Episode 38 How I figure out verb phrase errors

Hello folks!

This week I’m going to talk you through the processes I follow when I see a verb phrase that my English-native-speaker gut feeling tells me is wrong and I automatically know how to correct it but I want to really understand what’s driving the correction. This episode was inspired by one of my students who will remain anonymous and the use of the verb phrase have been arising.

Here’s a link to the dictionary definition that I refer to in the episode.

If you want to read more about stative verbs, check out chapter 5.3 of Biber, Douglas, et al. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, which I also reference in this episode.

If you have verb phrases you suspect are “wrong” but can’t figure out why, leave them in the comments below and we can investigate them together.

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