certain – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Vocabulary Profile: NOUN give vent to = C2 to express strong anger or another strong feeling VERB vent your anger/frustration, etc. = C2 to do or say something to show your anger or another strong, bad feeling A search for collocates in iWeb for: gave vent to (gave is more common) 1 …

give vent to | vent their anger Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 50 in the category of PRONOUNS/substitution is defined as: premodifiers with ‘ones’, to refer to something in general. An iWeb search for: _JJ ones 1 LOVED ONES 102997 2 NEW ONES 78751 3 LITTLE ONES 58655 4 ONLY ONES 46742 5 GOOD ONES 26844 6 OLD ONES 24098 7 OTHER …

adjective + ONES Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 197 in MODALITY/expressions with ‘be’ is defined as: HEDGING ‘be’ + ‘not’ + adjective + ‘that-‘ clause to make an assertion less direct The EGP adjectives include: ‘certain’, ‘likely’ and ‘sure’ which are all related to hedging and modality such as certainty and probability. A search in iWeb for: …

BE + not + ADJECTIVE + that + CLAUSE Read More »

When we look at the most common examples with the grammar pattern: ‘it is adjective that clause’ It is clear that he stole it.  It is possible that the police won’t find him.  It is likely that the man will get away. We see they all appear to have modal adjectives (clear, possible, likely) that show how sure we are about the following clause using ‘FOCUS’.  Two of …

It’s + adjective + ‘that’ clause (focus) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 137 in MODALITY is defined as: negative forms of ‘can’t’ and ‘cannot’ to guess, predict and deduce. This point is an extremely difficult point to locate because it heavily relies on usage.  The use of ‘can’t’ is A1 by default, but not ‘cannot’ which has not been given …

‘It cannot be true’ (modality) Read More »

In the English Vocabulary Profile: be sure to do sth = C1 If you are sure to do something, it is certain that you will do it. However, the B2 English Grammar Profile point 129 in the category of MODALITY expressions with be is defined as: ‘ be sure to’, ‘be certain to’ to talk about …

BE + sure | certain+ to VERB Read More »

Here’s a student example of an adjective followed by a ‘that’ clause. However, I am sure that the most useful English for you is American English. PELIC Korean male level 4 writing In the English Grammar Profile (EGP), there are many points that are hard to differentiate and some have conflicting information. EGP point 22 MODALITY/adjectives at A2: BE’ + ‘SURE‘ + CLAUSE …

adjective + (that) clause Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile (EGP), there are three similar points in the category of Future expressions with ‘BE’ at B2 in the English Grammar Profile. 47  ‘be due to’ and, more formally, ‘be to’ talk about things that are scheduled or expected. 53 OBLIGATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS WITH ‘BE TO’ 56 present form of ‘be’ …

‘BE’ + to infinitive | ‘BE’ + due to infinitive Read More »

Here’s an example of hedging an assertion: I’m almost certain that it was him. Listen   You seem pretty sure of yourself. Listen C1 point 210 in MODALITY on the English Grammar Profile is based on: MODIFYING an ADJECTIVE for HEDGING with a degree adverb. We are offered only two examples: ‘quite probable’ and ‘almost certain.’  Since this is in the category of …

degree adverbs modifying adjectives ‘almost certain’ Read More »