Hello and welcome back to English with Lucy.
This is day two of my five-day shadowing challenge.
Today's focus is grammar, and in under 30 minutes you'll strengthen some structures that make your English sound clear and natural.
If this is your first day joining the challenge, make sure you start with day one so that you can follow the story from the beginning.
There's a link in the description that takes you to the full five-day shadowing challenge playlist where you can watch all the lessons in order and track your progress as you go.
And I have some great news.
Day two of your free consolidation course is now unlocked.
I've prepared some interactive grammar exercises with instant feedback, so there's no guessing and no waiting.
These activities go even deeper than today's lesson, giving you more examples, more contexts and more chances to see how the grammar structures work in real life.
If this is your first day here, welcome.
The consolidation course is completely free and you'll get immediate access to days one and two.
You'll find the link to join for free in the description, or you can scan the QR code on screen now.
Once you're in, everything unlocks automatically.
I think you're going to love it.
And a quick reminder when you join the consolidation course, you also automatically join my Black Friday waiting list.
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Right, let's start today's grammar lesson.
We will start with B1, the intermediate level.
Shadow me or listen, pause and repeat after me.
I've been trying to take the train more often recently, so I booked a ticket from London to Inverness.
When the day finally arrived, I boarded at King's Cross and as we picked up speed, I watched London disappear behind me.
Okay, what tense can you see in the first clause?
It's the present perfect continuous.
The structure is subject plus have been plus ing verb.
We can use this tense to talk about an action that began in the past and continues up to now.
The focus is on the ongoing, unfinished nature of the action.
In fast speech, we tend to contract I have to I've and pronounce been, been.
I've been, I've been trying.
In your day two consolidation course exercises, you'll practise the difference between present perfect simple and present perfect continuous, with interactive activities.
I've designed these activities to help you really understand when to use each tense, so that you stop second guessing yourself.
Okay, here's the next part of our story, shadow or repeat.
If I'd known the route was so beautiful, I'd have booked a window seat.
The journey, which took around eight hours, passed surprisingly quickly.
Before I knew it, I was in Inverness.
Okay, which conditional structure is in the first sentence?
It is the third conditional.
The basic structure is if plus subject plus past perfect comma, Subject plus would have plus past participle.
The past perfect tense is had plus past participle.
So it's, if I had known, I would have booked.
We use the third conditional to imagine a different past, often to express regrets.
In the listening passage, I had was contracted to I'd.
And then there was a double contraction.
I would have is contracted to I'd of.
Did you notice that both had and would are contracted to apostrophe D?
When you want to say or write the full form, be careful to use the correct word.
The next structure is a relative clause in this second sentence.
Which took around eight hours is a non-defining relative clause.
It gives extra but non-essential information about the journey.
We can remove the clause and the sentence still makes perfect sense.
The clause starts with the relative pronoun which and is separated from the rest of the sentence with commas.
When speaking, I pause slightly before and after saying this clause.
Shadow me or listen, pause and repeat after me.
If I'd known the route was so beautiful, I'd have booked a window seat.
The journey, which took around eight hours, passed surprisingly quickly.
Before I knew it, I was in Inverness.
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Okay, let's move on to B2, the upper intermediate level of English.
Shadow me now if you can.
But the adventure was far from over.
All I could think was, by the time I reach my cottage, I'll have been travelling for more than 13 hours.
I picked up my rental car and I was off.
Okay, we have a beautiful B2 level structure to focus on here.
The future perfect continuous.
The basic structure is subject plus will have been plus ing verb.
I will have been travelling.
We use this tense to talk about an action in progress that will continue to a specific point in the future.
The continuous tense emphasises the duration.
13 hours is a long time.
And did you notice another double contraction?
I will have became I love.
Two syllables with a schwa in the second.
I love.
And again, in fast speech, we usually say, been.
I'll have been rather than been.
In your day two consolidation course, you'll work through exercises comparing the future perfect, simple and future perfect continuous.
These can be tricky tenses, but the interactive format makes them so much clearer.
You'll get instant feedback on every answer.
Shadow me again now and give that double contraction a go.
But the adventure was far from over.
All I could think was, by the time I reach my cottage, I'll have been travelling for more than 13 hours.
I picked up my rental car and I was off.
Okay, here's the next part of our story at B2 level.
I'm so used to endless traffic jams in London that I couldn't believe how quickly I got out into the country.
And the further I drove, the more beautiful it got.
Okay, first, a structure that confuses even my advanced students, to be used to.
If you are used to something, it is normal for you.
Be used to is followed by a noun or a gerund.
I'm used to traffic jams, or I'm used to sitting in traffic.
The next sentence contained an interesting comparative structure.
We can see the plus comparative, comma, the plus comparative.
Further and more beautiful are the comparatives.
This structure shows a cause and effect.
One thing happens, I drive further, and something changes in response, it gets more beautiful.
The two clauses are separated by a comma, so when speaking, we pause slightly between them.
Shadow me again now.
I'm so used to endless traffic jams in London that I couldn't believe how quickly I got out into the country.
And the further I drove, the more beautiful it got.
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Okay, we're moving on to C1 now, the advanced level of English.
Shadow me if you can.
What struck me as I drove along was how changeable the weather is there.
One moment it was really dull, and the next it was bright sunshine.
The drive wound past glens and locks on and on.
Okay, there's a lovely structure at the start of that passage, a cleft sentence.
It starts with what followed by a clause.
Then we have the linking verb to be, was, and another clause.
We tend to use cleft structures for emphasis, and in this case the focus is on the information in the second half of the sentence, which is often new or interesting.
In your day two consolidation course materials.
We dive deeper into cleft structures with clear examples and practice exercises.
This is advanced grammar that makes you sound sophisticated and natural.
The exercises help you better understand these structures so they become instinctive.
Shadow me again now.
What struck me as I drove along was how changeable the weather is there.
One moment it was really dull and the next it was bright sunshine.
The drive wound past glens and locks on and on.
We'll listen to the final part of our story now.
Just as I was on the verge of giving up ever finding it, the cottage came into view.
Little did I realise how far it was from civilisation.
And, of course, I'd forgotten to buy any food.
I wolfed down a bag of crisps and tumbled into bed.
Okay, first let's look at to be on the verge of.
This means to be very close to experiencing or doing something.
We often say someone is on the verge of tears, meaning about to cry.
At C1 level you move beyond simply using tenses to discuss time and add in other advanced structures.
Next, we have a super advanced grammar point in the phrase, little did I realise.
What do you notice about the word order?
Well, the subject verb order of an affirmative sentence is inverted, like in a question.
When we use negative or limiting adverbs like little at the beginning of a sentence, we invert the word order.
Inversion is used for emphasis.
When there's no auxiliary verb, we use do or did, like in our example.
Another sentence like this.
Never had I eaten anything so delicious.
Shadow me again now.
Just as I was on the verge of giving up ever finding it, the cottage came into view.
Little did I realise how far it was from civilisation.
And, of course, I'd forgotten to buy any food.
I wolfed down a bag of crisps and tumbled into bed.
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Brilliant work today.
You've just wrapped up day two and your grammar is shaping up nicely.
Our day three lesson is going to be practical.
It's all about pronunciation and trust me, it's going to be a lot of fun.
Don't forget to do your day two consolidation course exercises.
Those interactive grammar tasks will really make everything stick.
I can't wait to see you for day three.
