Past simple + time adjuncts – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, B2 point 62 in category of PAST is defined as:

a range of time adjuncts with the past simple.

This is quite ambiguous as to what constitutes this in the EGP exactly.  The examples all include a past simple verb and a time word but often with lots of words between, which makes it hard to get through using the iWeb corpus.  The best we can get is:

1 SAID AT THE TIME 11702 (these don’t always appear to be adjuncts) 2 DECIDED IT WAS TIME 10953 3 TOOK ME A WHILE 9249

4 TOOK A LONG TIME 7999

WOKE UP THIS MORNING

PoPville My husband and I woke up this morning to a yellow paint circle on our front porch.

6 RAN OUT OF TIME 3639 7 THOUGHT IT WAS TIME 3080 8 SPENT SO MUCH TIME 2944 9 KNEW IT WAS TIME 2669 10 SPENT A LONG TIME 2179 11 FELT IT WAS TIME 2051

12 MARKED THE FIRST TIME 1984

FINISHED THE REGULAR SEASON

  The Indianapolis Star These Central Indiana players finished the regular season with a bang. Here are for the top area performances from Week 9. *however this is not a time adjunct, because adjuncts are able to be removed from the sentence.  ‘Season’ here is an object.

14 TOOK ABOUT AN HOUR 1792 15 TOOK A FEW MINUTES 1766 16 SPENT A FEW DAYS 1756 17 SPENT A FEW HOURS 1601 18 CAME AT A TIME 1515 19 WOKE UP ONE MORNING 1474

20 TOOK A FEW DAYS 1457

EXISTED AT THE TIME

   The Guardian We paid £20,000 for a campervan – and now it’s rusting You would have to be able to show the problem existed at the time of purchase, which is very difficult to prove retrospectively.

22 MADE THIS LAST NIGHT 1427 23 SAID EARLIER THIS WEEK 1416 24 SPENT TOO MUCH TIME 1415 25 FIGURED IT WAS TIME 1414 26 TOOK ME SOME TIME 1308 27 TOOK A LITTLE WHILE 1289 28 SAID IT WAS TIME 1284 29 TOOK A FEW YEARS 1136 30 SAID EARLIER THIS MONTH 1123 31 STAYED UP ALL NIGHT 1111 32 THOUGHT AT THE TIME 1108 33 WORKED FOR MANY YEARS 1096 34 SPENT A FEW YEARS 1084 35 CALLED IT A DAY 1041

36 KNEW AT THE TIME 1022

ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS YEAR

  Daily Mail The couple announced earlier this year they were expecting a baby together in October.

38 CAME OUT LAST YEAR 995 39 SAID EARLIER THIS YEAR 988 40 SHOWED UP ON TIME 976 41 TOOK QUITE A WHILE 975 42 WROTE AT THE TIME 975 43 TOOK A LITTLE TIME 961 44 TOOK ABOUT A WEEK 957 45 DIED A FEW YEARS 953

46 PUBLISHED EARLIER THIS YEAR 948

47 TOOK US A WHILE 935 48 PASSED AWAY LAST YEAR 907 49 WOKE UP ONE DAY 902 50 SPENT LOTS OF TIME 893 51 WORKED FOR A WHILE 872 52 TOOK A FEW WEEKS 837 53 WORKED FOR SEVERAL YEARS 832 54 LEARNED A LONG TIME 821 55 SPENT A FEW MINUTES 817 56 TOOK ABOUT A YEAR 817 57 ARRIVED JUST IN TIME 798 58 DIED THE NEXT DAY 796 59 TOOK A FEW MONTHS 792

60 ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS MONTH 778

61 FELT AT THE TIME 758 62 TOLD THE E-COMMERCE TIMES 750 63 SPENT THE WHOLE DAY 728 64 ARRIVED THE NEXT DAY 727 65 TOLD THE IRISH TIMES 714 66 TOOK OVER A YEAR 712 67 TOOK ABOUT 10 MINUTES 704 68 WAITED A LONG TIME 698 69 TOOK ME A YEAR 692 70 LAUNCHED EARLIER THIS YEAR 691 71 SAID THE OTHER DAY 690 72 TOOK ABOUT 20 MINUTES 688 73 TOOK ABOUT A MONTH 683 74 SPENT AS MUCH TIME 682

75 WENT BACK IN TIME 680

76 FELL ON HARD TIMES 677 77 SPENT A LITTLE TIME 663 78 MADE THESE LAST NIGHT 659 79 SPENT THE LAST YEAR 659 80 TOOK A FEW HOURS 640 81 TOOK OVER AN HOUR 640 82 TOOK ABOUT 15 MINUTES 637 83 TOOK PLACE LAST WEEK 634

84 TOLD THE FINANCIAL TIMES 633 (just name of journal)

85 LIVED AT THE TIME 632 86 DIED A FEW DAYS 630 87 TOOK ABOUT 30 MINUTES 628 88 SPENT ABOUT AN HOUR 615 89 STARTED A FEW YEARS 615 90 TOOK ME AN HOUR 612 91 SPENT A FEW WEEKS 611 92 TOLD THE SUNDAY TIMES 606 93 ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS WEEK 604 94 SPENT THE ENTIRE DAY 603

95 WORKED FOR TWO YEARS 595

UPDATED OVER A WEEK

*there are no news reports with this cluster.  It seems to be an automated blog post expression.

LASTED A LONG TIME

  The Hindu This reporting assignment lasted a long time.  *possibly not an adjunct…

98 HIT THE BIG TIME 576 99 LEARNED OVER THE YEARS 576

100 LIVED FOR MANY YEARS 561

B1 vocabulary:

announced, existed, lasted, published, regular, season, updated

_vvd * _md _nnt

1 MARKED THE FIRST TIME 1984 2 MADE THIS LAST NIGHT 1427 3 CAME OUT LAST YEAR 995 4 PASSED AWAY LAST YEAR 907 5 DIED THE NEXT DAY 796 6 ARRIVED THE NEXT DAY 727 7 SPENT THE LAST YEAR 659

8 MADE THESE LAST NIGHT 659

TOOK PLACE LAST WEEK

  Rangefinder Online The second annual Wetzlar Camera Auctions (WCA) took place last week, offering up 254 historical cameras for sale, most of them Leicas.

10 CAME OUT LAST WEEK 528 11 RETURNED THE NEXT DAY 509 12 HAPPENED THE LAST TIME 472 13 PASSED AWAY LAST WEEK 469 14 TOLD ME LAST WEEK 448 15 SPENT THE LAST WEEK 447 16 MISSED THE FIRST TIME 426 17 SAID THE LAST TIME 411 18 SPENT THE NEXT YEAR 392 19 CAME THE NEXT DAY 386 20 AWOKE THE NEXT MORNING 384 21 SPENT THE NEXT HOUR 382 22 WORKED THE FIRST TIME 376

23 TOOK PLACE LAST YEAR 344

24 TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT 303 25 HAPPENED THE FIRST TIME 289

26 MADE HEADLINES LAST YEAR 276

27 SAID THAT LAST YEAR 276 28 SAID THE FIRST TIME 275 29 LEFT OFF LAST SEASON 264 30 MADE IT LAST NIGHT 253 31 TALKED ABOUT LAST WEEK 253 32 CAME OUT LAST MONTH 247

33 TOOK PLACE LAST MONTH 247

34 WENT OUT LAST NIGHT 247 35 PLEADED GUILTY LAST YEAR 239 36 SAID . LAST YEAR 232 37 TOLD ME LAST YEAR 222 38 LEFT OFF LAST YEAR 220 39 WOKE THE NEXT MORNING 218 40 CAME THE FIRST TIME 217

41 TOOK PLACE LAST WEEKEND 215

42 TRIED IT LAST NIGHT 215 43 TOLD ME LAST NIGHT 214 44 TRIED THIS LAST NIGHT 214 45 FELT THE FIRST TIME 213 46 PASSED AWAY LAST NIGHT 211

47 PLEADED GUILTY LAST MONTH 206

48 SPENT THE LAST YEARS 202 49 FOUND OUT LAST WEEK 194 50 MADE A LAST MINUTE 190 51 BOUGHT IT LAST YEAR 185 52 SPENT THE NEXT DAY 180 53 FAILED THE FIRST TIME 178 54 SAT OUT LAST SEASON 177 55 WROTE ABOUT LAST WEEK 176

56 TOLD REPORTERS LAST WEEK 174