 This is Mark. I'm doing just great. Thanks for asking. Last night she gave a look to the book he'd given her. John has a shower every evening when he arrives from work to give a vague reply to someone's question. He was taking no chances in his career. She gave an amused laugh. In this lesson we're going to look at the lexical structures. So stay tuned. So what are the lexical structures? They are phrases that are used mainly in everyday English and they are made up of the lexical verbs plus indefinite article sometimes, so that's why it's in brackets plus adjectives sometimes plus a noun. And what are the lexical verbs? Well, they are common verbs such as do, give, make, take, hold, set, etc. that indicate that somebody performs an action and not that somebody creates or affects something. What do I mean by that? These verbs have very little meaning and thus the noun that follows it, so this noun has most of the meaning of the sentence. Let's look at my example just to make it clear. Last night she gave a look. So gave is the lexical verb to give a indefinite article. Look is the noun. To the book he'd given her. So here, look takes most of the meaning of the whole sentence and not give. So sometimes it can be confusing because some people take these as collocations. Sometimes they can be collocations, but not always. What are collocations? Well, collocations, if you want to see my lesson on collocations you may click here. But collocations are nouns plus verbs or adjectives plus noun or a verb plus noun. So for example, watch TV, listen to music or read the newspaper. They are usually put together. These are collocations. I'm going to give you more examples just to give you the whole idea of the lexical structures. John has a shower every evening when he arrives from work. In this case we have the indefinite article a or a. A shower every evening when he arrives from work. Another example could be I don't like to give a vague reply to someone's question. In this case I added an adjective. In this case is vague. Vague reply. Reply is the noun. And we have the indefinite article a again a vague reply. Another example could be she was having an amazing time when I arrived at the party. In this case we have the adjective amazing and so it starts with a vowel sound and so we have the indefinite article an amazing time. Time obviously is the noun. The other example he was taking no chances in his career. Well in this case I added no just to make the sentence negative. What do I mean by that? No chances, no chances not possibility of an opportunity no chances. So I could have said he wasn't taking chances in his career. He wasn't taking chances in his career. It's the same thing. But I chose to say he was taking no chances in his career. This is another way to have the lexical structure with the word no before the noun. Now I'm going to give you another example. John took no sugar in his coffee. Okay I could have said John didn't take sugar in his coffee. It's the same thing. But I chose to say no sugar in his coffee just to stress the fact that sugar he didn't take any sugar in his coffee. Now most of the in these cases the nouns which are also sometimes verbs can be intransitive verbs. So for example she gave an amused laugh. In this case laugh is a noun. But if I wanted to turn it into a verb I could have said she loved amusantly. Laught in this case is an intransitive verb. It doesn't take an object. There is a lesson on that. You can click here if you want to watch these verbs or these lessons right there. Now another example to be he had a good cry after watching the sad movie. In this case cry is the noun. But if I wanted to make it into a verb I would have said he cried after watching the movie. And in this case cry is an intransitive verb because it doesn't take an object. Another thing that I wanted to tell you about the lexical structures is that in British English they prefer to use have in the lexical structure as opposed to take in American English. So have a shower for example. Have a shower. In American English take a shower. But it is your choice to use either have or take. Now let's recap. So in this lesson we looked at the lexical structures. These are phrases made up of the lexical verbs plus an infinitive article plus maybe an adjective and then a noun. The lexical verbs are very common verbs such as do, make, take, have, etc. So that's it for today. If you have any questions requests or if you want to write your own example you may do so under this video. Don't forget to share the video if you liked it. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and if you do next week you'll get a new lesson on your email. So have a great day and see you next week. Take care. Bye bye.