Shadowing Practice: What's an if statement? 🤔 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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All right guys, we are on if statements.
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With an if statement, you do something if a condition you set is true.
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If not, then don't do it.
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It's as simple as that.
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We'll ask a user what their age is.
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If their age is greater than or equal to 18, they'll be allowed into our site.
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If they're under 18, well, we won't let them in.
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Let's declare variable age.
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Int age.
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Then we'll create a prompt.
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standard output enter your age.
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Standard input age.
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Okay, this is how to write an if statement.
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You type if, then a set of parentheses, then a set of curly braces.
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If some condition within the parentheses is true, you perform some subset of code.
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We are going to check if age is greater than or equal to 18.
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Greater than or equal to is a comparison operator.
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There's other comparison operators such as less than or equals to, less than, greater than.
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If you need to compare if two values are equal, you use two equal signs.
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You don't wanna say equals because then you're setting age equal to 18.
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Equals is the assignment operator.
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So let's check to see if age is greater than or equal to 18.
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Then we'll print a message.
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Standard output.
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Welcome to the site.
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Okay, let's Let's try this.
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Enter your age.
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Let's say that I'm 12.
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Well, it doesn't do anything.
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Since this condition evaluated to be false, we skip over this body of code.
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If it were true, then we execute it.
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This time my age is 21.
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I hit enter.
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Welcome to the site.
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If you would rather do something else if a condition is false, you can use an else statement.
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An else statement you will place at the end.
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There is no condition.
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Else, we will print standard output.
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You are not old enough to enter.
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Okay, let's try this again.
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Enter your age.
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I'll say that I'm 12.
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You are not old enough to enter.
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That's an if statement.
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If some condition is true, you do something.
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If not, you can do something else or nothing at all.
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There are more conditions you can check by using an else if statement.
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We can check another condition by adding else if.
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If this condition is false, check this else if condition.
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Let's check to see if age is less than zero.
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That means somebody hasn't been born yet.
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You haven't been born yet.
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Okay, now check this out.
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Let's say that my age is negative 10.
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Then I hit enter.
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You haven't been born yet.
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Since this condition was false, we skip this section of code.
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Then we check the else if statement.
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Since this condition was true, we execute this body of code.
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Then skip over the else statement.
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Let's add one more else if statement.
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Else if...
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Age is greater than or equal to 100.
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Standard.
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Output.
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You are too old to enter this site.
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Okay, enter your age.
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I am 120 years old.
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I hit enter.
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Welcome to the site.
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We check these conditions one by one starting from the top.
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We stated that our age was 120 years old.
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Even though we were expecting to execute this body of code, we instead executed this body of code within the if statement.
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That's because our age was technically still greater than or equal to 18.
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So the order of your if and else if statements does matter.
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It makes a difference.
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If we need to execute this body of code, if somebody's age is greater than or equal to 100, well then we should probably move that to the top.
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Then turn it into an if statement.
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Else if age is greater than or equal to 18, we will display this message.
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Let's try this one more time.
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Enter your age.
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I am 120 years old.
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I hit enter.
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You are too old to enter this site.
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So yeah, that's an if statement.
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You do something if a condition is true.
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If not, then you don't do it.
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If you would rather do something else, you can use an else statement.
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If there's other conditions you would like to check before reaching the else statement, you can use an else if statement.
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And there's really no limit to these.
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If you would like a copy of this code, I'll post this in the comment section down below.
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And well, yeah, those are if statements in C++.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “What's an if statement? 🤔”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: statement, condition, equal, enter, greater. This video has 92 sentences and 733 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:53. The speaker talks at a natural 150 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 92% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 13 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| execute verb | /ˈɛksɪˌkjuːt/ | To kill, especially as punishment for a capital crime. |
| skip verb | /skɪp/ | To move by hopping on alternate feet. |
| operator noun | /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/ | A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc. |
| parenthesis noun | /pəˈɹɛn.θə.sɪs/ | A clause, phrase or word which is inserted (usually for explanation or amplification) into a passage which is already grammatically complete, and usually… |
| subset noun | /ˈsʌbˌsɛt/ | A set A such that every element of A is also an element of S. |
| curly adjective | /ˈkɝli/ | Having curls. |
| brace noun | /bɹeɪs/ | A curved instrument or handle of iron or wood, for holding and turning bits, etc.; a bitstock. |
| prompt verb | /pɹɑmpt/ | To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do. |
| evaluate verb | /ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/ | To draw conclusions from examining; to assess; to appraise. |
| declare verb | /dɪˈklɛɚ/ | To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically. |
| technically adverb | /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/ | Based on precise facts, which, however, may be contrary to common belief or casual terminology. |
| variable adjective | [ˈvæɹ.i.ə.bl̩] | Able to vary or be varied. |
| assignment noun | /əˈsaɪn.mənt/ | The act of assigning; the allocation of a job or a set of tasks. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- We'll ask a user what their age is.
- Then we'll create a prompt.
- Then we'll print a message.
- You haven't been born yet.
- Let's add one more else if statement.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If they're under 18, well, we won't let · If there's other conditions you would like |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be allowed · been born |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | hasn't been born · haven't been born |
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | greater than |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 19 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we'll, haven't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/, parenthesis /pəˈɹɛn.θə.sɪs/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like execute, skip, operator.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.