was – English Grammar Profiler
After a passive verb phrase (or a past participle as an adjective), the preposition “for” indicates purpose or reason. Here are the results of a search in the iWeb corpus for: _VB _VVN for 1 BE USED FOR 284604 Crush. It‘s funny how the same word for the feeling of attraction can be used for the feeling of disappointment. listen 2 IS KNOWN FOR 97688 And he is known for being a liar. listen The sentence “he is known …
BE + past participle + FOR Read More »
There is no specific point in the English Grammar Profile that suggests that “It was here that” is an example of introducing a cleft sentence for focus. We know that inversion starts around the B1 level but this may be C2 Clefting similar to that with nouns. Looking at the low frequency in the iWeb corpus …
It + BE + location + that CLAUSE Read More »
The CLAWS tagger does not always tag the difference between adjectives and past participles perfectly, so we do a search in the iWeb corpus with the query: _VB *ed to_II 1 IS COMMITTED TO 117911 C2 adjective It‘s true, I could use someone who is committed to putting an end to Mr. White. Live by Night 2 BE ADDED TO 115128 …
BE + *ed + to PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE Read More »
A detailed analysis of the structure “BE + past participle + BY”, which is commonly used to form passive voice sentences in English. This structure consists of a form of the verb “to be”, a past participle, and the preposition “by”. The webpage also includes examples from the iWeb corpus, showcasing how this structure is used in various contexts. Some of the most common phrases include “BE USED BY”, “IS CAUSED BY”, and “IS DETERMINED BY”. The examples illustrate how this structure allows us to focus on the action and its impact, rather than on who or what performed the action.
‘fast’ means ‘completely’ when used with the adjective ‘asleep’ This phrase is C2 in the English Vocabulary Profile. For example: Look, Charlie, she‘s fast asleep. listen A NOW corpus collocates search for ‘fast asleep’ 1 WAS 1032 2 WERE 498 3 WHEN 376 4 WHILE 181 5 BED 114 6 FELL 59 7 BABY 41 8 ROOM …
fast asleep Read More »
The grammar of the past continuous tense is as follows: Subject + was/were + present participle For example: I was becoming more and more tired as the day went on. The plants were growing very quickly in the warm weather. Something strange was happening in the forest. The past continuous tense is used to describe …
past continuous affirmative Read More »
In English grammar, “there is” and “there are” are commonly used to indicate the existence or presence of something.
“There is” is used when the noun following it is singular. For example, “There is a book on the table.” “There are” is used when the noun following it is plural. For example, “There are many books on the shelf.”
These phrases can be used in various tenses by adjusting the form of the verb “be”. For instance, you could say “There was a time when I was everything to you,” using the past tense. However, this usage is typically considered more advanced and may be classified as A2 level in some learning resources.
Let’s analyse questions that have relative clauses to give emphasis. So usually, we would say something like: What do we want to ask? What are we trying to find out here? You can see the normal auxiliary verbs ‘be’ and ‘do’ get removed and relative clauses are added in the EXPERT EXAMPLES: What is it that we want …
WHAT IS IT YOU WANT? (relative clause question) Read More »
The English Grammar Profile (EGP) B1 point 23 in the category of future is defined: past form of ‘be’ + ‘going to’ (future in the past) EGP B1 point 36 in FUTURE is defined: PLANS IN THE PAST (often followed by ‘but’) to talk about a plan, sometimes one that may have changed. These grammar …
future in the past Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 28 in the category of PAST is defined: past continuous question form Here’s an iWeb search for: was|were _P _VVG *not all these will lead to questions. 1 WERE YOU THINKING 2389 EXPERT EXAMPLE: What were you thinking? stuff.co.nz 2 WAS I GOING 2198 3 WERE THEY THINKING 1716 4 WERE YOU …
past continuous question Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 37 in the category of PAST/continuous is defined: give a reason for something, often with ‘because’ PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: I could not focus on my reading at all, after a while because I was sweating hard. Chinese male, level 5, writing class An iWeb search for: because * _VBD _VVG 1 BECAUSE I WAS TRYING 1574 I only got you those bloody business cards because I was trying to be cute. listen …
BECAUSE + past continuous Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 21 in the category of PAST is defined as: past simple with ‘wish (that)’ to express regret that things are not different. TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE: I listen to music a lot and sometimes I wish that my life was a musical. male Spain C2 EXPERT EXAMPLES: I wish I never called. TED There were many moments growing up where I wished that I was white. TED *Note that past perfect is also possible with …
WISH + past simple Read More »
B1 Point 6 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as: past simple passive with a limited range of verbs needing two objects, putting the indirect object in subject position. *There is more information about this grammar at B2 TLC SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE: I was given a big horse. female Russia B1 PELIC STUDENT EXAMPLE: When my husband was given a blow to the head in Oakland last year, I got frightened. …
was | were + PAST PARTICIPLE + NOUN PHRASE Read More »
Point 118 in PRONOUNS is defined as: the possessive pronoun ‘his’, with singular and plural reference, in subject and object position, and complement positions after ‘be’ and after prepositions. An iWeb search for: his_P _V *The Claws7 tagging for this grammar point struggles to decide between words that can be both verbs and nouns, and …
his (PRONOUN) Read More »
The pronoun ‘it’ can be used where the subject is unclear at C1, and verbs such as ‘conclude’ are only used by C1 learners. For example: It was concluded that it never existed. However, this post is about reporting with modal verbs. C1 point 208 in MODALITY is defined as: ‘can’ in passive reporting clauses in a more formal impersonal …
It can | could + be + said | argued | concluded | considered Read More »
It -clefts consist of the pronoun it, a form of the verb to be, the focused element, and a relative-like dependant clause introduced by that, who/which or zero. grin.com In the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP), the pronoun ‘it’ is C2 when it emphasizes one part of a sentence. The example given in the EVP matches two C2 grammar points in the …
it + BE (cleft) Read More »
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 52 in the category of PRONOUNS / demonstratives is defined as: quantifying determiners + ‘of’ with demonstrative pronouns An iWeb search for: _DD of _DD 1 SOME OF THESE 258542 STUDENT example: The hospitality in Saudi Arabia is very different between provinces. Some of these have traditional hospitality, but others have modern hospitality. PELIC Arabic male level 3 …
all | one | some + OF + these | those | this | that Read More »
Let’s take a look at an IELTS writing task 2 example with this grammar: It is argued that volunteering should be made a part of the school curriculum. In the above example, ‘is argued‘ forms the passive part. The active form of this is probably: ‘People argue that…” In our example, ‘people’ is not important or maybe we don’t know who …
‘It is said that …’ (IT + passive) Read More »
This is another grammar point where the English Vocabulary Profile is probably better at profiling the language than the English Grammar Profile. There are a handful of adverbs that already make the task across levels quite difficult to follow. We then should consider the hundred other adverbs that appear in this ‘mid position’. A2 point …
past continuous + adverb (range) Read More »