BE + adjective + TO-infinitive – English Grammar Profiler

B2 Modality (attitude, certainty, possibility, willingness, obligation, necessity, ability) can be expressed with the adjective to-infinitive structure.

A STUDENT EXAMPLE expressing possibility/certainty or hedging:

Children do not have serious symptoms, but they‘re likely to get the most complicated cases.

TLC SPEAKING TEST: female Sri Lanka B2

In the English Grammar Profile, the B2 point 156 in MODALITY and adjectives is yet another overlapping entry for features that are already covered elsewhere. It is generally defined as:

SUBJECT + ‘BE’ + ADJECTIVE + ‘TO’ + INFINITIVE

pronoun or noun + ‘be’ + adjective + ‘to’ + (past) infinitive.

There is no mention of what kind of modality this form must express to qualify as an example of this point. Yet we can surmise from the examples that it is ‘certainty/probability.’ The EGP examples are (likely|unlikely|sure). There is another entry at B2 for ‘probability’ with this form already.

An iWeb search for:

_VB likely|unlikely|sure _TO * *

1 BE SURE TO CHECK OUT 31255

*However, the ‘be sure to do something‘ structure means do not fail to do it… especially if it is used as an imperative to emphasize an instruction.

2 IS LIKELY TO BE A 8211 3 IS SURE TO BE A 7801 4 BE SURE TO CHECK THE 7235 5 IS LIKELY TO BE THE 5336 6 BE SURE TO READ THE 5079 7 BE SURE TO CHECK BACK 4523 8 BE SURE TO USE THE 3861 9 BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE 3271 10 BE SURE TO USE A 3192 11 BE SURE TO HAVE A 3185 12 BE SURE TO CHECK YOUR 3092 13 BE SURE TO STOP BY 3028 14 BE SURE TO VISIT THE 3023 15 BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR 2944 16 BE SURE TO TAKE A 2912 17 BE SURE TO CHECK WITH 2774 18 BE SURE TO KEEP YOUR 2599 19 BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE 2578 20 IS LIKELY TO HAVE A 2409 21 BE SURE TO CHECK IT 2290 22 BE SURE TO GET THE 2228 23 IS LIKELY TO RESULT IN 2204 24 BE SURE TO LET US 2138 25 IS LIKELY TO BE MORE 2124 26 ARE LIKELY TO HAVE A 2015 27 BE SURE TO SIGN UP 1999 28 BE SURE TO KEEP THE 1985 29 BE SURE TO INCLUDE A 1867 30 ARE LIKELY TO BE THE 1856 31 BE SURE TO KEEP AN 1832 32 BE SURE TO GET A 1800 33 ARE LIKELY TO BE MORE 1768 34 BE SURE TO HAVE YOUR 1761 35 IS LIKELY TO LEAD TO 1744 36 ‘RE SURE TO FIND THE 1667 37 ARE SURE TO BE A 1612 38 BE SURE TO BRING YOUR 1599 39 BE SURE TO LOOK FOR 1599 40 BE SURE TO ASK YOUR 1578 41 BE SURE TO PICK UP 1490 42 BE SURE TO LOOK AT 1482 43 BE SURE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE 1481 44 IS LIKELY TO BE AN 1473 45 BE SURE TO GET YOUR 1429 46 ARE SURE TO FIND THE 1379 47 BE SURE TO HAVE THE 1377 48 ‘S SURE TO BE A 1374 49 IS SURE TO BE THE 1354 50 BE SURE TO SELECT THE 1353

51 IS UNLIKELY TO BE A 1325

Noticeably, there are no examples of the ‘past infinitive’ or ‘to have + past participle.’

IT CONSTRUCTIONS

However, the grammar point above partially overlaps the B1 point 122 in the same category defined as:

‘IT’ + ‘BE’ + ADJECTIVE + INFINITIVE

HEDGING, EMPHASIS

to make an assertion more or less direct.

In addition, the same structure is found in:

B1 Point 54 in the category of PRONOUNS:

dummy ‘it’ as a subject to introduce something the speaker or writer is going to refer to.

We will not cover the same points already done elsewhere, but we will attempt to find other adjectives that may meet the requirements of B2. We will also choose B1 vocabulary as more appropriate for this B2 grammar and to avoid stop words and to lean on the range as backup for the lack of modality because we should also remember that not all adjectives carry the modality necessary here.

From Cambridge we get a definition of modality and some examples as such:

We often use modal verbs or other modal expressions when we want to express an opinion or attitude about a possible fact or to control a possible action. All modal expressions are about the speaker’s or writer’s view of the world.

Expressing degrees of obligation: necessary, compulsory, obligatory, essential

To start off our search on iWeb we can attempt to merely find _jj to_t

Most of the following 7 most common

all seem to lead in with opinion or certainty:

1 EASY TO 1762104
2 LIKELY TO 1172023 (covered elsewhere)
3 SURE TO 975306 4 READY TO 967725 (not modal)

5 HARD TO 963472

I sometimes think that it is really hard to survive.

6 IMPORTANT TO 814153
7 DIFFICULT TO 777925

8 WILLING TO 660980 (this might be considered a catenative adjective = connecting, linking, stringing together)

9 POSSIBLE TO 596253 MODAL

10 SUPPOSED TO 556813 (covered elsewhere) 11 HAPPY TO 479905

12 EASIER TO 475834

13 NECESSARY TO 458769

14 FREE TO 434657 15 BEST TO 345368

16 GOOD TO 315227

17 IMPOSSIBLE TO 288575

18 AVAILABLE TO 281745
19 NICE TO 240781

20 PROUD TO 229677 (probably not modal)

21 DUE TO 227078 (covered elsewhere) 22 EXCITED TO 220690

23 PLEASED TO 198737

I‘m very pleased to meet you.

listen

24 BETTER TO 190853

TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:

I’m a teen and I consider that it’s better to have to be in a mixed school than a separate one.

female Moldova B2

25 GREAT TO 189102 26 FUN TO 163892 27 AFRAID TO 156015 28 INTERESTING TO 154745 29 POTENTIAL TO 142520 30 GLAD TO 141311 31 HARDER TO 139173 32 SAFE TO 134666 33 ELIGIBLE TO 133721

34 LIKE TO 128774

35 UNLIKELY TO 126516 (MODAL)

36 EAGER TO 124968
37 SIMPLE TO 113124

38 DELIGHTED TO 102768

39 QUICK TO 98741

40 KEEN TO 96121

41 SURPRISED TO 88557 42 SORRY TO 83481 43 NEEDLESS TO 80714 44 SUFFICIENT TO 76967 45 RIGHT TO 76773 46 LUCKY TO 75276

47 USEFUL TO 74057

48 HELPFUL TO 73038

49 TOUGH TO 72878 50 WELCOME TO 69887 51 RELUCTANT TO 63983

52 INCLINED TO 63039

53 ESSENTIAL TO 59705 MODAL

54-74 =

LONG, FORTUNATE, LATE, OK, WISE, INTERESTED, EXPENSIVE, FAIR, INTENT, UNWILLING, OKAY, EARLY, CURIOUS, LONGER, APPROPRIATE, SLOW, SAD, CONTENT, COOL, CAREFUL, DESPERATE

75 PUBLIC TO 33616 (this is odd)

76 COMMON TO 33539

77 ADVISABLE TO 33255 78 COMFORTABLE TO 32848

79 EASIEST TO 32788

80 ANXIOUS TO 32665

81 TEMPTING TO 31044

82 REASONABLE TO 30824

83 EXCITING TO 29914
84 CHEAPER TO 29724

85 SIMILAR TO 29419 (this is probably incorrectly tagged as ‘to’=preposition)

86 CERTAIN TO 29131 (covered elsewhere) 87 WRONG TO 28457 88 HESITANT TO 28446 89 KEY TO 28031 90 CRITICAL TO 27573 91 ILLEGAL TO 27407 92 LIGHT TO 27307

93 PRONE TO 27254

94 CONVENIENT TO 27174

95 NEW TO 27082 96 AMAZING TO 26969 97 SMALL TO 26958

98 TRICKY TO 26635

99 SCARED TO 25715

100 FIT TO 24848