how + ADVERB + CLAUSE – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, point 121 in CLAUSES phrases/exclamations at C2 is defined as:

‘HOW’ + ADVERB + CLAUSE

A search in the iWeb corpus for:

. How *ly _P

1 . HOW QUICKLY YOU 126

*most of these are not exclamations.  But there are a few examples of:

How quickly you forget.

2 . HOW QUICKLY WE 104

1 . HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET 46

3 . HOW QUICKLY THEY 62 4 . HOW QUICKLY IT 44 5 . HOW FREQUENTLY YOU 38

6 . HOW EASILY WE 36

2 . HOW EASILY WE FORGET 15

7 . HOW EXACTLY IT 30 8 . HOW EXACTLY THEY 26 9 . HOW EXACTLY HE 24

10 . HOW LOVELY IT 22

However, these are not necessarily exclamations.

A search in PELIC corpus for:

. How \w+ly

gives us one example of an adjective:

However, in the western restaurant,

 I have to practice how to pronounce the name of food 

before ordering. 

How silly it is!

Korean, Female, level 5, writing class

*B1 point gets highlighted

A search on iWeb for:

. How _RR _P _V

does not really give us the kind of adverbs we were hoping for.  They give us adjectives…:

1 . HOW WRONG I WAS 360 2 . HOW LONG IT TAKES 330 3 . HOW EASY IT IS 209 4 . HOW LONG IT WILL 190 5 . HOW WRONG THEY WERE 90

6 . HOW WRONG WE WERE 87

7 . HOW OFTEN YOU NEED 68

8 . HOW HARD IT IS 66 9 . HOW LONG YOU HAVE 55 10 . HOW NICE IT WOULD 52 11 . HOW WELL YOU DO 51 12 . HOW LONG IT LASTS 50 13 . HOW MUCH IT COSTS 49

14 . HOW EASY IT WOULD 48

Here is quite a heavy song using our structure.

They’re all coming back again The same faces that turned their backs Are now letting me back in How quickly the tides change How quickly they remember my name Did they think I’d sit around waiting for them to stand by my side? Did they think I’d sit around waiting for them to arrive? They’re all leaving again The same faces that came back are now walking away How quickly the tides change How quickly they forgot my name It’s all water under a bridge now anyway

How quickly we forget