Welcome to English Grammar Pro – Page 2 – English Grammar Profiler

Although gerunds are covered in a few different ways across a few CEFR levels in the English Grammar Profile, there is no entry given to the use of a gerund after ‘need’ as MODALITY which is listed by PEARSON: GSE 63 B2 ‘need’ with verbs in the gerund to express necessity. ‘need’ + Verb Phrase …

IT NEEDS REPLACING. (‘need’ + gerund) Read More »

Here’s a STUDENT EXAMPLE: Therefore, people should educate themselves on their human rights and the basic human rights that other nations have in order to avoid being deceived. PELIC Arabic female level 4 writing class. GSE 64 B2 NP + VP +VP gerund (passive)   An iWeb search for: * _VV being _VVN * 1 TO AVOID BEING HIT BY 313 2 TO AVOID BEING HIT . 185 3 N’T LIKE BEING TOLD WHAT 182 …

gerund (passive complement) Read More »

The Pearson text analyzer seems to be another tool based on finding reading texts for students based only on vocabulary.  It is not going to predict the level of what a student has produced. There will be a level or two between what students can read and produce.  A B2 reading text is probably something …

Pearson – text analyzer Read More »

A simple comparison in English is “She is more important than you.” One way to make comparisons more complex is to increase the number of words between ‘more’ and ‘than.’  This could include nouns or adjectives followed by non-finite clauses such as the following EXPERT EXAMPLE: Today, billions of citizens have more tools, more access to information, more capacity to influence than ever before. TED Pearson’s GSE 66 B2 structure is defined …

MORE * * * THAN (complex comparisions) Read More »

Here we look at examples of using ‘the past tense’ in a way that is not referring to past time.  In these EXPERT EXAMPLES: It’s time we started to think about the environment and a little bit less about money. Isle of Man Newspapers As an environmentalist, we would rather that didn’t happen. TED ‘the past tense’ expresses a wish that is distanced from the real situation. In reality, they are not thinking …

‘would rather’ | ‘it’s time’ + PAST TENSE CLAUSE Read More »

Here are EXPERT EXAMPLES of subject and verb ellipsis after ‘if’: When you speak your character’s words, you can hear whether they sound natural, and fix them if necessary. TED *If necessary = if it is necessary. Unlike the billions of people who have few options, if any, due to war, poverty or illness, you have plentiful opportunities to live decisively. TED *if any = if there are any.     Planet Radio If in doubt, don’t drive. *if in doubt = in you are in doubt. GSE 66 B2 omit …

if + necessary | any | anything | in doubt (subject and verb ellipsis) Read More »

Here’s an EXPERT EXAMPLE of future perfect passive: If you live to 90, then 32 years will have been spent entirely asleep. TED PEARSON GSE 67 B2+ future perfect passive simple is oddly unlisted in the English Grammar Profile.  The EGP does have perfect passive at B2, but no mention of it with ‘will have been + past participle’.  For that reason here we …

future perfect passive Read More »

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 »

GSE 71 B2+ describe present or future outcomes of a hypothetical situation using initial ‘only if’ with inversion of subject and object. ‘Only if’ + first/second conditional with inversion The complexity of this structure is highly unlikely to be B2 as Pearson has it listed.  The most similar EGP construction is ‘Only when’ + first …

‘ONLY IF’ + (inverted conditional) Read More »

Point 73 GSE B2+ is defined: express impersonal belief and opinion using ‘thought/considered/believed/etc.’ +’ to’ + VP infSTUDENT STUDENT EXAMPLES: Moreover, English is considered to be an international language. PELIC Thai male level 5 writing class.   In addition, he is believed to be the first teacher, because the first education system in ancient China was established by Confucius. PELIC Chinese male level 5 grammar class. EXPERT EXAMPLE: After all, the first intentional human burial is thought to have occurred around 100,000 years ago. …

passive + TO infinitve (belief or opinion) Read More »

Let’s analyse two EXPERT EXAMPLES to understand inversion with negative adverbials. Under no circumstances should doodling be eradicated from a classroom or a boardroom or even the war room. TED   In no way am I saying that preference doesn’t exist. TED ‘Under no circumstances‘ and ‘In no way‘ are examples of complex negative adverbial phrases that will modify the following verb phrases: ‘should be eradicated’ or ‘am saying’. Inversion is just switching the subject and …

negative adverbials + inversion Read More »

We know that ‘but for’ + a phrase means except for or if it were not for. At C1, this structure can be combined with a ‘would have clause’  so it is similar to a past conditional.  All together this construction means “if it wasn’t for this thing that happened, then this other thing was …

‘BUT FOR’ (third conditional) Read More »

I came across a project here. It’s as the title goes about the same thing EnglishGrammar.Pro is preoccupied with.  I was interested in using his ‘data set’ with our profiler here.  There is always going to be a difference between receptive skills such as reading and productive skills such as writing.  It might also be …

Predicting the CEFR Level of English Texts Read More »

I came across what seems to be another vocabulary only ‘predictor.  The ‘CEFR checker’ is most probably drawn from the English Vocabulary Profile. As with the ‘Write & Improve’ website’s CEFR level predictor, I put through 10 sentences that contain C2 grammar points.  Both of these gave me a prediction of B2.  The same sentences …

Duo Lingo – CEFR checker Read More »

This is an example of modality in a question:

NEED I GO ON?

It could be asked with the meaning: I don’t need to keep talking about this.

Here’s an example of past modality:

You HAD TO HAVE KNOWN about the problem before you started driving.

Before the car broke down on the highway, I am sure you noticed something was wrong with the car.

I am always wondering about the negative effect that ‘Grammarly’ has on English learner’s writing ability. I have it on to help me spot basic typos, which is really useful, but learners might just click on every suggestion that it makes. Here are some examples of incorrect ‘correction advice’ in just two sentences I was …

grammarly Read More »

The construction ‘try as * might,’ means that someone is trying very hard, but they still cannot do it. In the English Grammar Profile, point 219 in the category of MODALITY is defined: ‘try as I might’ for emphasis at the beginning of a sentence. An iWeb search for . Try as * _VM 1 …

Try as ‘someone’ might Read More »

It had LITTLE OR NO EFFECT on me.

Here are some examples of how quantifying determiners can be used in a non-literal and non-academic way:

I have TONS OF THINGS to do this weekend, but the party might be LOADS OF FUN.
I told you MILLIONS OF TIMES that housework and study are more important than your parties!