Oh hello. Let me take your brain
and hurt it. My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here are five
C1 Advanced key word transformations that will make you and everyone you have ever loved cry...
Our subject here is "not watching SMASH English" and PREVENTED is a verb. So we can put our verb
PREVENTED after our subject. So this gives us "Not watching SMASH English prevented _____ your
Cambridge exam.". The verb PREVENT is transitive. That means it requires an object. So what or who
was prevented? YOU! YOU were prevented. This means we need to put the object pronoun YOU after the
verb PREVENTED. This gives us "Not watching SMASH English prevented you _____ your Cambridge exam".
Next with the verb PREVENT we need a preposition. What preposition do we need with PREVENT? FROM.
So now we have "Not watching SMASH English prevented you from _____ your Cambridge exam". And
finally did you know that FROM is a preposition? Well of course you did because I literally just
told you two seconds ago! But did you also know that after prepositions we always always
always need an object or a verb in the -ING form? So the question is, not watching SMASH English
prevented you from doing what? PASSING. So this gives us "Not watching SMASH English prevented
you from passing your Cambridge exam". And there we go. That's the answer. Brilliant. Yes.
So then we have IF in our first clause and in our second clause we have WOULD plus HAVE plus a PAST
PARTICIPLE. When we use WOULD plus HAVE plus the PAST PARTICIPLE we are talking about an unreal
past and we know this is the case in our second clause because this person did pass their exam.
So this means that we need to create a third conditional, yeah? Because third conditionals talk
about unreal pasts and our second clause here is the second clause of the third conditional. Well,
no. Because our key word is WAS and the first clause of a third conditional should be the
past perfect but there is no way for us to use WAS in a past perfect form and oh my gosh what
are we gonna do!? Well don't worry. Relax. Maybe instead our first clause should be a
second conditional? So we're using the second conditional to talk about an unreal present
state and the third conditional to talk about the results of that unreal present state in the past.
And if we're doing that then WAS is possible because the first clause of a second conditional
is the past simple. Yeah? Yes. So then we know that Toby has lots of talent, right?
That's obvious! So we want to talk about the unreal present state that Toby does not have
so much talent, this gives us IF TOBY DID NOT HAVE SO MUCH TALENT. But
we can't do that because our key word is WAS and we cannot use WAS in this phrase. This means that
we need to take the word TALENT and create the adjective and the adjective of TALENT is
TALENTED. So we could say "If Toby was not talented" but I don't think that is right
simply because I don't think it matches with our original sentence. Remember we need to include the
fact that Toby has an immense talent. So what about "if toby wasn't so IMMENSELY talented".
Now we are transforming the adjective IMMENSE into the adverb IMMENSELY to describe the adjective
TALENTED. Oh that was complicated! But did you manage to do it? One thing that you may have done
is said "if Toby wasn't so talented" and yeah it's fine but you're changing the meaning a little bit.
Remember our second sentence should be basically the same as the first in terms of meaning! So if
you can minimize any differences then that's a good thing to do. Yeah? Yes. Oh yeah and if you
want to learn all about mixed conditionals then I've got a video all about mixed conditionals.
Right here! Watch it after this video! And then watch all of my other videos! Please...
This one is simple if you know the idiom. If you don't know the idiom then....
Sorry. We just need to find another way of saying DIDN'T KNOW WHAT using the word CLUE..
Another way of saying I DON'T KNOW is I DON'T HAVE A CLUE. Our original sentence is in the
past simple though so I DID NOT KNOW becomes I DID NOT HAVE A CLUE. And then we just add
WHAT. "I did not have a clue what to do"... And that's the answer! Yeah this is one of those
horrible exercises where if you don't know the idiom then there's not a lot you can do... And I'm
really sorry but that is why you should watch videos like this one here to learn all the idioms
that you might need for the C1 Advanced exam! Toby's got your back bro! Or sister! Yeah...
So then our original sentence is expressing a regret and I know this because there is the word
REGRET....
We can use IF ONLY to express regret when it is paired with the PAST PERFECT. So let's put the
PAST PERFECT in there now. "If only I had..." Well now we just need a past participle but our keyword
is UP so this suggests that we need to think of a phrasal verb! And this phrasal verb must mean
the opposite of "spending all of my money". So can you think of a phrasal verb that means the
opposite of "spending all of my money" with the preposition up? SAVE UP. Now after HAD
in the past perfect we need a past participle. That means we need to say SAVED and not SAVE.
So this gives us "If only I had saved up for a pet giraffe" and yeah... Had I saved up for a
pet giraffe he would be my best friend today! There's another mixed conditional for you...
So HAVING is a gerund as you know because you are a genius. We can put gerunds after prepositions
and our first word is having so maybe we could say IN HAVING? Maybe? No. No I don't think
that's right. We need to express the idea that this person spent years studying however they
failed anyway. Probably because they weren't subscribed to SMASH English, am I right?!?!?
We need a concessive clause and we can build a successive clause with IN.
Do you know the expression with IN that we use to build a concessive clause? IN SPITE OF.
Yeah. So we have IN SPITE OF. After IN SPITE OF we need an OBJECT or a GERUND and luckily
for us our keyword is a gerund. This gives us "In spite of having". Now here HAVING is an auxiliary
verb. It forms part of the present perfect. IN SPITE OF HAVING plus PAST PARTICIPLE. So,
in spite of having done what? What did this person do but fail regardless? Well they STUDIED! So this
gives us "In spite of having studied". Yes! And we're basically done! We just need to include the
time period now because our original sentence says "I spent YEARS". So "In spite of having studied
FOR YEARS" and there we go, we're done. Did you get it right? Tell me in the comments please
because it helps me with the youtube algorithm and then more people will watch my video and say
"wow this guy's really cool!" That's definitely what people think when they see this face...
Oh yes and there is another possible answer! You could also have said "In spite of having spent
years studying" And that's okay too! Both answers are equally valid! So if one group of you has said
"in spite of having studied for years" and another group of you have said "in spite of having spent
years studying" please don't fight! There's no need to fight over it! Let's spread love and not
war! Both of them are okay! Yeah? Yes! And with that we are finished! Those were five keyword
transformations for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam! And i hope that I haven't fried your
brain. I hope you're still alive and I hope you're thinking "Actually I didn't do as bad as I thought
I was going to do. If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if
you haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English...