because – English Grammar Profiler
Particularizers are a category of adverbs that focus attention on what follows them, without excluding other possibilities. They are used to modify verbs and adjectives and can be found at different levels of English Vocabulary Profile such as A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2.
The TED corpus has some examples of particularizers used in natural chunks. For example, “especially when it comes” is a 4-gram chunk that is at least C1 level. “Largely due to” is another 3-gram chunk that is at least C1 level. “Mainly because” is a 2-gram chunk that is at least B2 level.
A1 points 1-7 in the English Grammar Profile are listed as:
single word conjunctions (‘and, but, or’):
to connect single nouns and adjectives. to combine phrases, clauses, and sentences. ‘and’ and ‘or’ before the final item in a list.
‘but’ to add unexpected contrast.
‘because’ as a subordinating conjunction to introduce a subordinate clause.
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 37 in the category of PAST/continuous is defined: give a reason for something, often with ‘because’ PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: I could not focus on my reading at all, after a while because I was sweating hard. Chinese male, level 5, writing class An iWeb search for: because * _VBD _VVG 1 BECAUSE I WAS TRYING 1574 I only got you those bloody business cards because I was trying to be cute. listen …
BECAUSE + past continuous Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 50 in the category of CLAUSES is defined as: combine clauses of the same type, main or subordinate, finite or non-finite, with conjunctions. *This is difficult to interpret exactly because at A1, students can omit the subject after ‘and’ or ‘or’. We can start by looking at the structure of …
COMBINING CLAUSES OF THE SAME TYPE Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 8 in the category of prepositions is defined as a wide range of simple (single word) prepositions. *Note this first search on iWeb is not only for instances as a preposition: above|along|according|because|beside|but|despite|off| onto|regarding|towards|through|underneath|via|within 1 BUT 52015729 2 BECAUSE 13807430 3 THROUGH 12732122 4 OFF 9025030 5 WITHIN 5473926 …
preposition (wide range) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 59 in the category of PAST is defined: past perfect simple AFTER ‘BECAUSE’ giving explanatory information. Here are examples of past perfect simple used to give explanations. Someone even wiped away tears because she had done it, she had connected them to information differently, she helped them see something they couldn’t unsee. TED Vicky called because her husband had suddenly collapsed in the hallway of their home. TED A search in iWeb for because _P had _VVN 1 BECAUSE I HAD HEARD …
BECAUSE + past perfect simple Read More »
The third most frequent word in the English language is used in a lot of different ways. ‘OF‘ is most often in a prepositional phrase, but it is also used in many other types of phrases. Below we list the ranked frequency found in the iWeb corpus. 1 OF (IO) 328813259 2 OF (II22) 11680309 …
OF (complex phrases) Read More »