Shadowing Practice: English Sentence Structure - English Grammar Lesson - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, I'm Olivier.
Hola, soy Olivier.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English.
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In this lesson, you can learn about sentence structure in English.
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You'll learn how to construct all kinds of sentences in English, from the simplest possible sentences to long,
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complex sentences which contain many different ideas. To begin, a question.
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What's the simplest sentence you can make in English?
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What does every sentence in English need?
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Every sentence needs a verb.
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The simplest sentence is an imperative, which means when you tell someone to do something.
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For example, run, leave, work.
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These are the simplest complete sentences you can make in English.
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They're just one word long.
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Of course, most sentences are longer than this.
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Most sentences that are longer than one word also need a noun before the verb.
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The noun is the subject.
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With a subject plus a verb, you can make simple sentences,
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like, he runs, she left, they're working.
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You can see that the verb can be in different forms – past or present, simple or continuous.
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The verb form doesn't change the structure of the sentence.
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These are all the same – subject plus verb.
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Of course, these sentences aren't very interesting.
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You can't say much with short sentences like these.
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Let's add a little more information.
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Take the sentence, he runs.
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What could you add after runs to make it longer?
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You could add an adverb of place.
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He runs around the park.
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You could add an adverb of time.
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He runs every morning.
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You could add both.
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He runs around the park every morning.
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You could add an adverb of manner, he runs slowly.
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You can see that you have many choices, but your choices are also limited.
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In this case, you can use different kinds of adverbs, but there are also things you can't use.
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For example, you can't use another verb after run.
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You can't use an adjective.
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You can't use a noun, or at least you can't use a noun with this meaning of run.
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This is an important point.
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Let's look at it in more detail.
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To build grammatically complete sentences in English, there's one important question.
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What needs to come next?
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For example, you saw the sentence, he runs.
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That's a complete sentence.
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You can put a full stop after runs, and it's correct.
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It's very basic, but it's correct.
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What about these?
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She likes.
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He wants.
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We go.
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These aren't complete sentences.
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Can you explain why not?
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They aren't complete, very simply, because they aren't finished.
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Look at the first sentence, she likes.
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She likes what?
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She has to like something.
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He wants.
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What does he want?
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You can't just want, you have to want something.
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We go. Where?
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At this point, we want to teach you a word, compliment.
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The compliment is the thing you add after a verb to make a sentence complete.
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A complement can have many different forms.
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It can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
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These things can be single words or phrases.
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For example, when we say noun, we also mean noun phrases.
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So, table is a noun.
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And the wooden table, which my grandmother gave me, is also a noun.
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Both nouns refer to one object, one table.
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For this lesson, a noun can be one word or a phrase.
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Okay, let's practice.
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Look at the first sentence.
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She likes.
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How could you finish this?
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What are the possible complements?
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Pause the video and write down three endings for your sentence.
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Try to use different ideas and structures.
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Ready?
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Let's look at some possible answers.
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These are just our suggestions.
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Of course, there are many possibilities.
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She likes strawberries.
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She likes swimming.
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She likes getting up before the sun rises.
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She likes to listen to music while she works.
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You can see that There's more than one possible complement.
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You can use a noun, a gerund with a verb –ing, which acts like a noun, a gerund phrase, or an infinitive verb with two.
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So you have many choices.
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However, like before, your choices are also limited.
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Only certain structures are possible.
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The idea of complements isn't just for the first verb in the sentence.
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Many words need a compliment.
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For example, look at one of the sentences you just saw.
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She likes getting up before the sun rises.
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Technically, you can say, she likes getting up.
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It's a grammatically complete sentence, but you would never say it.
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Why not?
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Because it doesn't make any sense.
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You need more information.
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She likes getting up. When?
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Why?
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How?
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You need a compliment after getting up to complete the idea.
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She likes getting up before… Before also needs a compliment.
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You can't stop there.
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Before what?
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She likes getting up before the sun.
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This also doesn't work, because it doesn't make sense.
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It doesn't make sense because the sun needs a compliment.
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Before the sun does what?
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She likes getting up before the sun rises.
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OK, finally, we have a sentence which is both grammatically correct and which communicates meaning.
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What should you remember from this?
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Remember that when you use a particular word, you have limited choices in what kind of word you can use next.
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To speak or write in clear, correct English, you don't just need to know English words.
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You need to know what can come next.
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For example, with a verb like like or want, it's not enough to know the verb.
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You also need to know whether the verb needs a complement, and what complements are or aren't possible.
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This is why it's good to learn vocabulary in full phrases and sentences.
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That way, you'll know how to use the words you learn to make sentences you can use in your spoken
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or written English.
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Using what you've seen up to now, you can build many simple English sentences.
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Let's see how you can add more information and more detail to these simple sentences.
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You can add information to a simple sentence in two ways.
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You can add adjectives or adverbs.
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Let's look at an example using a sentence we started before, but we didn't finish.
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He wants… Actually, you should do some work.
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Pause the video and finish this sentence in three different ways.
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Start again when you have your answers.
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Ready?
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Here's our suggestion.
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He wants to buy a car.
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Now let's add some description using adjectives and adverbs.
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Can you see how you could add adjectives to this sentence?
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You could add adjectives before the word car, like this.
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He wants to buy a new car.
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He wants to buy a second-hand car.
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He wants to buy a bright red car.
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What about adverbs?
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Could you add adverbs to these sentences to add some details?
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There are many possibilities.
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For example, apparently he wants to buy a new car.
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He wants to buy a second-hand car next month.
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He wants to buy a bright red car for his new girlfriend.
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You can see that the adverbs can be single words or phrases.
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Adjectives can go before the noun they describe or after some verbs.
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Adverbs are more complicated and can go in many different positions.
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However, this is the important point.
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Using adjectives and adverbs like this doesn't change whether a sentence is complete or not.
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If you say, he wants to buy a car, that's a complete sentence.
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You can add adjectives and adverbs to make it more detailed.
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Apparently, he wants to buy a second-hand car for his new girlfriend.
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However, if a sentence is incomplete, then you can't make it complete by adding adjectives or adverbs.
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He wants to buy.
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This sentence is incomplete.
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Adding adjectives and adverbs won't make it complete.
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So, at this point, you can build a simple sentence.
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You also hopefully understand something about complements and why are they important for making complete sentences,
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and now you can also add description to a complete sentence using adjectives and adverbs.
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Let's look at how you can combine these simple sentences into complex ones.
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First, let's define some words.
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A conjunction is something which joins two sentences, or two parts of a sentence, together.
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Words like and, but, if, although, because, or which are conjunctions.
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A complex sentence contains two or more parts joined with a conjunction.
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These parts are called clauses.
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An independent clause expresses a complete idea and could stand by itself.
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A dependent clause wouldn't make sense if it were by itself.
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A dependent clause depends on an independent clause in this same sentence in order to have meaning.
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Don't worry if this is new.
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You don't need to remember everything right now.
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You'll see lots of examples of these ideas in this section and in the next section, too.
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In this section, you're going to learn about complex sentences with two independent clauses.
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Okay, enough abstract talk.
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Let's see some examples.
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He runs around the park every morning, so he's in pretty good shape.
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She likes strawberries, but she hardly ever eats them.
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You should write to her and thank her for the present.
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These are simple examples of complex sentences.
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Here's your recipe.
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Independent clause plus conjunction plus independent clause.
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You generally need a comma at the end of the first clause, before the conjunction, but comma rules are quite flexible in English,
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so you won't always need a comma.
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Look at the first example.
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He runs around the park every morning, so he's in pretty good shape.
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Which word is the conjunction?
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The conjunction is so.
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You can split this sentence into two full, meaningful sentences.
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Let's look at one more.
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She likes strawberries, but she hardly ever eats them.
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Then you can split this into two full sentences.
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You might think that the second sentence here isn't complete, or doesn't make sense by itself.
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As it is, you'd be right.
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However, you can change them to strawberries, and then it's a complete, meaningful sentence.
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But, she hardly ever eats strawberries.
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You can keep adding conjunctions and clauses for as long as you want.
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She likes strawberries, but she hardly ever eats them.
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And she doesn't earn much money, so she has to be careful how much she spends on groceries.
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And fresh food is generally more expensive than canned or frozen produce,
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so… Of course, just because you can, it doesn't mean it's a good idea.
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Sentences with too many clauses are difficult to follow, so it's generally better to limit your complex sentences to two, maximum three clauses.
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Now you know how to build a complex sentence using independent clauses.
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What about dependent clauses?
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Do you remember the definition of a dependent clause?
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A dependent clause is a part of a sentence which would not make sense by itself.
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Let's see an example.
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She's taller than I am.
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This short sentence has two clauses.
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Can you see where the two clauses start and end, and which one is dependent?
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The two clauses are she's taller and than I am.
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They're linked with the conjunction than.
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The second clause, than I am, is dependent.
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It doesn't make sense by itself.
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Let's see some other ways to build complex sentences with dependent clauses.
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You can add a dependent clause with conjunctions,
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like if, because, although, unless, or wherever.
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For example, if you're late, I'll leave without you.
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He's broke because he spent all his money on beer.
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Although she spends a lot of time at work, she doesn't get much done.
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I won't do it unless you come with me.
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We can meet wherever you want.
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Often, you can change the order of the two clauses if you want.
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So you can say, if you're late, I'll leave without you, or I'll leave without you if you're late.
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Notice that there's a comma between the two clauses if the dependent clause is first, but not if the independent clause is first.
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What's the difference between these complex sentences and the ones you saw in part four?
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Here, you can't split this sentence in two.
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Well, you can, but one of the two parts won't make sense. If you're late.
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I'll leave without you.
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I'll leave without you is an independent clause, so it makes sense by itself.
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But the other clause, if you're late, is dependent, and it doesn't make sense by itself.
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It needs something more to make it complete.
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What other common ways are there to build complex sentences with dependent clauses?
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Another common structure is relative clauses, using relative pronouns like who, which, or what to link two clauses.
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For example, that's the guy who shouted at me.
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I have no idea what's going on.
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They gave us a cake which was made from dried beetroot.
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In these cases, the dependent clause goes after the independent clause.
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Let's review what you've learned in this lesson.
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You can build a very simple sentence with just a verb.
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Work You can add a subject and complement to make a simple sentence.
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She works in a zoo.
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You can use adjectives and adverbs to add description.
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Apparently, she works in a private zoo.
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You can make a complex sentence by adding a second independent clause with a conjunction.
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Apparently, she works in a private zoo, so she must know a lot about animals.
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You can also make a complex sentence by adding a dependent clause, or even several dependent clauses,
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again using conjunctions to connect them.
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Apparently, she works in a private zoo, so she must know a lot about animals,
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which surprises me because, as far as I know, she studied economics at university.
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Although I guess I could be wrong.
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This is a big topic, and it will take you time to learn everything about these points.
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Studying conjunctions and how they work can help you to build complex sentences which are clear and correct.
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Relative clauses are another useful topic if you want to improve your sentence grammar.
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Learning about relative clauses can help you to connect your ideas in complex sentences.
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It's also a good idea to study verb complements and learn what structures you can or can't use after a verb.
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Remember that a lot of sentence structure is being able to answer the question, what needs to come next.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Este vídeo tiene 254 frases y 2376 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 20:46. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 114 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 83 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| verb sustantivo | /vɝb/ | verbo |
| dependent adjetivo | /dɪˈpɛndənt/ | dependiente |
| noun sustantivo | /naʊn/ | nombre, nombre sustantivo |
| conjunction sustantivo | /kənˈd͡ʒʌŋk.ʃn̩/ | conjunción |
| phrase sustantivo | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | frase |
| compliment sustantivo | /ˈkɑmpləmənt/ | cumplido, falago |
| strawberry sustantivo | /ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/ | fresa, frutilla |
| relative sustantivo | /ˈɹɛl.ə.tɪv/ | familiar, pariente |
| lesson sustantivo | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | lección |
| topic sustantivo | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | tema, tópico |
| connect verbo | /kəˈnɛkt/ | conectar, empalmar |
| wherever | /(h)wɛɹˈɛvɚ/ | dondequiera, donde sea |
| suggestion sustantivo | /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/ | sugerencia, propuesta |
| meaningful adjetivo | /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/ | significativo |
| pause sustantivo | /pɔːz/ | pausa |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Significado |
|---|---|
| get up verbo | levantarse |
| get up to verbo | cometer |
| write down verbo | apuntar, anotar |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 60 contracciones y formas reducidas, como doesn't, can't, you're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: conjunction /kənˈd͡ʒʌŋk.ʃn̩/, suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/, shout /ʃaʊt/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, economics /ˌiːkəˈnɒmɪks/, continuous /kənˈtɪn.juː.əs/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como verb, dependent, noun.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultado | if you're late, I'll leave |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | imperative, which means · sentence which is · guy who shouted |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | you've seen · you've learned |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | are called · was made |
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.