but – English Grammar Profiler

We profile this prepositional construction at B1 because ‘no‘ can be used to pre-modify nouns at A2. However, it is usually found with extremely advanced phrases related to negative statements. A search in iWeb corpus for: to_II no _NN 1 TO NO AVAIL 26494 C2 unlisted in the EVP They tried to bring a case against her but to no avail. listen 2 TO …

( LITTLE | NEXT | BUT ) TO NO + noun Read More »

In the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP), ‘Still‘ is listed at B1 with the meaning ‘despite that‘, where ‘that’ refers back to the previous thing talked about. This is slightly different to: ‘despite‘ as a preposition, which is also listed at B1 with the meaning: without taking any notice of or being influenced by; not prevented …

still (despite that) Read More »

The adverb ‘otherwise‘ has 3 listings in the English Vocabulary Profile. WHAT WOULD HAPPEN B1 used after an order or suggestion to show what the result will be if you do not follow that order or suggestion A search in the NOW corpus for: , otherwise _P _V 1 , OTHERWISE IT WILL 1394 There …

otherwise Read More »

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. An …

and | but | or | because Read More »

Here’s a student example of verb phrase ellipsis: You need to study hard to pass the test unless you don’t want to. PELIC Arabic female level 4 grammar class Although there are a number of grammar points in the English Grammar Profile to do with Ellipsis, there are none that cover the ellipsis of phrases before or after the ‘TO’ infinitive. Therefore, we turn to Pearson’s GSE …

phrase ellipsis Read More »

On Pearson’s scale at GSE 71 B2+ describe present or future outcomes of a hypothetical situation using initial ‘only if’ with inversion of subject and object. ‘Only if’ + first/second conditional with inversion The complexity of this structure is highly unlikely to be B2 as Pearson has it listed. The most similar EGP construction is …

ONLY IF + inverted conditional Read More »

C1: formal past conditionals | noun phrase, ‘would have’ clause

Adverb expressions such as ‘not only’, ‘not just’, and ‘not simply’ emphasize that something is true, but it is not the whole truth. These co-ordinate clauses. In the English Grammar Profile, C2 point 92 in the category of PAST is defined: present perfect continuous, invert the subject and affirmative auxiliary verb with ‘not only … but’ …

NOT ONLY + present perfect continuous (inversion) + BUT Read More »

Point 21 in the category of ADJECTIVES/combining: join a limited range of common adjectives, after ‘be’. TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST: Driving in the city is cool but difficult. male China B2 A search in iWeb for: _VB _JJ but _JJ 1 IS SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE 216 2 ‘S SAD BUT TRUE 181 3 IS SAD BUT TRUE 126 4 ARE SIMPLE BUT …

adjective BUT adjective Read More »

The English Grammar Profile (EGP) B1 point 23 in the category of future is defined: past form of ‘be’ + ‘going to’ (future in the past) EGP B1 point 36 in FUTURE is defined: PLANS IN THE PAST (often followed by ‘but’) to talk about a plan, sometimes one that may have changed. These grammar …

future in the past Read More »

preposition (wide range) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 83 in PAST is defined as: ‘NOT ONLY … BUT ALSO’ the inverted form of the past simple with auxiliary ‘do’ *Note that any type of inversion with ‘not only but also’ is C1. Our example: Sportskeeda Not only did this affect his reputation with the fans, but also …

Not only did + but also Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 195 in MODALITY is defined as: ‘might’ followed by ‘but’ to console or justify The usage requirements seem a little too restrictive because there are other uses that show a high level of complexity. Here are Google definitions for ‘console‘ and ‘justify‘ in order: comfort (someone) at a …

might * but * Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 19 in CONJUNCTIONS/coordinating is defined as: inverted auxiliary ‘do’ + the subject after ‘not only’, to give focus. For example: It‘s kind of like the dirty, little secret of poverty, which is that, not only do poor people take in very little income, but also, the income that they take in, they don’t spend it very wisely, and unfortunately, most of that spending is done by men. *This is an overlapping point at multiple levels.

Point 66 in the category of PAST is past perfect simple used for a CHANGE OF SITUATION. The EGP uses HAD + ‘planned’ and ‘wanted’ + ‘but’ in their examples. Since this is a difficult structure to find in corpora due to the length of sentences, we have looked directly in Google news for examples: …

past perfect simple (change of situation) Read More »

‘Anything’ is usually an indefinite pronoun. Rarely, it is in a two part adverbial phrase. 1 ANYTHING (PN1) 2 ANYTHING BUT (RR21) idiom = the opposite of the stated quality

What part of speech is BUT?

In this post, we investigate 11 ways ‘for’ is tagged by the claws 7 tag set. 1 FOR (IF) 140146366 preposition 1 . FOR MORE INFORMATION 77314 2 . FOR THOSE WHO 22531 3 THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL 19815 4 THE REASON FOR THIS IS 19424 5 . FOR ME , 18503 6 …

FOR Read More »

Here are some examples of this form: Being nice to someone is a SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE WAY of making friends. Some herbs like MOIST BUT WELL-DRAINED SOIL. I am making SLOW BUT STEADY PROGRESS with my language learning. Although she is usually easy to get along with, she does have a RARE BUT SERIOUS SIDE to her personality too.

A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of students didn’t pass the test.