 Hey everyone, Chris here from IELTS Advantage with day two of our IELTS Grammar mini course. So what are we doing this week? Well on Monday we looked at the marking criteria surrounding grammar. Grammar is 25% of your total speaking mark, 25% of your total writing mark, it's very very important but on Monday we talked a lot about how grammar is misunderstood especially the marking criteria and how grammar can affect other parts of the marking criteria. So check that out and we also looked at a lot of myths surrounding grammar and there's a lot of misconceptions, misunderstandings about how grammar is assessed by the examiners. So in order to understand what the examiners want and to give it to them you have to understand what they don't want first. So you can check that out on Facebook or YouTube and today what we're gonna look at is something that a lot of you requested and again there's a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about this area too which is simple versus complex sentences. So we're gonna look at how to make these what they are, everything related to these today. This also will help you understand other parts of the test, it'll help you understand tenses and help you understand structures a lot more on what the examiners want. On day three which is going to be on Friday at 11 a.m. UK time we're going to give you a grammar improvement plan. The most important thing related to grammar is accuracy. So in order to improve your grammar score and improve your writing, improve your speaking, you need to reduce the number of mistakes that you're making. So we're going to show you exactly what to do and give you a very simple plan that you can follow and we'll give you that to you on Friday. So what will we do today? So we're going to look at what is a simple sentence? What is a complex sentence? We're also going to look at what to examiners really look for and this is going to be quite interesting and then we're also going to look at the dangers of complex sentences. Much like many other things in IELTS tests such as idioms or phrasal verbs or structures, they can help you or they can harm you. If you're using them incorrectly they can actually lower your score. So we'll look a lot at that and then we'll also look at how to make complex sentences. So a very, very simple way of thinking about how to make complex sentences because complex sentences are not actually complex. So before we look at complex sentences we need to understand what a simple sentence is. So let's not over complicate things by talking about simple, compound, complex. Let's just categorize them simple and complex because if you don't do that then people get into a debate about what a compound sentence is versus a simple sentence versus a complex sentence and we want to just keep it as simple as possible. So I teach English, subject verb, object, one clause. So it has one clause, it is a simple sentence. I teach English, it doesn't get any more simple than that. But why is it a simple sentence? It is a simple sentence because it has one clause in it. Alright? It is not simple because it has simple language or because it is short or anything related to that. Simple because it has one clause. So I teach English, one clause. Let's compare that with this sentence. I am a teacher, also that is one clause but then we have a different clause. Who specializes in teaching English? So this is a simple sentence and this is a complex sentence. Why is this a complex sentence? It is a complex sentence because it has more than one clause in it. I teach English, one clause. I am a teacher who specializes in teaching IELTS. More than one clause. More than one clause equals complex. Okay? So here we have in this box, I am a teacher, we have an independent clause. This is the first clause in this sentence. It is an independent clause because I can cover up who I can cover up all this. I can just say I am a teacher and it stands alone. You know exactly what I mean by that. This is the dependent clause who specializes in teaching IELTS. It is dependent on the independent clause because if I say to you, hello, who specializes in teaching IELTS, you wouldn't know what I was talking about. All right? Because it is a dependent clause. So you need to understand the difference between independent and dependent clauses, what clauses are, and understand that a complex sentence is simply a sentence with more than one clause in it. Well, let's look at that in a little bit more detail. So why are complex sentences so complex? Why is there so much complexity and misunderstanding and misconceptions about this? Well, it's all because of this. Many people think many students believe this and many teachers teach this, that the word complex means it is long. Just because your sentence is long doesn't mean that it's complex. It's complicated. Just because your sentence is complicated doesn't mean it's complex. Sophisticated, what does that even mean? And these are all quotes from students. Academic, what does that even mean? You could have a nonacademic sentence and it could be a very complex sentence. Or high level, again, what does high level even mean? You'll hear a lot of students talking about high level words and high level sentences. And then the question I always ask them is, well, what's a low level sentence? What's a low level word? What is a high level sentence? What is a high level word? And they can never ever explain that. And this is just nonsense. All right. So remember, a complex sentence just means more than one clause. It does not mean long, complicated, sophisticated, academic or high level. Why is this important? It's important because this is how the examiners are thinking about it. Examiners are not looking at your sentences and thinking, are these high level? Are these academic? Are these sophisticated? They're looking at the number of clauses in them on the accuracy of those sentences. So let's look at this again, because when you first hear that might go over your head a little bit. So here we have three ideas. Idea one, my name is Chris. That's an idea. I am from Ireland. Idea two, I used to live in Asia. Idea three. So here are three simple sentences. Simple sentence one, simple sentence two, and simple sentence three. Okay. Why are they simple sentences? They have one clause in it. All right. One clause, one clause, one clause. Then we take these three simple sentences, we put them into one complex sentence. My name is Chris, and I am from Ireland, but I used to live in Asia. So is this sentence complex? Before watching this video, or many people will look at that and say, this sentence is not complex. Why would they say that? Because it's not high level. It's not sophisticated. It's not academic. It's not long. It's not complicated. But none of that matters. All that matters is how many clauses are in it. All right. There are multiple clauses in this. There's more than one clause in this sentence. Therefore, it is complex. So are complex sentences complex? No, not at all. They're only complex. If you misunderstand them, or you make them complex yourself. So what do examiners actually look for? Okay, so when they're looking at your essay, or your task one report, the look at did you attempt to use complex sentences? In other words, are all of your sentences simple? Or are there some simple sentences with just one clause? And you attempted sentences with more than one clause? For most people, that will not be a problem. All right. A mix of simple and complex sentences. Again, if you look at your writing, you might not think that it's complex. But if you look at your writing, it's highly likely that you have a mix of simple and complex sentences. And you produce complex sentences accurately, not 100% accurately, as we looked at in the first lesson, you don't have to have 100% accuracy, but most of your complex sentences don't have any errors in them. And that is the level that you need to get to. And that is the thing that people will struggle with the most accuracy. All right. So what do examiners really want? So that's, if you look at the marking criteria, that's what you'll see. But if you talk to examiners, and if you talk to anybody reading anything, what do they really want? So here we have your little brain. And in your brain, there are lots of ideas. Okay? Idea one, idea two, idea three, idea four, idea five. When you're looking at an IELTS question, or when you're, when you're in the speaking test, and the examiners asking you lots of questions, you have hundreds and hundreds of different ideas firing off. All right. So should you take each of these ideas, and state simple sentences? All right, no, you would never do that. If you are at a certain level, in your, in your learning, in your, your English ability, you will be able to take these multiple ideas, and put them into complex sentences. So you're taking complicated ideas, putting them into complex sentences, and making them clear. So all complex sentences are, are tools that you use to make your writing or your speaking clear. They're just tools to help you communicate clearly with the examiner. And that's all what the examiners really want. They don't want to look at your writing and get a headache, because they've no idea what you're talking about. Because you try and use all these complex structures and tenses and long sentences and sophisticated sentences. They just wanted you to take your ideas, and put them clearly on paper. And that's what complex sentences do, allows you to take lots of ideas, put them into one sentence in a very clear way. Let me give you an example. Imagine I am talking in the speaking test. Imagine I'm talking about first class air travel. All right. So the examiner says, Have you ever flown first class? So first idea, first class is luxurious. Yeah, I'd like to do that. I will be well rested. So I'll be able to sleep on the plane. That would be great. It is very expensive. Third idea, I don't fly first class fourth idea. So simple sentence, simple sentence, simple sentence, simple sentence. In the speaking test, I would never say imagine the examiner says, Have you ever flown first class? I would never say first class is luxurious. I will be well rested. It is expensive. I don't fly first class. No one ever speaks like that. It's a very robotic way to speak. What I would probably do is put it all together into a complex sentence. Although first class is luxurious and results in a person being well rested. It is very expensive. And this is why I fly economy, not first class, because and also I don't have the money. So you can see the difference between four separate ideas, four simple sentences, still four ideas, but in one complex sentence. And this shows the examiner that a, you know how to use complex sentences. And you know how to use English grammar accurately. And this is very, very different to how most teachers are teaching this. Most teachers are saying, you know, just throw in as many as much information as many complex things as possible. And that leads to a lot of mistakes. Because remember, we talked about in lesson one, about the relationship between range and accuracy. When we're talking about complex sentences, the more complex. So as you increase complexity, and make your sentences more and more complex, what you think is complex, you're sacrificing accuracy and clarity by clarity. I mean, can they examine or understand what you are saying or what you've you've put down on paper. So the danger of complex sentences, especially if you misunderstand what they actually are is, you might think that your writing is amazing, and be like, Oh, I was a beautiful essay. I wrote that beautifully. It was amazing, all these complex structures, and it was amazing. But it's full of grammar mistakes. And the examiner has no idea what you were saying, because you were focusing on this, rather than this. And it's a bit of balancing act. All right. Do not use complex sentences for the sake of using it. When I'm writing an essay, a lot of my topic sentences at the beginning of a main body paragraph are short, simple sentences, because that is normally what is required to get my my idea across. Because most topic sentences are just short, simple sentences, not always, but most of the time. So I'm not going in thinking, how can I make this topic sentence really, really, really complex? I'm going in and thinking, how can I make sure that it's accurate and that it does the job that it's supposed to do, which is tell the person reading it what the rest of the paragraph is about. So you need to be very careful with this balancing act. So how do you make complex sentences? So I could create a whole course on how to make complex sentences, like a 12 hour course on how to make complex sentences. And I'm sure you don't have time for that. A really great way of thinking about it instead of thinking about, you know, independent clauses and dependent clauses. And where does this go here? Just think about pieces of wood, nails and a hammer. Okay. So the pieces of wood are your ideas. All right. So you're going to have multiple ideas, probably going into one sentence. The nails are conjunctions, water conjunctions. You can Google this, you can look it up yourself. They're basically words that connect ideas together. It's just a very simple way of thinking about it. Then the hammer is your skill and your knowledge, your knowledge of grammar. So once you put these three things together, this is a really good recipe for making complex sentences. If you don't have ideas, you won't be able to make them, but I'm sure you do. If you don't have conjunctions, you won't be able to link those together. In the same way, if you're trying to build a table, you need nails to knock through. And then the hammer is the skill. You need the skill to understand where, you know, where does the conjunction go? Which conjunction do you use? Is the grammar correct? How does that sentence look? And that's where you produce complex sentences. But you're probably already making them, all right? Many, many students come on to, for example, come on to our VIP grammar course. For our VIPs, we created a whole grammar course, like a 12 module course that covers everything. And one of the things that when they come on, we show them is, I think it's video two in the course is simple versus complex sentences, because they'll come on to the grammar course and they'll say, please teach me how to make complex sentences. I need to know this in order to improve my score. We say, you're probably already making them. The complex sentences are not actually that complex. You probably have grasped it. You might be making a few grammar mistakes when you're making it or using the wrong conjunctions or something like that. But you're probably way more capable than you already think that you are. So in the comments, have a look at your essays. I'm sure that you've did a little bit of practice already. You might already have it written down online somewhere or a piece of paper or your study book or whatever. Have a look at your essay and post it, not the whole essay, post one sentence that you think is complex, all right? And then everyone else can tell you whether you think it is complex or not and if there's any mistakes in it or anything. Don't worry about making mistakes. This is the time to make mistakes. You don't want to make mistakes on exam day. This is not exam day, so don't worry about making mistakes. So it will be really interesting to see that because as we talked about on Monday, most students are worried about this, all right? The really really worried about range and they're not worried enough about accuracy, all right? But the thing is that this is probably at the level that it needs to be already. This is not at the level that it needs to be already. So I guarantee that a lot of you are going to post complex sentences which satisfy range, but there will be lots of little mistakes in them and that's what we're going to look at in on day three, which is Friday 11 a.m. We're going to give you a grammar improvement plan, which you'll be able to take and improve the accuracy of your sentences. Also, if you have any questions or anything like that, you can email us chris at ialtadvantage.com, either myself or one of my team. We'll get back to you when we have time, but if you have any questions about that, feel free to get in touch with us. Let me take some questions in case there was any misunderstandings or anything about that. So feel free to ask any questions about the lesson. It's always good to get your perspective on what you think about it. I'm just trying to find a question. All of you are saying thank you and great job and nice things. So thank you very much for that. Shad, very good question. So complex means compound. So the reason why I didn't really talk about compound sentences, we're just trying to keep it as simple as possible, because when you throw in an extra element, it can make it a little bit more complicated than it needs to be. Yes, strictly for the purposes of grammar, if you go and look at a grammar book, there will be a distinction between simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. But for the purposes of IELTS, just keep it very simple. One clause, simple, more than one clause, i.e. two, three, four, five, six, whatever, maybe don't go up to seven or eight, is complex. So just think about it that way. A lot of people are saying, ah, now I understand. There's so many things related to IELTS that are like that. And it's the reason why I start many of my lessons with these are the myths, these are the misunderstandings, these are the things, because IELTS is a simple test over complicated by students and teachers, and it doesn't need to be that complicated. It's not easy, but it is simple. I'm in deep. Can you tell me a website that's good for conjunctions and creating complex sentences? Yeah, there's a couple of really good free grammar websites. The British Council has a lot of free information on their website, and it's very reliable. So check that out. And they have some practice activities and stuff there. Where else did I see? I can't think of any others off the top of my head, but check out the British Council. It has some really good grammar articles and very, you know, simple, straightforward and to the point. Benjamin, when are you going to deal with academic writing task one and task two? Well, we have a lot of past lessons on those, and we have our whole VIP course, which is a massive part of it is that. Abdul, complex means we use but because such says... So that's a good question. So Abdul's question is Abdul Raouf says complex means that we use but because such those types of words. So yes, some of those words are conjunctions, and complex sentences involves using conjunctions, but just because you use a conjunction does not mean that you have an accurate, effective complex sentences. For example, let's say you're building a table, all right, and you have the best nails in the world. The nails are amazing, but you have no skill and the pieces of wood are faulty. Are you going to build a good table? No, in order to build a good table, you need good ideas, good pieces of wood, nails and skill and tools and all of those things. So it's not just one thing Abdul. So think about it that way. Juna, dependent and independent clauses make complex sentences. Yep, that's one way to think about it. I like to use this way because when you teach independent, dependent complexes and like subject, verb, object, I find a lot of students love that way of teaching, but the majority of students do not like that way of teaching. A lot of grammar lessons are like subject, plus verb, plus object, independent. It looks like a mathematical formula and some people who are mathematically inclined love that way of teaching. Most people don't. Most people do not learn languages in the same way that they learn mathematics. It's the same reason why if I ever see a student who tries to create an essay using those types of formulas, they're probably going to fail. It's not a good way of doing it. Christine, do you advise people going to a review center or just to do it online? Very good question. So this is the example I always use for this is like the Hollywood example. Think about how Hollywood produces movies. Alright, so my favorite movie is Batman. Alright, so when they were making Batman, they got the best writers, the best directors, the best special effects people, the best cinematographers, and they put it all together in one place and then they distributed it throughout the whole world. Now imagine if instead of doing that, what Hollywood did was they got the script and sent it out to your local drama group. Alright, and your local drama group and your local teachers, your local actors, and your local, they did the special effects and everything. Would that be a very good movie? No. The exact same applies to most local IELTS centers. Alright, so you're comparing a local IELTS center with an online course. If you have an online course and it's produced by people who really, really, really know what they're doing, then it's going to be a hundred times more effective because the quality is going to be better, the feedback is going to be better. And then just having stuff online means that you can access it and use it at any time you like. So I think it's much, much better and that's where I'll finish for today. So thank you very much and don't forget, are you already making them? Post them in the comments and I will have a look at them. I won't be able to comment on every single comment, obviously, because I'm not Superman, but I will have a look at some of them and comment on some of them later. So thank you very much, guys. And if you need anything, feel free to get in touch. And on Friday, we'll be looking at how to improve your grammar, how to improve accuracy in particular. See you soon. Bye-bye.