hi it's therese and today we're speaking about complex sentences for the ielts exam and you may
ask why do i need to use complex sentences but if we look at the band descriptors from the official
ielts guidelines we'll see that to achieve band scores seven and above you need to
be using a range and a variety of complex sentences so an example of a complex sentence
is although it's raining i will go outside so we're using what we call a subordinate conjunction
to join
to join one clause with another clause so instead of just saying it's raining we make the sentence a
little bit more interesting although it's raining i will go outside so the idea of complex sentences
is to make your expression more interesting today in this video i'll talk about the difference
between the simple and complex sentence and how we can use it easily in the ielts exam so
a simple sentence has a subject a verb and object some people like shopping online that's the basic
sentence form if you want to make that complex just add a subordinating conjunction or a relative
pronoun like some people like shopping online because it's convenient so we have now a new
sentence or a new clause some people like shopping it's convenient and then we add them together with
the subordinate conjunction so some people like shopping online because it's convenient
so the second clause is dependent on the first clause it doesn't stay alone
you can change the position of the phrases or the clauses so you
could say well because it's convenient comma some people like shopping online
so if you want to paraphrase your sentence or you want to make it more interesting
you can move the position of the clauses around don't forget your comma of course and
as you can see the first clause cannot exist alone so they go together like a married couple
so let's apply a complex sentence to writing task two so our essay title is shopping online is
better than buying things in stores to what extent do you would agree or disagree we need to write
a three sentence introduction so we write our neutral sentence we paraphrase the essay title and
then we explain what the essay will do so we say the way we shop nowadays is different to the past
some people like shopping online because it's convenient this essay will discuss
why shopping online is better than shopping in stores
so that's one example of a complex sentence
let's look at the different subordinating conjunctions because there are different types
so if we look at although despite even though these relate to what we call concession when we
want to concede or maybe compare something so for example although it's raining i want to go outside
uh you could have expressions of time after when
these subordinating conjunctions that express time so after my dinner i play basketball
because you two relate to cause well because you didn't study you failed your exam
relative clauses are included as complex sentences you're already familiar with
them a relative clause that is the white house where i lived as a child
in order to indicates purpose we use it a lot in ielts writing task two so it's important
to remember this one so in order to improve the environment we need to stop using so much petrol
and then linking words or subordinating conjunctions of comparison whereas or while
so whereas i like coffee i also like tea so whereas we use this again a lot in writing
task one when you're comparing something on a graph a chart and in writing task two
if you're making comparisons too
so moving on to the main body paragraph of writing task 2 let's see what other complex sentences we
can use so shopping online firstly shopping online is easier than going to stores people can shop
online when they cannot leave their homes secondly shopping online is less expensive for customers
after comparing prices online shoppers can choose the least expensive product
so here i've used subordinate conjunctions of time to make complex sentences
so as you can see it's not very complicated i'm just placing one clause with another
clause or phrase and joining with the subordinate conjunction
in a conclusion to conclude although some people continue to shop in stores
shopping online is more practical and less expensive for for customers so here
i've placed the subordinate conjunction at the beginning of the sentence so i've moved it around
and that's what you can do in ielts move the position of the clauses around
when you want to paraphrase or you want to make a sentence sound different to
what's gone before so good luck in using complex sentences see you in the next video thanks bye