Complex Sentences for IELTS Speaking

complex grammar structures are really important if you want to get a band 7 or above in ielts speaking but what are they exactly and how do we use them let's find out [Music] hello this is keith um from the keith speaking academy and the youtube channel english speaking success here to help you well speak better english give better answers and get a higher score on ielts speaking so the band descriptors for grammar in ielts speaking talk about simple and complex grammar right it says over here for a band 7 uses a range of complex structures with some flexibility so in today's video i'm going to give you an overview of both simple and complex grammar so that you can start to slowly build up your ability to make complex sentences i say slowly right those of you who know me know i don't believe in magic overnight solutions right i believe learning english is about taking your time having fun learning deeply and enjoying english for the rest of your life so this video is a short overview but i hope it helps now all of that said at the same time there is one very simple secret it's not a secret right it's not hidden right it's just that it's so simple that most people miss it um and it's the secret if you like to building complex structures it's really simple i'm going to tell you about that very shortly so keep watching finally notice that the important thing right is not just knowing about the grammar it's being able to use it and to have this balance between using it fluently and using it accurately that's the skill you need to build up and so what's really important is practice practice practice and today later i'm going to tell you about one of my favorite platforms where you can practice and it's cambly cambly is an online teaching and learning platform um and they've got native english speakers qualified high quality who can help guide you with your learning and help you practice and also correct your mistakes more about that later but right now did i say later or later more about that later but right now let's get into some complex grammar now complex grammar can include many things but here i'm going to look at two main areas to give you a flavor of what it can include if you want to know more i recommend that you follow my complete preparation course for ielts speaking ielts speaking success get a band seven plus okay go and check it out but not yet first of all let's look at tenses so let me look first at simple tenses and then complex tenses the following are generally seen as simple tenses the present simple used for facts regular activities for example i work from home it's true right i play football every thursday well actually i don't but just for practice i don't play football every thursday um present continuous used for an activity now i'm drinking tea now past simple for an activity finished in the past um i went to the park yesterday pass continuous um for a continuous activity in the past i was reading a book when the phone rang it's often used with the simple past together in the same sentence and finally the future simple using will for maybe decisions predictions or promises um i will call you tomorrow i i will call you tomorrow i've just decided tom won't come he hates parties right that's a prediction so all of these are seen as simple tenses as the name often gives away present simple past simple right now then what about complex sentences now the following are generally seen as being more complex tenses okay so we've got first of all the present perfect which is usually for an unfinished past activity or for experiences right for example i have lived here for 10 years or i have never seen the queen and let's just make sure you get the right intonation and pronunciation so we'd normally do contractions right i've lived here for 10 years that's right i've lived here for 10 years i've never seen the queen brilliant okay the next one present perfect continuous which we use for unfinished past activities again in this context it can be used the same as the present perfect okay i've been living here for 10 years you could say i've lived here for 10 years but you could just make it more complex right i've been living here for 10 years notice the pause i've been living here for 10 years and remember practice sentences that are true for you i've been living here in santander for three years what about you nice next the past perfect and we use this often to clarify an event before a moment in the past i had already booked the tickets before i arrived at the station or emphasizing the already i had already booked the ticket before i arrived at the station past perfect continuous here it's used for a continuous activity before a moment in the past i went to see the doctor because i had been having knee pains it's true i had been having knee pains notice the contraction i had i'd i'd been i'd been having i'd been having knee pains yeah nice next the conditionals now there are many conditionals and we often mix them up in real spoken english but it is useful to be aware of the second and the third conditional which are generally seen as be more complex for example for unreal situations well if i had more money i would buy a bigger house and the wood we normally contract right so listen to the intonation if i had more money i'd buy a bigger house right good what about you what would you do if you had more money if i had more money really great um third conditional and this is often for an unreal past situation so something that didn't happen in the past which sounds a bit strange and mystical but if i had known let's i didn't know but let's imagine if i had known i would have gone right if i had known i would have gone notice the contraction if i had known if i'd known if i'd known i would have gone i would have gone or even i'd have gone i'd have gone right very good great now notice um another example of complex grammar is when we use a lot of these tenses that we've just looked at but we use them in reported speech sometimes called indirect speech right when somebody says something and then we tell somebody what they said right so your friend says for example your friend says um i enjoyed the food but i won't go back to that restaurant and you tell somebody else you said yeah my friend he said he had enjoyed the food but that he wouldn't go back to the restaurant again right you see the different complex tenses tenses that we're using here so reported speech um and that is something actually you can use in part two when you're telling the story of something that happened and he said that he would have done that and you can use reported speech quite well in part two of ielts speaking in fact it's just occurred to me that if you want to see how you can use these different tenses in different parts of ielts speaking you should check out my course fluency for ielts speaking this is blatant self-promotion but the course here it looks at lots of different grammar points and how you can best use them in different parts of the ielts speaking test lots of um ideas and possibilities right go and check it out blatant self-promotion right good let's move on now an important thing to add is that complexity of grammar doesn't lie in just one sentence right it lies across whole sentences and whole answers and to see how this works really well i want to tell you do you remember the secret the simple secret right to building complex sentences let me tell you that right now now you've probably heard of sentences right sentences are the basic building blocks of writing but we don't always speak in sentences and you're like what what are you talking about it's true right the way that we write and the way that we speak are very different here's an example right i found this sentence over here on a website it's about my the city where i live and it says i visited santander which is not a very pretty city due to a fire that destroyed it in 1941. now that's great for writing but we don't speak like that we would never speak like that when we speak we break our language into smaller units so that it's easier to use and easier to remember if you try to memorize this and speak like this it'd be you know i visited santander which is not a very pretty city due to a due to a what due to a fire that happened i can't even remember what i'm talking about and not only you can't remember but the listener has fallen asleep at the same time right so actually when we speak we break this down into manageable units or phrases or chunks or clauses something like this i visited santander it's not a very pretty city because there was a fire a fire that destroyed it in 1941 right these are simple blocks that are easier to remember and easier to control your intonation so a clause is the basic building block of speaking that's the secret right it's so simple all you have to do is put together the clauses so what is a clause exactly well in simple terms a clause right will have two things it will have a subject and a verb phrase the subject like i you he she can also be a noun phrase like the the car or the black cat and then you've got the verb phrase sometimes called a predicate if you like fancy words and the verb phrase tells us something about the subject very simple example i live in spain i is the subject live in spain is the verb phrase right and we can build complex structures by building two or three or more clauses together don't focus on perfect writing and punctuation focus on perfect pauses and intonation that's how you sound natural that's how you build complex grammar that's the way to do it i'm going to show you some very specific examples so that this is crystal clear but before we do that i need some more tea what about you great at last more tea but listen what would you like okay great listen i hope you're enjoying the video so far if you are please do remember to subscribe and turn on the notifications now complex grammar right i think the really really important thing is practice practice practice and as i mentioned earlier i think one of the best places to do that is to sign up for cambly cambly is an online platform with native english speakers what's great about it is that you can choose your own tutor you can study when it suits you right and you decide what to do and your teacher can also guide you the classes are recorded so you can actually go back and watch them again and there's a variety of different study plans to meet your different needs and do remember cambly also have a selection of different um pre-prepared courses including ielts courses that you get for free once you've signed up as cambly are sponsoring this video then they have some discounts for you my lovely students so basically this is the deal with the code in the description you can have a free 10 minute lesson on cambly and then if you like it you can buy a 12 month plan with a discount of 40 percent that's it 4-0 40 percent of the 12-month plan you can't go wrong absolutely brilliant you can practice lots and get ready for your ielts speaking test thank you very much to cambly for sponsoring this and guys go and check them out you will absolutely love it the code to use for the discounts is keith dash y t that's keith dash yt get on cambly start practicing enjoy your english right now let's get back to getting you a band 7 or above with some complex grammar on your ielts speaking test okay so coming back to those clauses right the basic building blocks of speaking first of all let's look at clauses and conjunctions right so we can join two clauses with words like and but for nor or so simple conjunctions right for example i live in spain and i like it very much but the weather is a bit too hot right you can see three clauses connected with these conjunctions we're already starting to build a more complex sentence and notice how i've written it out in clauses and chunks so you can better control the pausing and the phrasing and intonation of your natural spoken english great just listen to the intonation and see if you can follow me right i live in spain and i like it very much but the weather is a bit too hot you see that control is really what you need to sound natural great let's move on next let's look at relative clauses now you've probably heard of these before but basically this is where you describe your first clause with a second clause which can be an adjective or a relative clause right we can be using words like who which that where when whose for example i live in spain which is a beautiful country i live in a city where there is not too much traffic i work for a woman who is very friendly right now let's see how we can start building blocks and putting clauses together okay i live in spain which is a pretty big country and i like it very much right we're mixing relative clause and the conjunction or i live in spain which is a pretty big country and i like it very much although the weather's a bit too hot can you see what's happening how we're mixing and we're building these clauses and we're creating quite complex grammar and there's more let's carry on now let's look at adverbial clauses so this is where we describe how something happens or or when it happens or why it happens right with an adverbial clause and we'll be using words like before after because although when if until as if there's many right for example i decided to buy a playstation after seeing an advert on tv two clauses joined with after i lived in malaysia before moving to spain right i live in spain because the food is great now let's see as we start to build up these blocks making more complex sentence sentences we could say i live in spain because the food is great although i think they eat too much fish right you could switch it around right take the same structure i work as a teacher because i enjoy showing people how to learn although the hours are quite long right what about you i work as a because although what would you say interesting another example i live in spain which is a pretty big country because the food is great and notice how we're using intonation to show that the the relative clause is a non-defining relative clause right it's that extra information i live in spain which is a pretty big country because the food is great so we're using pausing and intonation to build complex grammar let's chop it up and mix things around a bit right i live in spain which is a pretty big country because the food is great although i think they eat too much fish can you see how we're building complex grammar and we can even start throwing in some of those complex tenses right mixing it all together something like this i've been living in spain for three years which is quite a long time actually partly because the food is great although i think they eat too much fish you can see what's happening right i don't think they eat too much fish actually it's very very healthy it's just that i'm not a big fish man a fish man yeah i'm not really into fish that much but complex grammar right it what we're doing is we're taking clauses we're taking different tenses and we're basically like you're building a house you're constructing you're constructing your complex grammar but don't do it from a writing point of view do it from a speaking point of view focus on pauses clauses and intonation and bob's your ankle great moving on wow so there's a lot of information right but i hope you can see how you can start to build complex grammar structures for your ielts speaking now i suggest you go back and watch some of the video again and practice making your own complex phrases to talk about you your job your family your studies or your home these common topics right think about tenses think about clauses and then share one of your phrases in the comments below and let's see how you get better and better remember it's all about the practice practice practice practice get on to camberley right find yourself a teacher of your choice and start practicing thank you very much to kimberly for sponsoring this video do remember you can get a discount on the 12-month plan um you'll get a 40 discount if you sign up for 12 months and if you just want to try it out you can do a 10 minute free lesson to see if it fits for you brilliant i'm very grateful that you've watched the video this far thank you so much i can't wait to see you very shortly in the next video take care my friend [Music] bye-bye [Music] you

Channel: English Speaking Success

Views: 197,358

Keywords: ielts speaking, ielts keith, english grammar, ielts grammar, ielts speaking grammar, grammar for ielts speaking, ielts speaking grammar tips, ielts grammar tips, keith speaking academy, complex grammar structures for ielts, complex grammar structures for ielts speaking, ielts complex sentences, ielts complex sentences examples, ielts speaking complex structures, how to make complex sentences in ielts speaking

Id: HISR0P-y3x4

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 31 2021