concern – English Grammar Profiler

Why say “is of interest” instead of “is interesting“? ‘is of + noun‘ is more formal and in academic writing, we use the noun form of a word more often.  More importantly, ‘of+noun’ functions as a noun in this position.  Therefore, it can often collocate correctly with modifiers.  For example:  “greatest interest” is much more …

BE + of NOUN PHRASE Read More »

It is easy to find noun phrases functioning as a subject-predicate in a clause.  For example, “I was a kid.” ‘a kid’ is a noun phrase after the copular verb ‘was.’ An iWeb search for: _P _VB _A _NN . 1 I WAS A KID . 7523 2 I WAS A CHILD . 2942 3 …

noun phrase (subject predicative) Read More »

A simple comparison in English is “She is more important than you.” One way to make comparisons more complex is to increase the number of words between ‘more’ and ‘than.’  This could include nouns or adjectives followed by non-finite clauses such as in the following EXPERT EXAMPLES: Today, billions of citizens have  more tools, more access to information, more capacity to influence  than ever before. TED It‘s harder to compose than to play. TLC native …

MORE * THAN (complex comparisions) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 Point 48 in the category of ADJECTIVES is defined as: noun phrases with a range of determiners before a superlative adjective. *This should include a range of nouns because at A2 it is a limited range.  One can guess that ‘my’ ‘your’ can still be B1 if the noun …

determiner + superlative + noun (range) Read More »

In the English Grammar Profile, C2 point 113 in the category of PRONOUNS is defined as: possessive pronouns ‘hers’, ‘theirs’ and ‘his’ after noun + ‘of’. A search in iWeb for: _N of his_P . 1 FRIEND OF HIS. 504 2 FAN OF HIS. 304 3 FRIENDS OF HIS. 115 4 PASSION OF HIS. 67   Thoroughbred …

NOUN + of + his | hers | theirs Read More »