Students always tell me that the most
difficult part of the B2 First Cambridge exam
is part four of the Use of English paper: the
Keyword Transformations... and yeah they're difficult... but also they're
fun! So much fun... My name is Toby, this is
SMASH English and here is everything you need
to know about doing part 4 of the Use of English
paper for the B2 First Cambridge exam! Let's have a look at our first question!
I regret being late for the party. Our key word here is TURNED.
I ..... up late to the party. We must make the second sentence mean
the same as the first sentence using our key word we must write between
two and five words. The first step is to
eliminate parts of both sentences that mean the same thing. This
makes sure our attention is focused on what
we need to change. We have the subject "I". Eliminate that we don't need it.
We have "late for the party" and "late to the party",
these have the same meaning here so let's eliminate them too.
But remember the preposition "to" instead of
"for", that might be important! Now we have "regret being"
so we are talking about a regret, obviously. Can we use regret again?
Well, we have the verb TURNED which is a past participle. After
REGRET we need a GERUND or an ING form so this is
impossible. Do we know any other structures in
English to talk about regrets? Yes! I WISH and IF ONLY! I'm so excited!
Here we have the SUBJECT "I" as the first word
in the sentence so we know we need I WISH and not IF ONLY.
Now, remember we're talking about a regret,
so what is the grammar with I WISH for regrets? I WISH plus
the PAST PERFECT. Are we regretting the fact that we did something
or the fact that we didn't do something? That we did do something. So we must use
the past perfect in the negative form: I WISH
I HAD NOT. And now we can use our verb "I wish I had not turned
up late to the party" and we are finished! Maybe you do not know the phrasal verb
TURN UP and you think "oh my gosh how can I do
this? I don't know "turn up"!" Well, don't be
stupid. TURNED is the past participle form of
TURN. After the PAST PERFECT we need the past
participle. TURNED is your keyword so put it in
there! It doesn't matter if you don't know what
it means. If you don't know what it means, why don't you watch my
fantastic video about every phrasal verb with turn for the B2 First Cambridge exam? You will learn all of them and then
you will say "I know the phrasal verb TURN UP because
I watched a great SMASH English video!" Now you can click
subscribe, and leave a comment! Say thank you! Thank you! Let's try
another one because we are having so much fun!
I think you should stop smoking. Our key word is UP. If
i were you I .......... smoking. We need to make the second sentence mean
the same as the first using our keyword UP and only using
between two to five words. The first step:
what can we eliminate? Eliminate! Why!? What is the function of the first
sentence? We have I THINK and SHOULD. The function then
is to give advice. I THINK YOU SHOULD. In our second sentence
we have IF I WERE YOU. This is a second conditional and we use
if I were you to give advice. So for this example i don't think we
should eliminate anything. Understanding the function of
the sentences is what is important here. The function
of both sentences is to give advice. So we know
that we need to complete a second conditional.
The IF clause, the CONDITION clause is already finished so we need to focus
on the MAIN clause, the RESULT clause. We already have the subject.
What modal verb comes after the subject in the main clause, the result clause, of
a second conditional? WOULD! If I were you
I would .... smoking. SMOKING is a gerund! We always use the gerund after a
preposition. So we can already put UP
before SMOKING without knowing the word before it.
This gives us IF I WERE YOU I WOULD... UP SMOKING. Let us go back to our first
sentence. What information is missing? We need to say
STOP. Can you think of a phrasal verb with the preposition
UP that means to stop doing something? GIVE UP! Wow! If I were you
I would give up smoking. And again we are done! If you need any more
help with the second conditional then I have
a video all about the second conditional! Wow,
Toby! Amazing! Great! Uh, click it, watch it, learn! Yes!
Do we have time for one more?! Of course we have time for one more! My holiday was terrible because I lost
my wallet and the hotel was dirty. Our key word is LOSE.
I hated my holiday because not only........ ......but also the hotel was dirty.
OK, now you are regretting asking for another! This is difficult! If you have
no idea what to do then full marks are impossible but we can still
do something! Remember, for every question two marks are available! So writing
something is aaaaaaaalwaaaayssss Why? Writing something is always better
than writing nothing. So let's get eliminating! My holiday was terrible
because. I hated my holiday because. This is the
same so let's eliminate! ELIMINATE!
And the hotel was dirty. But also the hotel was dirty. ELIMINATE!
So all we need to replicate is "I lost my wallet" but we have the
infinitive form, the verb LOSE. Well let's be stupid!
What did I lose? My wallet! So let's write that! I LOSE MY WALLET.
I hated my holiday because not only I lose my wallet but also the hotel was
dirty. Now we have one point because we have
written "lose my wallet" correctly. But of course
this is wrong. "I lose my wallet" is the present simple
and the original sentence is in the past simple,
but we have the present simple form of LOSE
so we cannot use the past simple with LOST.
So what do we do? INVERSION! Some structures in english require an
inversion. This is where we put the auxiliary verb
before the subject. Basically we use the
interrogative form. If you know nothing about inversion then
please watch my video on it! It is very
important and a very easy way to boost your marks
in speaking and writing! So watch it, learn! Yes!
So our original sentence was in the past simple this means that for our inversion
we need to use the past simple interrogative form. NOT ONLY DID I LOSE MY WALLET! And with that we are finished... for today. I will make a
playlist all about word transformations and we
will do them regularly! It will be fun and we will
form a special connection over our love of word
transformations! If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button,
subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment
down below. My name is Toby and this was SMASH English. you
