BE + adjective (increasing range) – English Grammar Profiler

0 1

In the English Grammar Profile, A2 point 16 in ADJECTIVES/position is defined as:

increasing range of adjectives predicatively, after ‘be’.

*This grammar point is better expanded in the English Vocabulary Profile because it offers more detail about vocabulary.  In addition, we could not find any related EGP or EVP points related to when students can use ‘weren’t’ which seems to be a harder construction than A1.

A search on iWeb for _VB _JJ 

*note that not all of the following are ‘predicative’

1 BE SURE 833740 B2 MODALITY

I can’t be sure about the others.

listen

2 IS AVAILABLE 810530

That position is available to any qualified applicant.

listen

Here are the results 3-50 grouped by topic by AI:

Availability

  • 3 ARE AVAILABLE 797442
  • 7 BE AVAILABLE 424771
  • 32 IS FREE 200334
  • 33 IS OPEN 194893

Certainty

  • 15 ‘M SURE 282916
  • 14 IS TRUE 294148
  • 13 IS LIKELY 295107

Difficulty

  • 37 BE DIFFICULT 180992
  • 38 ‘S HARD 179368
  • 35 IS HARD 187134
  • 44 IS DIFFICULT 163233

Importance

  • 4 IS IMPORTANT 780459
  • 16 ‘S IMPORTANT 259352
  • 20 IS NECESSARY 247948
  • 27 IS ESSENTIAL 220828

Quality

  • 6 IS GOOD 427370
  • 8 IS GREAT 412719
  • 21 ARE GREAT 244405
  • 22 IS PERFECT 241843
  • 29 BE GOOD 216762
  • 30 ARE GOOD 212262

Readiness

  • 39 ARE READY 176733
  • 47 BE READY 159615
  • 49 IS READY 156644

Uniqueness

  • 5 IS ONLY 690395
  • 11 ARE ONLY 321087
  • 19 WAS ONLY 248507

50 IS FULL 156258

The first time [when] I came here, I thought America is full of criminals, 

and it’s impossible to go out in America alone at night because of the serial killers that I saw in the American movies.

PELIC STUDENT Arabic Male level 5 writing class

51 BE USEFUL 151822 52 BE RESPONSIBLE 150336 53 IS SIMILAR 147688 54 BE POSSIBLE 147291

55 IS SIMPLE 145981

The objects of this story are simple enough.

listen

56 BE ELIGIBLE 145491 57 ARE RESPONSIBLE 145165 58 ARE IMPORTANT 139688 59 BE TRUE 137330

60 ARE FREE 136199

I‘m in charge and you are free to go.

listen

61 IS IDEAL 135246 62 BE NICE 134132 63 BE HELPFUL 132596 64 BE INTERESTED 131483 65 AM SURE 130653 66 ARE WILLING 128966 67 ‘S ONLY 128170 68 IS SUPPOSED 127177 69 IS CRITICAL 126004 70 BE HARD 125544 71 WAS GOOD 125325 72 IS COMPLETE 123166 73 ‘S GOOD 122350 74 IS WRONG 121357 75 IS AMAZING 119209 76 BE SUCCESSFUL 117045 77 IS FINE 116749 78 ARE EASY 115583 79 BE DIFFERENT 113176 80 BE EASY 111434 81 BE FINE 111377 82 IS KEY 111299 83 BE WILLING 111006 84 BE NECESSARY 110005 85 IS DUE 109399 86 ‘S GREAT 107269 87 ‘S POSSIBLE 105486

88 ARE PERFECT 104840

It was perfect because the jock girls weren’t afraid of her.

listen

89 IS SAFE 104732 90 BE AFRAID 104030 91 IS CORRECT 103840 92 ARE ELIGIBLE 103098 93 ARE HAPPY 102167 94 BE SURPRISED 102042 95 IS CAPABLE 101846 96 IS IMPOSSIBLE 101165 97 IS USEFUL 100070 98 WAS SUPPOSED 98888 99 BE INTERESTING 95512

100 IS WELL 95499

A2 adjectives found in the above search, in iWeb, by frequency:

1 SURE 6607302 2 AVAILABLE 6447897 3 FREE 5689543 4 FULL 5075017 5 SIMPLE 3044871 6 PERFECT 3004079 7 COMPLETE 2979858 8 TRUE 2743143 9 CLEAR 2561201 10 AMAZING 1748093 11 INTERESTED 1453752 12 USEFUL 1378325 13 CORRECT 1298140 14 SURPRISED 576479 15 CAREFUL 557249

16 AFRAID 474291