Prática de Shadowing: Grammar Lesson #1 - Tips to Improve Your Sentence Structure - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo
Escolha um modo de prática
Cada modo abre uma sala de prática em tela cheia.
127 frases
Se as frases estiverem muito curtas ou longas, clique em Edit para ajustá-las.
1
Hi, I’m Daniel.
2
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
3
In this lesson, you can learn the most important grammar rule in English.
4
Of course, you need to know many things to use grammar correctly in English.
5
However, there’s one tip that can dramatically improve your English grammar—especially in writing.
6
First, don’t forget to check out our website: Oxford Online English dot com.
7
We have many free lessons to help you improve your English.
8
There’s also a level test, which can show you how good your grammar is now.
9
But, you want to hear the grammar tip, right?
10
What is it?
11
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.
12
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.
13
Each clause in your sentence should have one subject and one main verb, and only one subject and one main verb.
14
It sounds simple.
15
Maybe you’re thinking, ‘This is too easy!
16
I know this already!’ However, we see students make mistakes with this all the time, especially in writing.
17
Mistakes with this point are serious, because they often make it hard to understand what you want to say.
18
Even if your meaning is clear, sentences with this problem are often difficult to read.
19
In any situation, that’s a problem.
20
It’s especially serious if you’re taking an exam, like IELTS.
21
Let’s look at the most basic point.
22
Your sentence needs a subject, which should be a noun or noun phrase, like ‘they’, ‘everybody’, or ‘my maths teacher from high school’.
23
Then, you need a main verb, which generally goes after the subject.
24
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’.
25
You might have nothing at all.
26
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.
27
And, so far, it is!
28
Let’s see how it can go wrong.
29
Look at five sentences: By the way, these sentences are all real examples from our students’ writing.
30
Most of them come from IELTS writing practice.
31
All these sentences break the basic rule we mentioned above.
32
Can you see how?
33
Pause the video, read the sentences, and try to find the problems.
34
Start again when you’re ready.
35
In the first sentence, there's no main verb.
36
'Will' is a modal verb, but a modal verb can't be a main verb; you need a main verb after it.
37
For example, 'We will back home next Friday.' The second sentence has two subjects: ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food’ and ‘it’.
38
One clause can’t have two subjects.
39
To correct this sentence, remove ‘it’: ‘Imposing higher taxes on fast food a good idea.’ The third sentence has a main verb, but no subject.
40
affects individuals’ lives directly?
41
This is difficult to correct, because it’s impossible to know what the writer wanted to say.
42
You would need to add a noun before the verb ‘affects’ to make it understandable.
43
The fourth sentence has a fragment at the end which includes a subject and a verb.
44
This means the sentence has too many subjects and verbs; each clause can only have one subject and one main verb.
45
What’s the solution?
46
There are many possibilities, but the easiest way to correct this is to break the sentence into two parts.
47
You can do this by changing the comma after ‘Alexandria’ to a semicolon.
48
Finally, what about the fifth sentence?
49
It’s difficult to understand, right?
50
Again, it’s difficult to correct this sentence, because it’s hard to see the writer’s ideas.
51
The problem is that this sentence has several parts with several subjects and verbs, and it’s not clear what refers to what.
52
For example, ‘each society’ is a subject, but then ‘forced medical treatment’ is also a subject.
53
Later in the sentence, we have a verb—‘avoid’—and it isn’t clear which subject goes with it.
54
On a more practical level, it just isn’t clear what this sentence is about.
55
Does the writer want to say something about ‘each society’, or about ‘large sets of people,’ or about ‘forced medical treatment’?
56
We don’t know.
57
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.
58
Sometimes, this might mean that your ideas aren’t clear in your mind.
59
Next, let’s expand this basic rule and see how you can use it to make a wider range of sentences.
60
You heard before that both subjects and verbs can be words or phrases.
61
Sometimes, your subject or verb might be a longer phrase.
62
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.
63
Let’s do an example together.
64
Take a sentence you saw before: ‘Everybody agreed.’ You can make the subject—‘everybody’—into a phrase.
65
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.
66
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.
67
It still has one subject, and one main verb.
68
Although we’ve added a complement after the verb, the verb doesn’t have a direct object.
69
We haven’t added anything grammatically new to the sentence; we’ve simply expanded the existing parts.
70
Let’s do one more example of this.
71
This time, we want you to try!
72
Here’s a basic sentence: ‘My sister called.’ Can you make this sentence longer by changing the subject and verb to longer phrases?
73
For this exercise, there are a couple of rules.
74
You can’t add a noun after ‘called’, because that would change the structure.
75
You also can’t use conjunctions like ‘although’ or ‘because’.
76
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.
77
Pause the video and try it now.
78
How did you do?
79
Of course, there are many ways to do this.
80
Let’s look at three possibilities.
81
‘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.
82
However, remember the basic idea: all of these sentences have the same basic structure: one subject and one main verb.
83
Let’s move on and talk about one more important point.
84
As you heard before, almost all sentences need a subject.
85
Only imperatives, like ‘Come here!’ don’t need a subject.
86
Interjections, like ‘Wow!’, also don’t need a subject, but many linguists—including us—would say that these are not sentences.
87
However, sometimes there isn’t a clear noun subject.
88
In this case, you need to use a word like ‘it’ or ‘there’.
89
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.
90
You use them only because the sentence needs a subject.
91
They don’t add any meaning to the sentence.
92
So, what’s the difference?
93
When do you need to use ‘it’, and when do you need to use ‘there’?
94
Use ‘it’ to talk about distances and times.
95
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.
96
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’?
97
Use ‘there’ to say that something exists, or doesn’t exist.
98
Usually, when you use ‘there’, it’s the first time you’re mentioning something.
99
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.
100
Look at five sentences.
101
Do you need to add ‘it’ or ‘there’?
102
Pause the video, and think about your answers.
103
Ready? Here they are.
104
Finally, we have one more thing to show you.
105
In general, the subject of your sentence goes immediately before the main verb.
106
You can see this in the sentences you’ve already seen in this lesson.
107
Sometimes, the main verb also has an auxiliary verb, like ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘do’, ‘does’, ‘will’, ‘can’ and so on.
108
In positive sentences, the auxiliary verb and the main verb almost always go together.
109
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’.
110
For example: ‘Are you ready?’; ‘Were there many people there?’; In some cases, the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject.
111
This is most common in questions.
112
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.
113
One: make sure every sentence has a subject and a main verb in each clause.
114
Don’t put more than one subject or main verb in one clause.
115
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.
116
Before you write a sentence, think about this question: what are you talking about, and what are you saying about this thing?
117
Decide what you’re talking about—the subject—and what you’re saying about it—the main verb.
118
Keep these in your head.
119
Three: study the difference between main verbs and auxiliary verbs.
120
Remember that auxiliary verbs can’t generally be used alone.
121
Make sure every auxiliary verb has a main verb attached.
122
Learn the cases when the auxiliary verb needs to come before the subject.
123
If you can follow these simple steps, your writing will be clearer, better-organised, and more accurate.
124
Do you have any tips to help other English learners improve their grammar?
125
Please share your suggestions in the comments!
126
Thanks for watching!
127
See you next time!
Baixar aplicativo
Tudo o que você precisa para falar fluentemente
Pronúncia com IANota em cada frase
Prática de IPADomine cada som
VocabulárioMonte seu banco de palavras
Jogo de vocabulárioAprenda brincando
📺 Mesmo canal
A21
Clothes Shopping in English - Spoken English Lesson
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
IELTS Speaking Exam - How to Do Part Three of the IELTS Speaking Test
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
B21
English Job Interview Tips and Tricks - How to Answer Job Interview Questions in English
Interview EnglishWorking Adults
B17
English Verb Tenses Guide - Learn About Simple, Perfect, and Continuous Tenses
British AccentDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B23
Attending a Meeting in English - Useful Phrases for Meetings - Business English
British AccentBusiness EnglishWorking Adults
B111
English Sentence Structure - English Grammar Lesson
British AccentCambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B19
How to Order Coffee in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationWorking Adults
B27
How to Talk About Your Studies in English - Learn Spoken English
British AccentIELTS PrepInterview EnglishDaily Conversation
B12
How to Feel Less Shy Speaking English - Improve English Speaking Confidence Now!
British AccentInterview EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B123
How to Talk About Your Free Time and Hobbies in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentTeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B111
How to Describe a Picture in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentCambridge Exam PrepDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B17
Cambridge B1 Preliminary Speaking Exam - How to Do Parts 1-2
British AccentCambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B1124
Talking About Your Family in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentTeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
C15
8 Essential English Phrases for Conversation - Improve Conversation Skills
British AccentDaily Conversation
B22
Talking About Likes and Dislikes in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentDaily Conversation
C116
How to Talk About TV Shows in English - Spoken English Lesson
British AccentDaily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
20 Office Expressions to Describe Your Workplace - Visual Vocabulary
British AccentBusiness EnglishWorking Adults
B12
Adverbs in English - Learn All About English Adverbs
British AccentDaily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B11
Hotel English - Using Travel English at Hotels
British AccentTravel EnglishTeensHigh School Students
B11
Cambridge B1 Preliminary Speaking Exam - How to Do Parts 3-4
British AccentCambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
✨ Vídeo recomendado
B13
200 frases
How to Improve English Grammar - Tips to Learn English Grammar Faster
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B11
105 frases
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐BEST grammar lesson EVER!! | must, have, had better, should, ought to | Steve Ford
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B12
217 frases
The 8 Parts of Speech in English Grammar (+ Free PDF & Quiz)
British AccentCambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B210
255 frases
IELTS Speaking Part 1: Don’t Make These Mistakes When Talking About Your Home
British AccentIELTS PrepCambridge Exam PrepHigh School Students
B13
27 frases
LEARNING ENGLISH - LESSON 1 ( Repeat and Remember)
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B19
39 frases
Basic vs. Advanced English 
Business EnglishHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B2137 frases
Solve this 1 mistake → Solve 34% of English Errors
British AccentBusiness EnglishHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B163 frases
State verbs made simple – a Mini English Lesson
Cambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
B1192 frases
Improve Your Spoken English With This Sentence | RP British English Lesson
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B13
95 frases
Improve English Speaking : Flow, Clarity, Structure 🎯
British AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B13
217 frases
Classroom Instructions in English
Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
Aprender Inglês com YouTube: A Regra Fundamental para Estrutura de Frases
Se você já se sentiu frustrado por suas frases em inglês não serem claras ou soarem "estranhas", mesmo estudando gramática, saiba que não está sozinho. Muitos alunos cometem erros básicos que podem ser evitados com uma dica simples: toda frase precisa de um sujeito e um verbo principal. Essa regra, explicada no vídeo, é essencial para a comunicação eficaz, especialmente em writing — e até mesmo em exames como o IELTS!
Trechos Úteis e Colocações para Memorizar
- Subject and main verb: "Sujeito e verbo principal" — a base de qualquer frase. Sem eles, a mensagem fica confusa.
- Modal verb: "Verbo modal" (como "will", "can"). Lembre-se: eles precisam de um verbo principal após eles (ex: "We will go back home").
- Sentence fragment: "Fragmento de frase" — uma parte de frase que tem sujeito e verbo, mas não forma uma ideia completa. Corrija dividindo em duas frases.
- Complement: "Complemento" — o que vem após o verbo para completar a ideia (ex: "a nice house" em "They have a nice house").
Seu Desafio de Shadowing: Pratique Agora!
Para melhorar a pronúncia em inglês e a fluência, use o shadow speech (técnica de imitação) com o vídeo. Aqui está como fazer: 1. Escute um trecho curto (3-5 segundos) do diálogo. 2. Pare e repita imediatamente, copiando a entonação e o ritmo. 3. Foque em frases como "Every sentence needs a verb" ou "Imposing higher taxes on fast food is a good idea". Essa prática de shadowing em inglês ajuda a internalizar a estrutura correta das frases enquanto melhora sua pronúncia. Lembre: a consistência é a chave! Faça isso diariamente por 5 minutos e veja a diferença.
Aprender inglês com YouTube nunca foi tão eficaz. Com essa regra básica e o shadowing, você já está no caminho para frases mais claras e confiantes. Vamos praticar?
Gramática neste vídeo
As estruturas que o falante mais usa, com as palavras exatas do vídeo:
| Estrutura | No vídeo |
|---|---|
| Frases condicionais if + oração, will/would + verbo — uma condição e seu resultado | if it isn't clear, it will be |
| Present perfect have/has + particípio passado — uma ação passada que ainda importa agora | we've added · haven't added · haven't spoken |
| Orações relativas who / which + oração — informação extra sobre uma pessoa ou coisa | test, which can · structures which are |
| Possibilidade com “might / may” might/may + verbo — algo possível, mas não certo | might have · might finish · might mean |
O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing é uma técnica de aprendizado de idiomas com base científica, originalmente desenvolvida para o treinamento de intérpretes profissionais. O método é simples, mas poderoso: você ouve áudio em inglês nativo e repete imediatamente em voz alta — como uma sombra seguindo o falante com 1-2 segundos de atraso. Pesquisas mostram melhora significativa na precisão da pronúncia, entonação, ritmo, sons conectados, compreensão auditiva e fluência na fala.