Essential Advanced English Sentence Structure
Vanessa: Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to speak advanced English?
Let’s talk about it.
Vanessa: Do you ever feel like you use the
same sentence structure again and again?
Maybe you hear native speakers make amazingly
complex sentences and you think, I can understand
it, but why can’t I make that sentence myself?
Well, never fear.
Vanessa’s lesson is coming to the rescue.
Vanessa: Today I want to share a trick with
you.
It’s actually pretty simple, but I bet that
you’ve never learned this in your English
classes before.
You’re going to master a beautifully advanced
sentence structure that native English speakers
use all the time, but I’ve never heard an
English learner use, until today because you’re
going to use this sentence structure and native
speakers will think, whoa, you know how to
use real English.
Cool.
Are you ready to master the the advanced sentences?
Did you know that the more you study, the
easier they will be?
The more advanced your sentences, the better
your English will be?
Vanessa: Let’s learn.
Let’s start with a quick review of a simple
concept that’s going to be key for learning
this advanced sentence structure.
Do you remember learning comparisons in your
English classroom?
Like this sentence: his bike is faster than
my bike.
The word faster is a comparison word.
Or her English is better than it was last
year.
Better is our comparison word.
That picture is more beautiful than mine.
More beautiful are our comparison words.
Vanessa: When we have a short word like fast,
hot, easy, green.
We’re just going to add ER: faster, easier,
hotter, greener.
But when you have a longer word like that
last sentence: beautiful or intelligent or
annoying.
Instead of adding ER, we’re just going to
add more or less: more beautiful, more intelligent,
more annoying, less beautiful, less intelligent,
less annoying.
So these are our two ways that we can make
comparisons.
Just as a quick review because that’s going
to be essential for taking it to the next
level in our advanced sentence structure.
Vanessa: Let’s take a look at this sentence.
The warmer it is, the happier I feel.
Can you pick out the two comparison words
here?
Warmer.
Happier.
We can see that ER at the end is kind of a
key to this.
The warmer it is, the happier I feel.
Right now it’s the middle of winter where
I live, but occasionally every couple of weeks
there’ll be one day that feels like spring.
And everyone in my city goes outside and jumps
for joy and all of that sadness from winter
just washes away because when it feels warm
outside you feel great, you feel so happy,
so we could use this sentence.
The warmer it is, the happier I feel.
We’re comparing two things but let’s take
a look at actually what’s happening here.
Vanessa: We have those two comparison words
but what’s happening right before that?
It’s the word the, the warmer it is, the happier
I feel.
So that’s going to be our key here for structuring
these sentences.
At the beginning, we have some kind of cause.
The cause is warm weather and what’s the effect?
I feel happy.
So we have a cause and effect happening here.
The warmer it is, the happier I feel.
Let’s take a look at some other examples.
The richer the person, the more annoying he
is.
This is just personal opinion.
So here we have two comparison words: richer
and more annoying.
Because the word annoying is a longer word,
we’re going to use more in front of it instead
of saying annoying-er, we’re not going to
add ER at the end.
And then we have that key word, the, the richer
the person is or the richer the person, the
more annoying he is.
Vanessa: What about this one?
The sweeter the dessert, the more delicious
it is.
The sweeter, that’s our comparison word, the
more delicious, that’s our other comparison
word, it is.
And we have the in front of both of those.
So we have a cause and an effect.
The dessert is sweet and what’s the effect?
It’s more delicious.
We have a cause, someone is a rich and an
effect, he’s more annoying.
So we have a cause and effect happening here
with this wonderful advanced comparison.
Are you ready to take this to the next level?
You probably already know how to make comparison
words, but what if we make this advanced concept
more advanced?
Vanessa: Often when we use the the sentence
structure like we’ve been talking about, we
don’t use that comparison word.
We just use the word more or less, plus a
noun afterwards.
Let’s take a look at this example.
The more you eat, the more you gain weight.
The more, that’s our comparison.
So we’re not actually using a word like, the
warmer or the more beautiful or the more annoying.
We’re not using those words.
Instead, we’re just saying the more, plus
a noun: you.
The more you eat, the more you gain weight.
Vanessa: Let’s look at a couple others.
The less I sleep, the less I can focus on
my work.
We can use more or less in these situations.
The less I, that’s our noun here, I sleep.
The less I can focus on my work.
The more I speak English, the more I feel
comfortable.
Do you see in all of these sentences, we’re
just expanding on what you already know.
You know about comparisons, now you know that
we need the in front of each of them and then
we’re adding more or less.
The more I speak English, the more I feel
comfortable.
We could switch that around and say, the more
comfortable I feel.
There’s a couple of different ways you can
use this, but this is going to be beautifully
advanced to talk about cause and effect and
we use this all the time.
Vanessa: In fact, there are a couple fixed
phrases.
They’re not exactly proverbs or idioms, but
they’re just fixed phrases that native speakers
use a lot, that include this the the sentence
structure.
Let’s take a look at a couple.
Someone might ask you, how do you like your
coffee?
Well, you could say the stronger, the better.
This means you don’t like cream in it.
You don’t like sugar in it.
You just want a lot of caffeine.
Black coffee that’s really strong with a lot
of caffeine.
The stronger, the better.
This is often used to talk about drinks.
You could even use it to talk about an alcoholic
drink.
Do you want rum or vodka?
You might say I want both.
The stronger the better.
So you’re talking about the strength of the
drink.
Vanessa: The other day I was having a bonfire
in my backyard and I invited a family and
they said, “hey, can I invite my other friends?”
And I said, “the more, the merrier.”
This is a really common, the the type of fixed
sentence.
The more people who come, the merrier.
It’s kind of an old fashioned word to mean
happy.
The happier we will be.
But in that fixed sentence structure, we do
use the word merrier in daily conversation.
The more, the merrier.
Sure.
Come on.
Or if you’re having a problem at work and
you’re talking with your coworkers saying,
“ah, should we tell our boss about this problem?”
Well, your coworker might say, “well, the
less said, the better.”
The less said to our boss, the better the
outcome or maybe the better for your boss
or the better for the situation.
The less said the better.
Vanessa: The final common fixed phrase is
one that procrastinators probably hear a lot.
And let’s imagine that you need to study English
or you want to study English, but you’ve looked
at your phone, you went for a walk, you called
your friends.
And then your husband says, “are you going
to study your English lesson today?”
He might also say, “you know, the sooner you
start, the sooner you finish.”
That phrase, the sooner, the sooner is used
a lot.
The sooner you begin exercising, the sooner
you’ll feel better.
The sooner you do something, if you do something
now, you’ll see the results quicker.
You’ll see them sooner.
So we often use this and the sooner you start,
the sooner you finish or the sooner you’ll
see the results.
Vanessa: And now I’d like to share a quick
conversation dialogue with you that uses this
advanced sentence structure a lot.
I challenge you after this lesson, go back
and try to say those sentences with us.
That’s going to train your speaking muscles,
help with your pronunciation, and also remind
you how to use this because you’re using it
yourself.
Vanessa: I’ve been feeling kind of down lately,
but I’m not sure why.
Dan: Hmm.
Have you been working too much again?
Vanessa: Oh, well, I go to work at 6:00 AM
and finish at 8:00 PM but that’s fine with
me.
Dan: Whoa.
That’s a long time.
Maybe the more you work, the more stressed
you feel?
Vanessa: I don’t know.
I guess I have neglected to see my friends
lately.
Dan: Yeah.
The more you see your friends, the more positive
you’ll feel.
Vanessa: I do feel kind of lonely.
The less I do outside of work, the less connected
I feel to them.
Yeah.
Maybe I have been working too much.
Dan: I’d say so.
Vanessa: In fact, the more I tell you about
my work life, the more I realize I need balance.
Dan: Yeah.
The more work, the more stress.
Vanessa: Yeah.
The more down I feel.
Dan: But the more time with friends, the happier,
the more connected.
Vanessa: The more encouraged.
But also the poorer.
Dan: What?
The poorer?
Vanessa: Yeah, because I would be spending
money instead of making money.
Dan: Don’t worry about that.
The more money you make, the more you can
spend.
Let’s go have fun.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
You convinced me.
Let’s go.
Vanessa: That was a lot of the the comparison
sentences, right?
I hope that this helped you to feel more comfortable
with it because you know what?
The more you study, the easier it will be.
So make sure that you review this lesson because
the sooner you review, the sooner you’ll be
able to use it yourself.
There’s so many ways that we can use this
advanced the the sentence structure.
And you will be one of the first English learners
to use this naturally.
So please do it.
Go out into the world and make me proud.
Vanessa: And now I have a question for you
in the comments.
I want you to create an advanced the the sentence.
Make sure you check out other people’s comments
so that you can see some more great examples
about how to use this advanced sentence structure.
Thanks so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
Vanessa: The next step is to download my free
ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident
English Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.