* Over 350 tables and graphs show the frequency of constructions in different contexts, from conversation to fiction to academic prose * Entirely corpus-based with 6000 authentic examples from the 40 million-word Longman Spoken and Written English Corpus * Suggests the reasons why we choose a particular structure in a particular context * Compares British and American spoken and written English Areas covered include basic grammar: description and distribution, key word classes and their phrases and complex structures. Each area is subdivided into more detailed content.