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  • Hi, I’m Gina.

  • Welcome to Oxford Online English!

  • In this lesson, you can learn how to make different types of complex sentence in English.

  • Making complex sentences will help your English writing.

  • By using a variety of complex sentence forms, your writing will become more versatile and

  • elegant.

  • Using a range of complex sentences in your writing is also important if youre preparing

  • for an English writing exam like IELTS, TOEFL, or FCE.

  • Before we start, two things.

  • One: have you visited our website yet?

  • If not, why not?

  • We have free video lessons, listening lessons, quizzes, and also many professional teachers

  • who offer online lessons.

  • Check it out: Oxford Online English dot com.

  • Two: we want to tell you about this lesson, who it’s for, what’s in it and what isn’t.

  • This lesson will focus on grammar structures for forming complex sentences without using

  • conjunctions.

  • If you want to learn about using conjunctions to form complex sentences, you can watch our

  • video about linking words for IELTS writing.

  • There’s a link in the video description.

  • Also, using these structures requires that you have at least an intermediate knowledge

  • of English grammar.

  • This lesson assumes that you know how to form different verb forms and use relative clauses,

  • among other things.

  • This lesson is technical and contains a lot of information.

  • You might need to watch it in sections, and repeat sections several times.

  • Finally, a warning!

  • Using complex sentences can enhance your writing, but *only* if you have complex, coherent ideas

  • behind them.

  • If your ideas are basic, or incoherent, using what you think areadvancedgrammar

  • structures won’t help.

  • Okay, let’s start.

  • Here’s how this lesson will work.

  • First, look at four sentences: Pause the video, read the sentences, and look

  • up any words you don’t know.

  • If you want to read more about tulip mania, there’s a link to a Wikipedia article in

  • the video description.

  • Ready?

  • These sentences are all grammatically simple, meaning that they each have one main verb.

  • Now, youll see four different grammatical tools you can use to combine and add to these

  • sentences to make them richer and more complex.

  • Do you know what -ing participle clauses are, and how you can use them?

  • If not, don’t worry; look at an example based on our first sentence:

  • Here, you use a participle clause to connect two ideas.

  • You can use an -ing participle clause to connect two ideas which happen at the same time, or

  • to show cause and effect.

  • In this case, you could express the same idea usingbecause’, like this:

  • The -ing participle clause does not have a subject.

  • In a sentence like this with two clauses, the -ing clause can *only* refer to the subject

  • in the second clause.

  • You can’t have two subjects.

  • When writing, make sure your sentence has a clear subject.

  • Don’t write something like this.

  • Here, it isn’t clear whatitrefers to.

  • Let’s practise!

  • Here are two ideas.

  • Can you connect them using an -ing participle clause?

  • Pause the video and think about your answer.

  • Want a hint?

  • Your answer should be quite similar to the example you saw before.

  • Ready?

  • Here’s the answer.

  • There’s one more way to use -ing clauses: you can use a perfect -ing form, withhaving

  • plus a past participle, to show that one thing happened before another.

  • For example:

  • So, quick review: you can use -ing participle clauses to do three things.

  • Do you remember them?

  • One: use them to show that two actions happened at the same time.

  • Two: use them to show cause and effect.

  • Three: use themwithhavingplus a past participleto show that one thing happened

  • after another.

  • Remember that you can always review a section if you need more time to work on it.

  • Let’s move on to our next point.

  • There are two kinds of participle clauses: -ing clauses and -ed clauses.

  • Look at an example of two ideas linked with an -ed participle clause:

  • This links two ideas.

  • You can use -ed participle clauses when you have two clauses with the same subject, and

  • one of the clauses has a passive verb.

  • Like -ing clauses, -ed participle clauses do not have a subject in the participle clause.

  • Let’s look at another example.

  • This time, you can try to make the complex sentence:

  • Can you combine these two sentences with an -ed participle clause?

  • Pause the video if you need time to make your answer.

  • Ready?

  • Here’s the answer.

  • Because the -ed clause doesn’t have a main verb, the verb tense information—‘had

  • been cultivated’—disappears in the -ed clause.

  • However, no meaning is lost.

  • In these two sections, youve seen how to use -ing and -ed participle clauses to link

  • two full, independent clauses.

  • However, there’s another way to use them.

  • Look at an example: Can you see how this is different?

  • In this case, youre using the -ed participle clause not to replace an independent clause,

  • but instead to replace a relative clause.

  • Relative clauses are one of the most powerful ways to add and combine ideas in complex sentences.

  • Let’s look in more detail!

  • Relative clauses can do two things.

  • One: you can use a relative clause to add information to a noun or noun phrase.

  • Two: you can use a relative clause withwhichto add information to a sentence or idea.

  • Let’s look at an example of the first case: using a relative clause to add information

  • to a noun.

  • Here, you use a relative clause—‘which occurred in Holland’—to add information

  • to the noun phrasetulip mania’.

  • Relative clauses used like this can *only* describe the noun they come after.

  • Don’t write something like this:

  • If youre using a relative clause to add information to a noun, the clause *must* come

  • directly after the noun or noun phrase.

  • You can use multiple relative clauses in the same sentence; for example:

  • Here, you add a second relative clause, withwhen’, to add more information about

  • the noun ‘1637’.

  • Using multiple relative clauses like this allows you to structure your ideas in different

  • ways.

  • For example, you could also write this: This might be useful if you want to add more

  • information aboutHollandlater in the sentence, like this:

  • Let’s practise!

  • Look at two ideas: Can you connect these two ideas using a relative

  • clause?

  • There are two possible answers.

  • Pause the video and make your answer.

  • Ready?

  • Here are the two possibilities.

  • Did you get the right answer?

  • Even better, did you get both?

  • For an extra challenge, can you add a third idea?

  • Here’s a hint: ‘1637’ appears twice, and you need to link the two instances.

  • Here’s the best way to do it: Let’s look at one more point here.

  • You can also use a relative clause to add information or explanation to a whole idea.

  • Look at an example: Here, youre using the relative clause to

  • explain the whole idea of the first clause.

  • Youre not just adding information to one noun phrase.

  • To use relative clauses in this way, you need to do two things.

  • One: you can *only* usewhichas the relative pronoun.

  • Two: your relative clause must add an explanation or an opinion related to the idea before the

  • relative clause.

  • You can’t add factual information or details in this way.

  • Now, let’s look at one more way to form complex sentences.

  • To be a good writer, you should make it clear which ideas are more important.

  • In English, ideas which are close to the beginning of the sentence are more important than others.

  • So, if you want to emphasise an idea, you should find a way to move it to the beginning

  • of the sentence.

  • You can do this by usingit’, like this: Here, youre focusing on the year, 1637.

  • Often, you use this structure to focus on a factual detail, like a person, time, place

  • and so on.

  • You can also combine this with other structures youve seen in this lesson.

  • For example, you could add a relative clause to the end of this sentence, like this.

  • Look at a sentence.

  • You want to emphasise the idea ofHollandor the idea of ‘1593’.

  • Can you write two different sentences, starting withit’, to emphasise these two ideas?

  • Pause the video and do it now.

  • Did you get your answers?

  • Take a look.

  • In the first sentence, youll probably need to change the structure a little by separating

  • in 1593’ from the main clause using a comma.

  • Now, youve seen several ways to form complex sentence structures in English.

  • What should you do if you want more practice?

  • First, you can use a grammar book or other resources to practise the topics youve

  • seen in this lesson.

  • Look for chapters and exercises on -ing participle clauses, -ed participle clauses, relative

  • clauses, and cleft sentences.

  • Cleft sentencesare also calledfocusing clausesin some books and materials.

  • Secondly, remember that the ideas in this lesson are not the only way to connect ideas

  • into complex sentences.

  • You should also learn how to use a range of conjunctions and linking phrases to build

  • sentences.

  • Finally, practise writing, and try to use some of these ideas in your writing.

  • Get good quality feedback to make sure that your writing is clear, well-organised and

  • accurate.

  • If you need help from a teacher, then our teachers can work with you to improve your

  • English writing.