Grammar Safari

Finding examples of grammatical structures on the WWW
using the Search Function

AN OVERVIEW

There are two ways to look for examples of how English works on the WWW:

  • USING THE SEARCH FUNCTION:

    If you are looking for less common words, you can make use of search engines provided to help locate information on particular topics. These will help you locate texts that contain the words you are looking for, and then you can use the FIND function to locate the word within the text. Below is an example of this kind of search -- an "exotic" Grammar Safari:

  • USING THE FIND FUNCTION:

    If you are looking for very common words or phrases (like articles, gerunds, infinitives, etc.) you need to locate a document first, and then use the FIND button at the top of the screen to locate the words you are looking for. (Click here for an example of looking for relative clauses in Little Women -- a "common" Grammar Safari)

Finding examples of in case on the WWW

(an example of an "Exotic" Grammar Safari -- using SEARCH)


CHOOSE A SEARCH ENGINE

1. In your web browser, go to your favorite search engine (for example, Google.)

SEARCH FOR A WORD OR PHRASE

2. Then you can ask your search engine to find documents containing any words or combinations of words you want to find. For example, if you want to find examples of in case, you can type the words "in case" in the box .. with quotation marks around the phrase, so it won't find examples of only in or only case. (You can narrow the search by adding other words if you want. You could type in both "in case" and chemistry, for example, and find only articles that contain both of those phrases. But for our example we'll just look for in case.)

You can find more information about how to specify more complicated searches on each individual search engine's page.

Each search engine has its own way of letting you choose things like what to search and how to display the results. But the basic idea is the same.

3. If you click on Search (or Submit, or Go, etc.), you will see that the search engine will find thousands of documents with the phrase in case in them! Each search engine displays the results and moves from page to page a little differently, but the basic idea is the same for most of them.

You can then select any that look interesting, and after you have one on your screen, select Find under the Edit menu at the top to locate in case (if you don't immediately notice it on the screen.)

COLLECT EXAMPLES, AND LOOK FOR MORE

4. When you find examples you would like to save, you can copy them into a wordprocessing file (as described in the instructions for Grammar Safaris for "common" game, steps 5-16) and arrange them, add comments, or whatever you want to do with them. (Of course, always remember to include the source of your example.)

5. To go back to the list to select another document to look at, simply press the BACK button. To go back to search for a different word, return to the search engine page, or choose a different search engine. Keep experimenting until you get what you want.

    WARNING: Using this kind of search engine, you will find many different kinds of documents. Be sure to consider the source of the examples you are using! You might not want to collect every example you find.

The more examples you find, the more you'll learn!

Ann Salzmann
Intensive English Institute
University of Illinois