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Oxford Online English, Grammar Lesson #1 - Tips to Improve Your Sentence Structure

Grammar Lesson #1 - Tips to Improve Your Sentence Structure

Hi, I'm Daniel.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn the most important grammar rule in English.

Of course, you need to know many things to use grammar correctly in English.

However, there's one tip that can dramatically improve your English grammar—especially

in writing.

First, don't forget to check out our website: Oxford Online English dot com.

We have many free lessons to help you improve your English.

There's also a level test, which can show you how good your grammar is now.

But, you want to hear the grammar tip, right?

What is it?

Let's see!

Here's the basic idea: make sure your sentence has a subject and a verb, and that you know

what the subject and main verb are.

Every sentence needs a verb, and unless your sentence is an imperative—meaning that you're

giving someone a command—then your sentence needs a subject, too.

Each clause in your sentence should have one subject and one main verb, and only one subject

and one main verb.

It sounds simple.

Maybe you're thinking, ‘This is too easy!

I know this already!'

However, we see students make mistakes with this all the time, especially in writing.

Mistakes with this point are serious, because they often make it hard to understand what

you want to say.

Even if your meaning is clear, sentences with this problem are often difficult to read.

In any situation, that's a problem.

It's especially serious if you're taking an exam, like IELTS.

Let's look at the most basic point.

Your sentence needs a subject, which should be a noun or noun phrase, like ‘they',

‘everybody', or ‘my maths teacher from high school'.

Then, you need a main verb, which generally goes after the subject.

With this, you can make simple sentences like these: ‘They have a nice house';

‘Everybody agreed.'

‘My maths teacher from high school was really good at explaining complicated things.'

After the main verb, you might have a simple complement, like ‘a nice house'.

You might have nothing at all.

Your sentence might finish after the verb, like ‘Everybody agreed.'

Or, you might have a longer complement, possibly including other verbs, as in ‘My math teacher

from high school was really good at explaining complicated things.'

So, you're probably still thinking that this is easy.

And, so far, it is!

Let's see how it can go wrong.

Look at five sentences: By the way, these sentences are all real examples

from our students' writing.

Most of them come from IELTS writing practice.

All these sentences break the basic rule we mentioned above.

Can you see how?

Pause the video, read the sentences, and try to find the problems.

Start again when you're ready.

In the first sentence, there's no main verb.

'Will' is a modal verb, but a modal verb can't be a main verb; you need a main verb after

it.

For example, 'We will *go* back home next Friday.'

The second sentence has two subjects: ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food' and ‘it'.

One clause can't have two subjects.

To correct this sentence, remove ‘it': ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food *is*

a good idea.'

The third sentence has a main verb, but no subject.

*What* affects individuals' lives directly?

This is difficult to correct, because it's impossible to know what the writer wanted

to say.

You would need to add a noun before the verb ‘affects' to make it understandable.

The fourth sentence has a fragment at the end which includes a subject and a verb.

This means the sentence has too many subjects and verbs; each clause can only have one subject

and one main verb.

What's the solution?

There are many possibilities, but the easiest way to correct this is to break the sentence

into two parts.

You can do this by changing the comma after ‘Alexandria' to a semicolon.

Finally, what about the fifth sentence?

It's difficult to understand, right?

Again, it's difficult to correct this sentence, because it's hard to see the writer's

ideas.

The problem is that this sentence has several parts with several subjects and verbs, and

it's not clear what relates to what.

For example, ‘each society' is a subject, but then ‘forced medical treatment' is

also a subject.

Later in the sentence, we have a verb—‘avoid'—and it isn't clear which subject goes with it.

On a more practical level, it just isn't clear what this sentence is about.

Does the writer want to say something about ‘each society', or about ‘large sets

of people,' or about ‘forced medical treatment'?

We don't know.

This is why subject-verb structure is so important: if it isn't clear, it will be hard to understand

what your sentence is about.

Sometimes, this might mean that your ideas aren't clear in your mind.

Next, let's expand this basic rule and see how you can use it to make a wider range of

sentences.

You heard before that both subjects and verbs can be words or phrases.

Sometimes, your subject or verb might be a longer phrase.

This often leads to mistakes, because when your subject and verb are multiple words,

it's more difficult to keep track of your sentence structure.

Let's do an example together.

Take a sentence you saw before: ‘Everybody agreed.'

You can make the subject—‘everybody'—into a phrase.

For example: ‘Everybody who was at the meeting agreed.'

You can make the verb into a phrase, like this: ‘Everybody who was at the meeting

agreed to change the office dress code.'

You can make each phrase even longer.

For example: ‘Everybody who was at the board meeting held last Tuesday evening agreed to

change the existing office dress code to something more informal.'

Even though we've added lots of new words and ideas, this sentence has the same basic

structure as before.

It still has one subject, and one main verb.

Although we've added a complement after the verb, the verb doesn't have a direct

object.

We haven't added anything grammatically new to the sentence; we've simply expanded

the existing parts.

Let's do one more example of this.

This time, we want you to try!

Here's a basic sentence: ‘My sister called.'

Can you make this sentence longer by changing the subject and verb to longer phrases?

For this exercise, there are a couple of rules.

You can't add a noun after ‘called', because that would change the structure.

You also can't use conjunctions like ‘although' or ‘because'.

The idea is to keep the basic structure the same, so that the sentence has one subject

and one verb which doesn't have a direct object.

Pause the video and try it now.

How did you do?

Of course, there are many ways to do this.

Let's look at three possibilities.

‘My sister Mandy called last night.'

‘My sister, who I haven't spoken to for ages, called to tell me about her new job.'

You can see that you can do this in a simpler way, or you can make the sentence much more

complicated, by adding relative clauses, adjectives, adverbs, and so on.

However, remember the basic idea: all of these sentences have the same basic structure: one

subject and one main verb.

Let's move on and talk about one more important point.

As you heard before, almost all sentences need a subject.

Only imperatives, like ‘Come here!' don't need a subject.

Interjections, like ‘Wow!', also don't need a subject, but many linguists—including

us—would say that these are not sentences.

However, sometimes there isn't a clear noun subject.

In this case, you need to use a word like ‘it' or ‘there'.

For example: ‘It won't take long to get there.'

‘It's worth going.'

‘There's a mosquito on your nose.'

‘There have been several developments since the last time we spoke.'

In these sentences, the words ‘it' and ‘there' are empty subjects; they don't

refer to a specific noun or thing.

You use them only because the sentence needs a subject.

They don't add any meaning to the sentence.

So, what's the difference?

When do you need to use ‘it', and when do you need to use ‘there'?

Use ‘it' to talk about distances and times.

For example: ‘It's not far to the metro.'

‘How long will it take you to finish everything?'

‘It's six thirty.'

You often use ‘it' to talk about the weather, too.

For example: ‘It's sunny.'

‘It'll be cold tomorrow.'

‘It was really wet last month.'

You also use ‘it' to talk about situations, and in a number of phrases like ‘it's

worth…'

For example: ‘It's safe to walk around at night here.'

‘It's good that you could join us.'

‘It's really cosy in here.'

What about ‘there'?

Use ‘there' to say that something exists, or doesn't exist.

Usually, when you use ‘there', it's the first time you're mentioning something.

For example: ‘There's some salad in the fridge.'

‘There are several reasons why I have to say ‘no' to this idea.'

‘There didn't use to be so many homeless people here.'

Let's practise together.

Look at five sentences.

Do you need to add ‘it' or ‘there'?

Pause the video, and think about your answers.

Ready?

Here they are.

Finally, we have one more thing to show you.

In general, the subject of your sentence goes immediately before the main verb.

You can see this in the sentences you've already seen in this lesson.

Sometimes, the main verb also has an auxiliary verb, like ‘have', ‘has', ‘do',

‘does', ‘will', ‘can' and so on.

In positive sentences, the auxiliary verb and the main verb almost always go together.

For example: ‘They have bought a nice house.'

‘My sister Mandy will call tonight.'

However, there's one case where the main verb goes before the subject: questions with

‘be'.

For example: ‘Are you ready?'; ‘Were there many people there?';

In some cases, the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject.

This is most common in questions.

For example: ‘Can you help me?'

‘What time does she arrive?'

‘How many pieces of cake have you had already?'

It's also possible in certain structures which are mostly used in formal writing, like

‘At no time did I suspect that he was the thief.'

At this point, let's review the most important points that you should take away from this

lesson.

One: make sure every sentence has a subject and a main verb in each clause.

Don't put more than one subject or main verb in one clause.

Two: if your subject and main verb are longer phrases, or if you add a lot of adverbs or

subordinate clauses to your sentence, it might be harder to keep track of the structure.

Before you write a sentence, think about this question: what are you talking about, and

what are you saying about this thing?

Decide what you're talking about—the subject—and what you're saying about it—the main verb.

Keep these in your head.

Three: study the difference between main verbs and auxiliary verbs.

Remember that auxiliary verbs can't generally be used alone.

Make sure every auxiliary verb has a main verb attached.

Learn the cases when the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject.

If you can follow these simple steps, your writing will be clearer, better-organised,

and more accurate.

Do you have any tips to help other English learners improve their grammar?

Please share your suggestions in the comments!

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!

Grammar Lesson #1 - Tips to Improve Your Sentence Structure Grammatiklektion 1 - Tipps zur Verbesserung der Satzstruktur Lección de gramática nº 1 - Consejos para mejorar la estructura de las frases Leçon de grammaire n°1 - Conseils pour améliorer la structure des phrases Lezione di grammatica #1 - Suggerimenti per migliorare la struttura delle frasi 文法レッスン第1回 文章の構造を改善するコツ Grammaticales #1 - Tips om je zinsbouw te verbeteren Lekcja gramatyki #1 - Wskazówki dotyczące poprawy struktury zdań Lição de Gramática #1 - Dicas para melhorar a estrutura das frases Урок грамматики №1 - Советы по улучшению структуры предложения Dilbilgisi Dersi #1 - Cümle Yapınızı Geliştirmek için İpuçları Граматичний урок №1 - Поради щодо покращення структури речень 语法课 #1 - 改善句子结构的技巧 語法課 #1 - 改善句子結構的技巧

Hi, I'm Daniel. Hola, soy Daniel.

Welcome to Oxford Online English! Bienvenido a Oxford Online English

In this lesson, you can learn the most important grammar rule in English. En esta lección aprenderás la regla gramatical más importante del inglés.

Of course, you need to know many things to use grammar correctly in English. Por supuesto, hay que saber muchas cosas para utilizar correctamente la gramática en inglés. Seveda morate za pravilno uporabo slovnice v angleščini poznati marsikaj.

However, there's one tip that can dramatically improve your English grammar—especially However, there's one tip that can dramatically improve your English grammar—especially Sin embargo, hay un consejo que puede mejorar drásticamente tu gramática inglesa, especialmente Vendar pa obstaja en nasvet, ki lahko dramatično izboljša vašo angleško slovnico – še posebej

in writing. por escrito.

First, don't forget to check out our website: Oxford Online English dot com. En primer lugar, no olvides visitar nuestro sitio web: Oxford Online English punto com.

We have many free lessons to help you improve your English. Tenemos muchas lecciones gratuitas para ayudarle a mejorar su inglés.

There's also a level test, which can show you how good your grammar is now. También hay una prueba de nivel, que puede mostrarte tu nivel actual de gramática. Obstaja tudi preizkus ravni, ki vam lahko pokaže, kako dobra je vaša slovnica.

But, you want to hear the grammar tip, right? Pero, ¿quieres oír el consejo gramatical, verdad? Ampak hočeš slišati slovnični nasvet, kajne?

What is it? ¿De qué se trata?

Let's see! ¡Vamos a ver!

Here's the basic idea: make sure your sentence has a subject and a verb, and that you know Esta es la idea básica: asegúrate de que tu frase tiene un sujeto y un verbo, y de que sabes

what the subject and main verb are. cuáles son el sujeto y el verbo principal. kaj sta osebek in glavni glagol.

Every sentence needs a verb, and unless your sentence is an imperative—meaning that you're Cada frase necesita un verbo, y a menos que la frase sea un imperativo, es decir, que estés Каждое предложение нуждается в глаголе, и если только ваше предложение не является императивом - то есть, вы Vsak stavek potrebuje glagol in razen če je vaš stavek velelni, kar pomeni, da ste

giving someone a command—then your sentence needs a subject, too. dar una orden a alguien, entonces la frase también necesita un sujeto. nekomu dati ukaz - potem tudi vaš stavek potrebuje subjekt.

Each clause in your sentence should have one subject and one main verb, and only one subject Jeder Satzteil sollte ein Subjekt und ein Hauptverb haben, und zwar nur ein Subjekt Cada oración debe tener un sujeto y un verbo principal, y sólo un sujeto. Vsaka klavzula v vašem stavku mora imeti en subjekt in en glavni glagol ter samo en subjekt

and one main verb. y un verbo principal. in en glavni glagol.

It sounds simple. Parece sencillo.

Maybe you're thinking, ‘This is too easy! Quizá estés pensando: "¡Esto es demasiado fácil!

I know this already!' Das weiß ich schon!' Ya lo sé.

However, we see students make mistakes with this all the time, especially in writing. Wir sehen jedoch immer wieder, dass Schüler dabei Fehler machen, vor allem beim Schreiben. Sin embargo, vemos a los estudiantes cometer errores con esto todo el tiempo, especialmente en la escritura. Vendar opažamo, da učenci pri tem ves čas delajo napake, zlasti pri pisanju.

Mistakes with this point are serious, because they often make it hard to understand what Fehler in diesem Punkt sind schwerwiegend, denn sie machen es oft schwer zu verstehen, was Los errores con este punto son graves, porque a menudo dificultan la comprensión de lo que Napake pri tej točki so resne, saj je pogosto težko razumeti, kaj

you want to say. quieres decir.

Even if your meaning is clear, sentences with this problem are often difficult to read. Selbst wenn Ihr Sinn klar ist, sind Sätze mit diesem Problem oft schwer zu lesen. Aunque su significado sea claro, las frases con este problema suelen ser difíciles de leer. Tudi če je vaš pomen jasen, je stavke s to težavo pogosto težko brati.

In any situation, that's a problem. Das ist in jeder Situation ein Problem. En cualquier situación, eso es un problema.

It's especially serious if you're taking an exam, like IELTS. Besonders ernst ist es, wenn Sie eine Prüfung ablegen, wie z. B. IELTS. Es especialmente grave si te presentas a un examen, como el IELTS. Še posebej resno je, če opravljate izpit, kot je IELTS.

Let's look at the most basic point. Schauen wir uns den grundlegendsten Punkt an. Veamos el punto más básico. Poglejmo najbolj osnovno točko.

Your sentence needs a subject, which should be a noun or noun phrase, like ‘they', Ihr Satz braucht ein Subjekt, das ein Substantiv oder eine Substantivphrase sein sollte, z. B. "sie", La frase necesita un sujeto, que debe ser un sustantivo o una frase nominal, como "ellos", Vaš stavek potrebuje zadevo, ki naj bo samostalnik ali samostalniška besedna zveza, na primer 'oni',

‘everybody', or ‘my maths teacher from high school'. jeder" oder "mein Mathelehrer aus der High School". "todo el mundo", o "mi profesor de matemáticas del instituto". "vsi" ali "moj profesor matematike iz srednje šole".

Then, you need a main verb, which generally goes after the subject. Dann brauchen Sie ein Hauptverb, das im Allgemeinen nach dem Subjekt steht. A continuación, necesitas un verbo principal, que generalmente va después del sujeto. Nato potrebujete glavni glagol, ki gre običajno za osebkom.

With this, you can make simple sentences like these: ‘They have a nice house'; Con esto, puedes hacer frases sencillas como estas: 'Tienen una casa bonita'; S tem lahko sestavite preproste stavke, kot so ti: 'Imajo lepo hišo';

‘Everybody agreed.' Alle waren einverstanden. Todos de acuerdo. 'Vsi so se strinjali.'

‘My maths teacher from high school was really good at explaining complicated things.' Mein Mathelehrer in der Schule war wirklich gut darin, komplizierte Dinge zu erklären. 'Mi profesor de matemáticas del instituto era muy bueno explicando cosas complicadas'. 'Moj profesor matematike iz srednje šole je bil zelo dober pri razlagi zapletenih stvari.'

After the main verb, you might have a simple complement, like ‘a nice house'. Nach dem Hauptverb kann ein einfaches Komplement stehen, wie "ein schönes Haus". Después del verbo principal, puede haber un complemento simple, como "una casa bonita". Za glavnim glagolom imate morda preprosto dopolnilo, na primer "lepa hiša".

You might have nothing at all. Vielleicht haben Sie überhaupt nichts. Puede que no tengas nada.

Your sentence might finish after the verb, like ‘Everybody agreed.' Ihr Satz könnte nach dem Verb enden, z. B. "Alle waren einverstanden". La frase puede terminar después del verbo, como "Todos estuvieron de acuerdo". Vaš stavek se lahko konča za glagolom, na primer "Vsi so se strinjali."

Or, you might have a longer complement, possibly including other verbs, as in ‘My math teacher O puede tener un complemento más largo, que posiblemente incluya otros verbos, como en "Mi profesor de matemáticas

from high school was really good at explaining complicated things.' del instituto era muy bueno explicando cosas complicadas'. iz srednje šole je res dobro razlagal zapletene stvari.«

So, you're probably still thinking that this is easy. Sie denken wahrscheinlich immer noch, dass das einfach ist. Probablemente sigas pensando que esto es fácil. Torej verjetno še vedno mislite, da je to enostavno.

And, so far, it is! Und bis jetzt ist es das auch! Y, hasta ahora, ¡lo es! И пока это так! In zaenkrat je!

Let's see how it can go wrong. Mal sehen, wie es schief gehen kann. Veamos cómo puede salir mal. Poglejmo, kako gre lahko narobe.

Look at five sentences: By the way, these sentences are all real examples Sehen Sie sich fünf Sätze an: Übrigens, diese Sätze sind alle echte Beispiele Fíjate en cinco frases: Por cierto, todas estas frases son ejemplos reales Poglejte pet stavkov: Mimogrede, vsi ti stavki so resnični primeri

from our students' writing. aus dem Schreiben unserer Schüler. de la escritura de nuestros alumnos. iz pisanja naših študentov.

Most of them come from IELTS writing practice. Die meisten von ihnen stammen aus der IELTS-Schreibpraxis. La mayoría de ellos provienen de la práctica de escritura del IELTS. Večina jih prihaja iz prakse pisanja IELTS.

All these sentences break the basic rule we mentioned above. Alle diese Sätze verstoßen gegen die oben genannte Grundregel. Todas estas frases rompen la regla básica que hemos mencionado antes. Vsi ti stavki kršijo osnovno pravilo, ki smo ga omenili zgoraj.

Can you see how? Können Sie sich das vorstellen? ¿Puedes ver cómo?

Pause the video, read the sentences, and try to find the problems. Haz una pausa en el vídeo, lee las frases e intenta encontrar los problemas. Zaustavite videoposnetek, preberite stavke in poskusite najti težave.

Start again when you're ready. Fangen Sie wieder an, wenn Sie bereit sind. Vuelve a empezar cuando estés listo.

In the first sentence, there's no main verb. Im ersten Satz gibt es kein Hauptverb. En la primera oración, no hay un verbo principal.

'Will' is a modal verb, but a modal verb can't be a main verb; you need a main verb after Will' es un verbo modal, pero un verbo modal no puede ser un verbo principal; se necesita un verbo principal después de 'Will' je modalni glagol, vendar modalni glagol ne more biti glavni glagol; za tem potrebujete glavni glagol

it. eso.

For example, 'We will *go* back home next Friday.' Zum Beispiel: "Wir *fahren* nächsten Freitag wieder nach Hause. Por ejemplo: "Volveremos* a casa el próximo viernes". Na primer, 'Naslednji petek se bomo vrnili domov.'

The second sentence has two subjects: ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food' and ‘it'. Der zweite Satz hat zwei Subjekte: "höhere Steuern auf Fast Food" und "es". La segunda frase tiene dos sujetos: "Imponer impuestos más altos a la comida rápida" y "ello". Drugi stavek ima dva subjekta: „Uvedba višjih davkov na hitro hrano“ in „to“.

One clause can't have two subjects. Una cláusula no puede tener dos sujetos. En stavek ne more imeti dveh subjektov.

To correct this sentence, remove ‘it': ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food *is* Um diesen Satz zu korrigieren, streichen Sie "es": "Höhere Steuern auf Fast Food zu erheben *ist* Para corregir esta frase, elimine "es": "Imponer impuestos más altos a la comida rápida *es*". Če želite popraviti ta stavek, odstranite 'it': 'Uvedba višjih davkov na hitro hrano *je*

a good idea.' una buena idea".

The third sentence has a main verb, but no subject. Der dritte Satz hat ein Hauptverb, aber kein Subjekt. La tercera frase tiene un verbo principal, pero no tiene sujeto.

*What* affects individuals' lives directly? *Was* wirkt sich direkt auf das Leben des Einzelnen aus? *¿Qué afecta directamente a la vida de las personas? *Kaj* neposredno vpliva na življenja posameznikov?

This is difficult to correct, because it's impossible to know what the writer wanted Esto es difícil de corregir, porque es imposible saber lo que el escritor quería To je težko popraviti, saj je nemogoče vedeti, kaj je pisec hotel

to say. que decir.

You would need to add a noun before the verb ‘affects' to make it understandable. Habría que añadir un sustantivo antes del verbo "afecta" para que se entendiera. Чтобы это было понятно, нужно добавить существительное перед глаголом "влияет". Pred glagolom 'vpliva' bi morali dodati samostalnik, da bo razumljiv.

The fourth sentence has a fragment at the end which includes a subject and a verb. Der vierte Satz enthält am Ende ein Fragment, das ein Subjekt und ein Verb enthält. La cuarta frase tiene un fragmento al final que incluye un sujeto y un verbo. Četrti stavek ima na koncu delček, ki vključuje subjekt in glagol.

This means the sentence has too many subjects and verbs; each clause can only have one subject Esto significa que la frase tiene demasiados sujetos y verbos; cada cláusula sólo puede tener un sujeto. To pomeni, da ima stavek preveč subjektov in glagolov; vsak stavek ima lahko samo en predmet

and one main verb. y un verbo principal.

What's the solution? ¿Cuál es la solución? Kaj je rešitev?

There are many possibilities, but the easiest way to correct this is to break the sentence Hay muchas posibilidades, pero la forma más fácil de corregirlo es romper la frase

into two parts. en dos partes.

You can do this by changing the comma after ‘Alexandria' to a semicolon. Para ello, cambie la coma después de "Alexandria" por un punto y coma.

Finally, what about the fifth sentence? Por último, ¿qué pasa con la quinta frase?

It's difficult to understand, right? Es difícil de entender, ¿verdad? Težko je razumeti, kajne?

Again, it's difficult to correct this sentence, because it's hard to see the writer's Una vez más, es difícil corregir esta frase, porque es difícil ver que el escritor Še enkrat, težko je popraviti ta stavek, ker je težko videti pisateljevo

ideas. ideas.

The problem is that this sentence has several parts with several subjects and verbs, and El problema es que esta frase tiene varias partes con varios sujetos y verbos, y Težava je v tem, da ima ta stavek več delov z več osebki in glagoli ter

it's not clear what relates to what. no está claro qué se relaciona con qué. ni jasno, kaj se na kaj nanaša.

For example, ‘each society' is a subject, but then ‘forced medical treatment' is Por ejemplo, "cada sociedad" es un sujeto, pero entonces "tratamiento médico forzado" es Na primer, "vsaka družba" je subjekt, potem pa je "prisilno zdravljenje". 例如「各個社會」是一個主語，那麼「強制醫療」就是一個主詞。

also a subject. también un tema.

Later in the sentence, we have a verb—‘avoid'—and it isn't clear which subject goes with it. Más adelante en la frase, tenemos un verbo - "evitar"- y no está claro qué sujeto lo acompaña. Kasneje v stavku imamo glagol — 'izogibati' — in ni jasno, kateri osebek gre zraven.

On a more practical level, it just isn't clear what this sentence is about. Desde un punto de vista más práctico, no está claro a qué se refiere esta frase. Na bolj praktični ravni preprosto ni jasno, o čem govori ta stavek.

Does the writer want to say something about ‘each society', or about ‘large sets ¿Quiere decir algo sobre "cada sociedad" o sobre "grandes conjuntos"? Ali želi pisatelj kaj povedati o 'vsaka družba', ali o 'velikih množicah'

of people,' or about ‘forced medical treatment'? de personas" o sobre "tratamientos médicos forzados"?

We don't know. No lo sabemos.

This is why subject-verb structure is so important: if it isn't clear, it will be hard to understand Por eso es tan importante la estructura sujeto-verbo: si no está clara, será difícil de entender.

what your sentence is about. de qué trata su frase. o čem govori tvoj stavek.

Sometimes, this might mean that your ideas aren't clear in your mind. A veces, esto puede significar que tus ideas no están claras en tu mente. Včasih to lahko pomeni, da vaše ideje niso jasne v vašem umu.

Next, let's expand this basic rule and see how you can use it to make a wider range of A continuación, vamos a ampliar esta regla básica y ver cómo se puede utilizar para hacer una gama más amplia de Nato razširimo to osnovno pravilo in poglejmo, kako ga lahko uporabite za ustvarjanje širšega nabora

sentences. sentencias.

You heard before that both subjects and verbs can be words or phrases. Ya has oído que tanto los sujetos como los verbos pueden ser palabras o frases. Prej ste slišali, da so osebki in glagoli lahko besede ali besedne zveze.

Sometimes, your subject or verb might be a longer phrase. A veces, el sujeto o el verbo puede ser una frase más larga. Včasih je lahko vaš predmet ali glagol daljša fraza.

This often leads to mistakes, because when your subject and verb are multiple words, Esto suele dar lugar a errores, porque cuando el sujeto y el verbo son palabras múltiples, To pogosto vodi do napak, kajti ko sta subjekt in glagol sestavljena iz več besed,

it's more difficult to keep track of your sentence structure. es más difícil seguir la estructura de las frases. težje je slediti svoji strukturi stavkov.

Let's do an example together. Hagamos un ejemplo juntos.

Take a sentence you saw before: ‘Everybody agreed.' Coge una frase que hayas visto antes: 'Todo el mundo de acuerdo'. Vzemite stavek, ki ste ga videli prej: 'Vsi so se strinjali.'

You can make the subject—‘everybody'—into a phrase. Puedes convertir el sujeto "todo el mundo" en una frase.

For example: ‘Everybody who was at the meeting agreed.' Por ejemplo: "Todos los que estaban en la reunión estaban de acuerdo".

You can make the verb into a phrase, like this: ‘Everybody who was at the meeting Puedes convertir el verbo en una frase, así: 'Todos los que estaban en la reunión

agreed to change the office dress code.' acordó cambiar el código de vestimenta de la oficina".

You can make each phrase even longer. Puedes hacer que cada frase sea aún más larga.

For example: ‘Everybody who was at the board meeting held last Tuesday evening agreed to Por ejemplo: "Todos los que asistieron a la reunión del consejo de administración celebrada el pasado martes por la noche acordaron

change the existing office dress code to something more informal.' cambiar el actual código de vestimenta de la oficina por algo más informal".

Even though we've added lots of new words and ideas, this sentence has the same basic Aunque hemos añadido muchas palabras e ideas nuevas, esta frase tiene la misma base

structure as before. estructura como antes.

It still has one subject, and one main verb. Sigue teniendo un sujeto y un verbo principal.

Although we've added a complement after the verb, the verb doesn't have a direct Aunque hemos añadido un complemento después del verbo, el verbo no tiene un complemento directo. Čeprav smo za glagolom dodali dopolnilo, glagol nima neposrednega

object. objeto.

We haven't added anything grammatically new to the sentence; we've simply expanded No hemos añadido nada gramaticalmente nuevo a la frase; simplemente hemos ampliado V stavek nismo dodali ničesar slovnično novega; preprosto smo se razširili

the existing parts. las piezas existentes.

Let's do one more example of this. Hagamos un ejemplo más de esto.

This time, we want you to try! Esta vez, ¡queremos que lo intente!

Here's a basic sentence: ‘My sister called.' He aquí una frase básica: "Ha llamado mi hermana".

Can you make this sentence longer by changing the subject and verb to longer phrases? ¿Puedes alargar esta frase cambiando el sujeto y el verbo por frases más largas?

For this exercise, there are a couple of rules. Para este ejercicio, hay un par de reglas.

You can't add a noun after ‘called', because that would change the structure. No puedes añadir un sustantivo después de 'called', porque eso cambiaría la estructura. Za 'poklican' ne morete dodati samostalnika, ker bi to spremenilo strukturo.

You also can't use conjunctions like ‘although' or ‘because'. Tampoco puedes utilizar conjunciones como "aunque" o "porque". Prav tako ne morete uporabljati veznikov, kot sta "čeprav" ali "ker".

The idea is to keep the basic structure the same, so that the sentence has one subject La idea es mantener la misma estructura básica, de modo que la frase tenga un sujeto Ideja je ohraniti osnovno strukturo enako, tako da ima stavek en subjekt

and one verb which doesn't have a direct object. y un verbo que no tiene objeto directo.

Pause the video and try it now. Pausa el vídeo y pruébalo ahora.

How did you do? ¿Cómo le ha ido?

Of course, there are many ways to do this. Por supuesto, hay muchas formas de hacerlo.

Let's look at three possibilities. Veamos tres posibilidades.

‘My sister Mandy called last night.' 'Mi hermana Mandy llamó anoche.'

‘My sister, who I haven't spoken to for ages, called to tell me about her new job.' 'Mi hermana, con la que no hablo desde hace años, me ha llamado para contarme lo de su nuevo trabajo'.

You can see that you can do this in a simpler way, or you can make the sentence much more Puedes ver que puedes hacer esto de una manera más simple, o puedes hacer la frase mucho más

complicated, by adding relative clauses, adjectives, adverbs, and so on. complicado, añadiendo cláusulas relativas, adjetivos, adverbios, etc.

However, remember the basic idea: all of these sentences have the same basic structure: one Sin embargo, recuerda la idea básica: todas estas frases tienen la misma estructura básica: una

subject and one main verb. sujeto y un verbo principal.

Let's move on and talk about one more important point. Sigamos adelante y hablemos de otro punto importante.

As you heard before, almost all sentences need a subject. Como ya has oído, casi todas las frases necesitan un sujeto.

Only imperatives, like ‘Come here!' don't need a subject. Sólo los imperativos, como "¡Ven aquí!" no necesitan sujeto.

Interjections, like ‘Wow!', also don't need a subject, but many linguists—including Las interjecciones, como "¡Vaya!", tampoco necesitan sujeto, pero muchos lingüistas -entre ellos

us—would say that these are not sentences. nosotros- dirían que no son sentencias. nas — bi rekli, da to niso stavki.

However, sometimes there isn't a clear noun subject. Sin embargo, a veces no hay un sujeto sustantivo claro.

In this case, you need to use a word like ‘it' or ‘there'. En este caso, debes utilizar una palabra como "eso" o "allí".

For example: ‘It won't take long to get there.' Por ejemplo: "No tardaremos mucho en llegar".

‘It's worth going.' Vale la pena ir.

‘There's a mosquito on your nose.' 'Tienes un mosquito en la nariz'.

‘There have been several developments since the last time we spoke.' 'Ha habido varios avances desde la última vez que hablamos'.

In these sentences, the words ‘it' and ‘there' are empty subjects; they don't En estas frases, las palabras "it" y "there" son sujetos vacíos; no

refer to a specific noun or thing. referirse a un sustantivo o cosa específica.

You use them only because the sentence needs a subject. Se utilizan sólo porque la frase necesita un sujeto.

They don't add any meaning to the sentence. No añaden ningún significado a la frase.

So, what's the difference? Entonces, ¿cuál es la diferencia?

When do you need to use ‘it', and when do you need to use ‘there'? ¿Cuándo hay que utilizar "eso" y cuándo "ahí"?

Use ‘it' to talk about distances and times. Utiliza 'it' para hablar de distancias y tiempos.

For example: ‘It's not far to the metro.' Por ejemplo: "No está lejos el metro".

‘How long will it take you to finish everything?' ¿Cuánto tardarás en terminarlo todo?

‘It's six thirty.' Son las seis y media.

You often use ‘it' to talk about the weather, too. También se utiliza a menudo "eso" para hablar del tiempo.

For example: ‘It's sunny.' Por ejemplo: "Hace sol".

‘It'll be cold tomorrow.' Mañana hará frío.

‘It was really wet last month.' 'El mes pasado estuvo muy húmedo'.

You also use ‘it' to talk about situations, and in a number of phrases like ‘it's También se utiliza 'it' para hablar de situaciones, y en una serie de frases como 'it's

worth…' vale la pena...

For example: ‘It's safe to walk around at night here.' Por ejemplo: "Aquí es seguro pasear por la noche".

‘It's good that you could join us.' 'Es bueno que hayas podido unirte a nosotros'.

‘It's really cosy in here.' 'Esto es muy acogedor'.

What about ‘there'? ¿Qué pasa con "allí"?

Use ‘there' to say that something exists, or doesn't exist. Utiliza 'there' para decir que algo existe o no existe.

Usually, when you use ‘there', it's the first time you're mentioning something. Normalmente, cuando se utiliza 'allí', es la primera vez que se menciona algo.

For example: ‘There's some salad in the fridge.' Por ejemplo: "Hay ensalada en la nevera".

‘There are several reasons why I have to say ‘no' to this idea.' Hay varias razones por las que tengo que decir 'no' a esta idea'.

‘There didn't use to be so many homeless people here.' Aquí no solía haber tantos sin techo'.

Let's practise together. Practiquemos juntos.

Look at five sentences. Mira cinco frases.

Do you need to add ‘it' or ‘there'? ¿Es necesario añadir "eso" o "ahí"?

Pause the video, and think about your answers. Haz una pausa en el vídeo y piensa en tus respuestas.

Ready? ¿Preparado?

Here they are. Aquí están.

Finally, we have one more thing to show you. Por último, tenemos algo más que enseñarte.

In general, the subject of your sentence goes immediately before the main verb. En general, el sujeto de la frase va inmediatamente antes del verbo principal. Na splošno je predmet vašega stavka tik pred glavnim glagolom.

You can see this in the sentences you've already seen in this lesson. Puedes comprobarlo en las frases que ya has visto en esta lección.

Sometimes, the main verb also has an auxiliary verb, like ‘have', ‘has', ‘do', A veces, el verbo principal también tiene un verbo auxiliar, como 'have', 'has', 'do',

‘does', ‘will', ‘can' and so on. 'hace', 'hará', 'puede', etc.

In positive sentences, the auxiliary verb and the main verb almost always go together. En las frases positivas, el verbo auxiliar y el verbo principal casi siempre van juntos.

For example: ‘They have bought a nice house.' Por ejemplo: "Se han comprado una casa muy bonita".

‘My sister Mandy will call tonight.' 'Mi hermana Mandy llamará esta noche.'

However, there's one case where the main verb goes before the subject: questions with Sin embargo, hay un caso en el que el verbo principal va antes que el sujeto: las preguntas con

‘be'. "ser".

For example: ‘Are you ready?'; ‘Were there many people there?'; Por ejemplo: "¿Estás preparado?"; "¿Había mucha gente?";

In some cases, the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject. En algunos casos, el verbo auxiliar debe ir antes del sujeto.

This is most common in questions. Esto es más frecuente en las preguntas. To je najpogosteje pri vprašanjih.

For example: ‘Can you help me?' Por ejemplo: "¿Puede ayudarme?".

‘What time does she arrive?' ¿A qué hora llega?

‘How many pieces of cake have you had already?' ¿Cuántos trozos de tarta te has comido ya?

It's also possible in certain structures which are mostly used in formal writing, like También es posible en ciertas estructuras que se utilizan sobre todo en la escritura formal, como Možno je tudi v določenih strukturah, ki se večinoma uporabljajo v formalnem pisanju, npr

‘At no time did I suspect that he was the thief.' 'En ningún momento sospeché que él fuera el ladrón'. 'Nikoli nisem posumil, da je on tat.' “我從來沒有懷疑過他是小偷。”

At this point, let's review the most important points that you should take away from this Llegados a este punto, vamos a repasar los puntos más importantes que debe extraer de todo esto

lesson. lección.

One: make sure every sentence has a subject and a main verb in each clause. Uno: asegúrate de que cada frase tiene un sujeto y un verbo principal en cada cláusula. Prvo: poskrbite, da ima vsak stavek osebek in glavni glagol v vsakem stavku.

Don't put more than one subject or main verb in one clause. No pongas más de un sujeto o verbo principal en una misma cláusula.

Two: if your subject and main verb are longer phrases, or if you add a lot of adverbs or Dos: si el sujeto y el verbo principal son frases más largas, o si añades muchos adverbios o Dva: če sta vaš subjekt in glavni glagol daljša besedna zveza ali če dodate veliko prislovov oz

subordinate clauses to your sentence, it might be harder to keep track of the structure. cláusulas subordinadas a su frase, puede que le resulte más difícil seguir la estructura. podrejenih klavzul v vašem stavku, bo morda težje slediti strukturi. 如果句子中有從句，可能會更難追蹤結構。

Before you write a sentence, think about this question: what are you talking about, and Antes de escribir una frase, piensa en esta pregunta: ¿de qué estás hablando, y

what are you saying about this thing? ¿qué dices de esta cosa?

Decide what you're talking about—the subject—and what you're saying about it—the main verb. Decide de qué vas a hablar -el tema- y qué vas a decir al respecto -el verbo principal-. Odločite se, o čem govorite – predmet – in kaj o tem poveste – glavni glagol.

Keep these in your head. Mantén esto en tu cabeza.

Three: study the difference between main verbs and auxiliary verbs. Tercero: estudiar la diferencia entre verbos principales y auxiliares. Trije: preučite razliko med glavnimi in pomožnimi glagoli.

Remember that auxiliary verbs can't generally be used alone. Recuerda que los verbos auxiliares no suelen utilizarse solos.

Make sure every auxiliary verb has a main verb attached. Asegúrate de que cada verbo auxiliar tiene un verbo principal adjunto.

Learn the cases when the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject. Aprende los casos en los que el verbo auxiliar debe ir delante del sujeto.

If you can follow these simple steps, your writing will be clearer, better-organised, Si sigues estos sencillos pasos, tus escritos serán más claros y estarán mejor organizados,

and more accurate. y más preciso.

Do you have any tips to help other English learners improve their grammar? ¿Tienes algún consejo para ayudar a otros estudiantes de inglés a mejorar su gramática?

Please share your suggestions in the comments! Comparta sus sugerencias en los comentarios. Delite svoje predloge v komentarjih!

Thanks for watching! Gracias por vernos.

See you next time!