoun ‘yours’, with singular reference, in object positions, and complement positions after ‘be’ and after prepositions A search in iWeb corpus for: * * * yours .  

YOURS (object) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, there are two similar points at A2 in the category of PRONOUN/demonstratives: Point 20 is defined as: ‘that’ as a pronoun to refer back to something which has already been mentioned Point 28: ‘that’ as a pronoun with singular reference For example: No, it‘s nowhere near that. listen That‘s why I brought you here. An iWeb search for:

that (pronoun) Read More »

The adverb ‘else’ is only a postmodifier. It follows indefinite pronouns. In the English Grammar Profile, A2 point 14 in the category of PRONOUNS: indefinite pronouns with ‘else’ We did a search in iWeb corpus for: _PN1 else 1 SOMEONE ELSE 335976 I would like to choose my sister as a guardian because I can’t imagine someone else. PELIC student: French male level 3 reading

indefinite pronoun + ELSE Read More »

A2 point 20 in the category of PRESENT/simple: indirect questions with ‘Do you know’ + ‘how’, ‘where’, ‘why’, or ‘what’ An iWeb search: 1 DO YOU KNOW HOW TO 6056 2 DO YOU KNOW OF ANY 4276 3 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE 3051 Do you know what the best way to acquire a new language is? PELIC Arabic male level 4 writing class.

Do you know … (indirect question) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, A2 point 3 in the category of PREPOSITIONS is defined:
‘JUST’ + to modify prepositions.

JUST + preposition Read More »

The grammar of the past continuous tense is as follows: Subject + was/were + present participle For example: I was becoming more and more tired as the day went on. The plants were growing very quickly in the warm weather. Something strange was happening in the forest. The past continuous tense is used to describe

past continuous affirmative Read More »

A2 point 26 in the category of NOUNS is defined: QUANTITY EXPRESSIONS: refer to an individual example or quantity of an uncountable noun using words for containers and countable items. a search in iWeb for: a_AT _NN1 of _NN1 *we have removed examples that don’t match the grammar. 5 A PIECE OF PAPER 27250 Student

A noun OF noun (quantity expression) ‘a piece of paper’ Read More »

Here’s an example of the plural only noun ‘pants’ agreeing with the determiner ‘these’ and the verb ‘are’ These pants are lycra. Listen to this sentence. Here’s a student example: His jeans were too tight. PELIC Korean female level 5 listening class. A2 point 16 in the category of NOUNS is defined: NOUNS ONLY USED IN THE PLURAL with plural

nouns only in the plural (agreement) Read More »

Here’s a student example of a determiner + uncountable noun: My teacher told me “enjoy the music and you will dance naturally.” PELIC Taiwanese female level 3 writing class A2 point 18 in the category of  NOUNS is defined: form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners. A2 point 24 in the category of NOUNS: form

determiner + noun phrase (increasing range) Read More »

In English grammar, “there is” and “there are” are commonly used to indicate the existence or presence of something.

“There is” is used when the noun following it is singular. For example, “There is a book on the table.” “There are” is used when the noun following it is plural. For example, “There are many books on the shelf.”

These phrases can be used in various tenses by adjusting the form of the verb “be”. For instance, you could say “There was a time when I was everything to you,” using the past tense. However, this usage is typically considered more advanced and may be classified as A2 level in some learning resources.

THERE + is | are | was | were Read More »