tell – English Grammar Profiler
can’t/couldn’t very well do sth = used to say that something is not a suitable or practical thing to do You can’t very well expect other people to be nice to you if you aren’t willing to lead the way.
English Vocabulary Profile at C2
In the English Vocabulary Profile at C1, YET from now and for a particular period of time in the future A search in the NOW corpus for: for a _JJ _NNT yet 1 FOR A LONG TIME YET 605 I‘m not gonna die for a long time yet. The Babadook 2 FOR A LITTLE WHILE YET 197 Dinner won’t be ready for a little while yet. Little Deaths 3 …
negative future + time period + YET Read More »
In the English Vocabulary Profile: begin verb START TO HAPPEN A1 begin verb START TO DO A2 begin with sth B1 to begin with B1: at the start of a situation to begin with B2: the first important reason for something A2: Look, son, I can’t even begin to tell you how proud of you I‘ve been these past weeks. listen B1: Let’s begin with where you were born. listen B2 grammar: …
begin Read More »
A1 point 1 in the category of CLAUSES is defined: affirmative declarative clauses with modal verbs. The English Grammar Profile examples include: ‘can’ and ‘will’. Future simple modality is also covered here. Here are STUDENT EXAMPLES: A lot of farmers can read and write, but they didn’t complete high school. PELIC Chinese female level 3 writing class. I will go to New York on Thanksgiving day. Korean female level …
CAN | WILL (affirmative declarative clause) Read More »
Point 12 in the category of VERBS/patterns is defined: verbs, typically reporting verbs, followed by a noun or pronoun as the indirect object and a clause with or without ‘that’, as the direct object. *Note some of our search results are not indirect objects. However, the A2 complexity is still there with relative clauses. _VV …
verb + object + clause Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 101 in MODALITY/adverbs is defined: ‘could’ + subject + ‘possibly’ to make requests more polite *This is a very rare structure across corpora for a B1 structure. This point overlaps the more common and general: B1 questions with adverbs: Could you possibly tell me how to fix this? An iWeb search for: . Could I|you possibly * 1 . …
Could you possibly? Read More »
B1 Point 24 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: ‘wh-‘words + the negative form of modal verbs + subject + main verb to form ‘wh-‘questions. B1 Point 26 in the category of QUESTIONS is defined as: modal verbs + ‘not’ + subject + main verb to form ‘yes/no’ questions *Note that there is …
NEGATIVE QUESTION + MODAL VERB Read More »
This post contains an example of overlapping B1 grammar points located inside two different categories in the English Grammar Profile (EGP). EGP B1 point 6 in the category of REPORTED SPEECH is defined as: REPORTED REQUESTS AND COMMANDS with ‘ask’ or ‘tell’ + direct object and ‘to-‘infinitive EGP B1 point 38 in the category of …
VERB + DIRECT OBJECT + to INFINITIVE Read More »
Here are two examples of indefinite pronouns in ellipted conditional clauses: Anything we can do, anything you need, just tell us. listen Anything you want there, anything at all, just take it. Kings Row (1942) *They mean: “if there is anything that we can do” or “if there is anything that you want” C1 point 100 in PRONOUNS/indefinite is defined as: ‘anything’ in an ellipted clause. (‘if there is anything …’) When …
anything (ellipsis) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 186 in MODALITY is defined as: Expressions with ‘can’ or ‘can’t’ to give focus or add emphasis, such as ‘as you can see’, ‘I can’t say’, ‘I can tell you that’, ‘as you can imagine’, ‘I can say that’, ‘I can assure you that’ For example: I can’t …
CAN (focus) Read More »