EVEN SO – English Grammar Profiler

In this post, we are most interested to find the most advanced uses of the word ‘even‘.

At C1, The phrase “even so” is used to introduce a surprising fact or conclusion that contrasts with what has been said before. It can be used to express a sense of defiance or determination or to simply acknowledge a fact that is contrary to what is expected.  For example:

There are about 100 million times

 as many virus particles on Earth 

as there are stars in the observable universe.
Even so, viruses can and do go extinct.

3 Ways to End a Virus

Similar meanings are: in spite of that or nevertheless

Here are the frequency results in the iWeb corpus for the part of speech of ‘EVEN’:

1 EVEN (RR) 10184080 general adverb for emphasis:

A2 something that is surprising

B1 a comparison or the fact that something does not happen or is not true

2 EVEN (CS21) 2778948 complex subordinating conjunctions:

1 EVEN IF 1384099 B2 whether or not
2 EVEN THOUGH 996010 B2 although
3 EVEN WHEN 347700 UNLISTED

3 EVEN (RR_JJ%) 452464 adverb or adjective (the adjective is unlisted in the English Vocabulary Profile)

An iWeb search for * * even_JJ * *

1 IN AN EVEN LAYER. 428
2 WITH AN EVEN NUMBER OF 394

4 EVEN (RR_VV0%) 87875 adverb or base verb

5 EVEN (RR21) 63605 adverbial phrase C1 used to emphasize that something surprising is true despite what you have just said

EVEN SO 62119

20 EVEN (VVI) 664 infinitive -UNLISTED