(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to say that someone or something gives the impression of having a particular quality, or of happening in the way you describe.
We heard a series of explosions. They ~ed quite close by...
Everyone ~s busy except us...
To everyone who knew them, they ~ed an ideal couple...
?50 ~s a lot to pay...
The calming effect ~ed to last for about ten minutes...
It was a record that ~ed beyond reach...
The proposal ~s designed to break opposition to the government’s economic programme...
It ~s that the attack this morning was very carefully planned to cause few casualties...
It ~s clear that he has no reasonable alternative...
It ~ed as if she’d been gone forever...
There ~s to be a lot of support in Congress for this move...
There ~s no possibility that such action can be averted...
This phenomenon is not as outrageous as it ~s.
V-LINK: no cont, V adj, V adj, V n, V n, V to-inf, V prep, V -ed, it V that, it V adj that, it V as if, there V to-inf, there V n, V
2.
You use ~ when you are describing your own feelings or thoughts, or describing something that has happened to you, in order to make your statement less forceful.
I ~ to have lost all my self-confidence...
I ~ to remember giving you very precise instructions...
Excuse me I ~ to be a little bit lost.
V-LINK: no cont, V to-inf, V to-inf, V to-inf vagueness
3.
If you say that you cannot ~ or could not ~ to do something, you mean that you have tried to do it and were unable to.
No matter how hard I try I cannot ~ to catch up on all the bills...
PHRASE: PHR to-inf
4.
see also ~ing