Would + limited range of adverbs – English Grammar Profiler

If you have a pre-intermediate or intermediate class, you may want to teach adverbs with modal verbs.  This is what we find in the EGP:

Point 104 in modality at B1 is based on a limited range of adverbs with ‘would’, including ‘really’, ‘probably’, ‘certainly‘ and ‘definitely’ which to some degree clashes with point 30 in the category of adverbs in the mid position as A2.

Point 57 in Modality at B1 overlaps point 104 to some degree.  Point 104 is not just about “would” either.  Its criteria, however, moves beyond form “modal verb + modal adverb” to usage: “modify an assertion, either through hedging or emphasis.”   Although the EGP does not suggest which adverbs can be used for this, we can pick out from their examples:  “surely”, “certainly” and “probably“.

How does this selection compare with frequency in native texts?

In the iWeb corpus, the most frequent infinitives found with “would + adverbs“:

On the right, are not the EGP chosen adverbs.

1 WOULD ALSO BE 56301

This collocates 5 sides left and right:

1 BETTER (JJR ) 2180 2 IDEA (NN1 ) 930 3 FINE (JJ ) 619 4 CHOICE (NN1 ) 582 5 EASIER (JJR ) 530

6 EASIEST (JJT ) 337

7 OK (JJ ) 328 8 CHEAPER (JJR ) 292 9 BET (NN1 ) 276

10 WISE (JJ ) 236

3 WOULD STILL BE 43260
4 WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND 43019

5 WOULD NEVER HAVE 34331

6 WOULD ALSO LIKE 26412

Notice that “would highly recommend” is almost twice as frequent.

8 WOULD NEVER BE 21657 9 WOULD OTHERWISE BE 19900 10 WOULD LIKELY BE 17821

11 WOULD THEN BE 16963

12 WOULD REALLY LIKE 16675

This is mostly “I would like” meaning “want”.

13 WOULD JUST BE 16349

14 WOULD PROBABLY HAVE 14350

This point is mostly followed by past participle.

15 WOULD ALSO HAVE 13097 16 WOULD NORMALLY BE 12481 17 WOULD RATHER HAVE 12336 18 WOULD STILL HAVE 11431

19 WOULD JUST LIKE 10499

20 WOULD CERTAINLY BE 10493

21 WOULD ALWAYS BE 10414

22 WOULD DEFINITELY BE 9870

23 WOULD ACTUALLY BE 9019

24 WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE 8675

25 WOULD RATHER BE 8638 26 WOULD SOON BE 7691 27 WOULD NEVER DO 7532 28 WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE 7192 29 WOULD LIKELY HAVE 6931 30 WOULD NOW BE 6901 31 WOULD ALSO MAKE 6315 32 WOULD EVER BE 6122

33 WOULD ONLY HAVE 5964

34 WOULD REALLY BE 5708

35 WOULD THEN HAVE 5598 36 WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE 5311 37 WOULD LATER BE 5190 38 WOULD NEVER GET 5150 39 WOULD ALSO RECOMMEND 4682 40 WOULD ALSO HELP 4646 41 WOULD LATER BECOME 4557 42 WOULD STRONGLY RECOMMEND 4532

43 WOULD STILL LIKE 4531

44 WOULD DEFINITELY USE 4436

45 WOULD NEVER KNOW 4389 46 WOULD ALSO NEED 4368 47 WOULD EVENTUALLY BE 4301

48 WOULD ALSO WORK 4084

49 WOULD REALLY LOVE 4065

50 WOULD NEVER GO 4020

51 WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE 3998

52 WOULD NEVER WANT 3932 53 WOULD EVEN BE 3914 54 WOULD RATHER SEE 3885

55 WOULD SIMPLY BE 3875

56 WOULD SURELY BE 3728

57 WOULD JUST HAVE 3650 58 WOULD ALSO SUGGEST 3639

59 WOULD STILL NEED 3601

60 WOULD REALLY HELP 3597

61 WOULD NEVER HAPPEN 3584 62 WOULD NEVER SEE 3491 63 WOULD USUALLY BE 3389 64 WOULD NEVER USE 3369 65 WOULD JUST GO 3363 66 WOULD EVENTUALLY BECOME 3351 67 WOULD EVER HAVE 3271 68 WOULD ALSO ADD 3234 69 WOULD ONLY BE 3226 70 WOULD ONLY NEED 3213 71 WOULD THEREFORE BE 3085 72 WOULD ALSO ALLOW 3062 73 WOULD ALREADY BE 3045 74 WOULD INDEED BE 2953

75 WOULD NORMALLY HAVE 2943

76 WOULD PROBABLY MAKE 2917

77 WOULD ONLY TAKE 2884
78 WOULD ALSO LOVE 2869

79 WOULD PROBABLY WORK 2854
80 WOULD PROBABLY DO 2821

81 WOULD ONLY MAKE 2820

82 WOULD PROBABLY TAKE 2760
83 WOULD PROBABLY GET 2741

84 WOULD SURELY HAVE 2698

85 WOULD ALWAYS HAVE 2688

86 WOULD CERTAINLY RECOMMEND 2687

87 WOULD JUST MAKE 2686

88 WOULD PROBABLY GO 2648

89 WOULD TYPICALLY BE 2617 90 WOULD JUST GET 2611

91 WOULD EVER WANT 2550

92 WOULD DEFINITELY BUY 2540

93 WOULD JUST SAY 2508 94 WOULD ONLY GET 2498 95 WOULD NEVER SAY 2473 96 WOULD OBVIOUSLY BE 2469

97 WOULD ALSO INCLUDE 2423

98 WOULD DEFINITELY GO 2407

99 WOULD ALSO GIVE 2387
100 WOULD OFTEN BE 2366

In the iWeb corpus, the most frequent infinitives found with “would + the EGP adverbs”:

1 WOULD REALLY LIKE 16692 2 WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE 8799 3 WOULD REALLY BE 5828 4 WOULD REALLY LOVE 4179 5 WOULD REALLY HELP 3677 6 WOULD REALLY HAVE 1388 7 WOULD REALLY MAKE 1369 8 WOULD REALLY RECOMMEND 1158 9 WOULD REALLY ENJOY 1081 10 WOULD REALLY WANT 1041 11 WOULD REALLY NEED 755 12 WOULD REALLY BENEFIT 632 13 WOULD REALLY PREFER 546 14 WOULD REALLY WORK 531 15 WOULD REALLY GET 479 16 WOULD REALLY DO 385 17 WOULD REALLY SUCK 356 18 WOULD REALLY TAKE 354 19 WOULD REALLY DEPEND 302

20 WOULD REALLY ENCOURAGE 290

1 WOULD PROBABLY BE 47320 2 WOULD PROBABLY HAVE 14407 3 WOULD PROBABLY MAKE 2921 4 WOULD PROBABLY WORK 2886 5 WOULD PROBABLY DO 2832 6 WOULD PROBABLY TAKE 2788 7 WOULD PROBABLY GET 2756 8 WOULD PROBABLY GO 2668 9 WOULD PROBABLY NEED 2323 10 WOULD PROBABLY SAY 2211 11 WOULD PROBABLY WANT 1921 12 WOULD PROBABLY USE 1410 13 WOULD PROBABLY LOOK 1285 14 WOULD PROBABLY HELP 1275 15 WOULD PROBABLY LIKE 1074 16 WOULD PROBABLY END 1066 17 WOULD PROBABLY GIVE 1043 18 WOULD PROBABLY FIND 997

19 WOULD PROBABLY AGREE 967

1 WOULD CERTAINLY BE 10558 2 WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE 4033 3 WOULD CERTAINLY RECOMMEND 2694 4 WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE 1528 5 WOULD CERTAINLY HELP 1399 6 WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE 746 7 WOULD CERTAINLY USE 725 8 WOULD CERTAINLY CONSIDER 463 9 WOULD CERTAINLY GIVE 463 10 WOULD CERTAINLY TAKE 437 11 WOULD CERTAINLY DO 425 12 WOULD CERTAINLY GO 405 13 WOULD CERTAINLY SEEM 389 14 WOULD CERTAINLY EXPLAIN 373 15 WOULD CERTAINLY WANT 366 16 WOULD CERTAINLY GET 353 17 WOULD CERTAINLY AGREE 340 18 WOULD CERTAINLY LOVE 307 19 WOULD CERTAINLY WORK 306

20 WOULD CERTAINLY APPRECIATE 301

1 WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND 24661 2 WOULD DEFINITELY BE 10009 3 WOULD DEFINITELY USE 4480 4 WOULD DEFINITELY BUY 2556 5 WOULD DEFINITELY GO 2421 6 WOULD DEFINITELY HAVE 2273 7 WOULD DEFINITELY STAY 1927 8 WOULD DEFINITELY MAKE 1457 9 WOULD DEFINITELY DO 1414 10 WOULD DEFINITELY SAY 1313 11 WOULD DEFINITELY LIKE 1250 12 WOULD DEFINITELY HELP 1102 13 WOULD DEFINITELY CONSIDER 1078 14 WOULD DEFINITELY WANT 1038 15 WOULD DEFINITELY GET 1036 16 WOULD DEFINITELY ORDER 989 17 WOULD DEFINITELY SUGGEST 827 18 WOULD DEFINITELY TAKE 822 19 WOULD DEFINITELY PURCHASE 800

20 WOULD DEFINITELY TRY 790

Some EGP examples: