How do you create complex sentences in IELTS Speaking?
You probably know that a wide range of grammatical structures is really important if you want to get a band 7 or above in IELTS Speaking.
We can see the band descriptors for Grammar in IELTS Speaking talk about Simple and Complex Structures.
What’s more, they say a band 7 student ‘uses a range of complex structures with some flexibility’
What you may not sure about is what ‘complex grammar’ is exactly? And how do we use it?
That’s what we are going to find in this lesson.
Table of Contents
Simple and complex tenses
Complex grammar can include many things, but in this lesson, I am going to look at 2 main areas, to give you a flavour of what it can include.
SIMPLE TENSES
Let’s look first at tenses. The following are generally seen as simple tenses
Present Simple (facts, regular activities)
I work from home
I play football every Thursday
Present Continuous (activity now)
I am drinking tea now
Past Simple (activity finished in past)
I went to the park yesterday
Past Continuous
I was reading a book when the phone rang
Future Simple (decisions, predictions, promises)
I will call you tomorrow
Tom won’t come, he hates parties
COMLEX TENSES
The following are generally seen as being more complex tenses
Present Perfect (unfinished past activity, experiences)
I have lived here for 10 years
I have never seen the Queen
Present Perfect Continuous (unfinished past activity)
I have been living here for 10 years
Past Perfect (clarifying an event before moment in past)
I had already booked the tickets before I arrived at the station
Past Perfect Continuous (continuous activity before moment in past)
I went to see the doctor because I had been having knee pains
2nd Conditional (unreal situation)
If I had more money, I would buy a bigger house
3rd Conditional (unreal past situation)
If I had known, I would have gone
Complex tenses in reported speech
Another example of complex grammar is when we use some of the above tenses in reported speech.
Imagine something happened to you and you are telling the story of that event in IELTS Speaking Part 2.
For example, someone says,
“I enjoyed the food but I won’t go back to that restaurant”
When telling the story in Part 2, you should use reported speech, and then the above becomes,
“He said he had enjoyed the food, but that he wouldn’t go to that restaurant again.”
However, complexity does lie just in one tense.
It lies across whole sentences and whole answers.
To see how this works, let’s look next at the simple secret to building complex structures – that is “Clauses”
Clauses and complex sentences
You probably know about ‘sentences’, as these are the basic building blocks of writing.
But we don’t always speak in sentences.
Really, it’s true!
Take this example of a written sentence about the city where I live,
I visited Santander which is not a very pretty city due to a fire that destroyed it in 1941.
When we speak we tend to break our speech into smaller units that are easier to use and remember. These smaller units of speech are called clauses.
The above in spoken English would look like this,
“I visited Santander
It’s not a very pretty city
Because there was a fire
A fire that destroyed it in 1941”
A clause is the basic building block of speaking. This is the secret to building complex sentences in IELTS Speaking.
All you have to do is put the blocks together and build!
What is a clause?
A clause usually has a subject (sometimes called a noun phrase) and a verb phrase (sometimes called a predicate) that tells us about the subject.
For example,
I live in Spain
I (subject) + live in Spain (verb phrase)
We can build complex structures by building 2, 3 or more clauses.
The thing is in order to build complex sentences in IELTS Speaking, don’t focus on perfect writing and punctuation. Instead, focus on building up clauses, using perfect pauses and intonation patterns.
How do we do that?
Let me show you some very specific examples, so it’s crystal clear.
Clauses and conjunctions
First of all, let’s take examples of joining clauses with conjunctions, these include:
- and
- but
- for
- nor
- or
- so
For example, we can say,
I live in Spain
and I like it very much,
but the weather is a bit too hot.
Relative clauses
Next, let’s take examples of describing a clause with adjective clauses or relative clauses. In this case, we would use words like
- who
- which
- that
- where
- when
- whose
For example, we can say,
I live in Spain which is a beautiful country
I live in a city where there is not too much traffic
I work for a woman who is very friendly
Now you can see how we can start to build blocks. Here are some more examples, as we build more complex sentences.
I live in Spain
which is a pretty big country
and I like it very much.
I live in Spain,
which is a pretty big country,
and I like it very much,
although the weather is a bit too hot.
Adverbial clauses
Finally, let’s look at describing how, when or why something happens with adverbial clauses. In these cases, we would use words like
- because
- although
- when
- if
- until
- as if
- before
- after
For example, we can say,
I decided to buy a playstation after seeing an advert on TV
I lived in Malaysia before moving to Spain
I live in Spain because the food is great
Again, you can now you can see how we can start to build more complex sentences in IELTS Speaking.
I live in Spain
because the food is great,
although I think they eat too much fish
I work as a teacher
because I love showing people new things,
although I do find the long hours are tiring
I live in Spain,
which is a pretty big country,
because the food is great.
I live in Spain,
which is a pretty big country,
because the food is great,
although I think they eat too much fish.
In this last example, you can see how we can notably build up many clauses, we can also use more complex tenses in these clauses.
I have been living in Spain for 10 years,
which is quite a long time actually
partly because the food is great,
although I think they eat too much fish.
All of this helps create more complex sentences in your IELTS Speaking, and so helping you get a band 7 or above.
The key, is to practice. So, now go back and practice making some complex phrases to describe you, your job, your family or your home.
Think about mixing different tenses in your clauses
Share one of your phrases in the comments below.
20 thoughts on “Complex Sentences for IELTS Speaking”
sorry; I retype this comment because when i was posting, In a result it show me that your comment was copied
Muhammad Junaid from United Arab Emirates. Our country is famous for chill and mostly overseas come to visit our country for making funs of there life so i like to go for Forgan studies therefore i start to prepare my self for ILETS
I m Muhammad Junaid from United Arab Emirates which is famous for chill and mostly overseas come to visit our country for making funs of there life so i like to go for Forgan studies therefore i start to prepare my self for ILETS
I live in Nepal which is known for the highest peak, Mt Everest. Although most of the population reside in the urban locations, its countryside has many things to offer, mostly breathing views of nature.
Lovely and thanks for sharing. Just note: ‘BREATH-TAKING views of nature’ 😉
I live in Pakistan which is famous for its natural beauty and mineral resources because of its amazing geography but political unstability has created economic crisis as well as inflation that forced young generation to leave the country to get better Job opportunities.
Very interesting and lovely English. Just note: ‘…has created AN economic crises’ 😉
Dear Keith,
I was born and grown up in Iran. I have been living there for my whole lifetime. Although it is quite crowded ,I like the hustle and bustle there. I am going to take an IELTS exam in six month due to emigration because of the worse situation that is run by the government. So I have to leave my family and friend to get better opportunity for ideal life.
Best of luck to you, I hope you can prepare well and I really hope you can achieve your dreams for a better life.
Hello KEITH, myself FALAK SHER and basically I belong to Pakistan which is a quite pleasent county and I ‘ve been living here for last 18 years which is actually a big time period and right now I am doing preparation for IELTS . This article is really help ful for me Thanks a lot 😊
Pleased to hear that Falak Sher – thsnks for studying with me.
I was born and raised in The Netherlands, I have lived there for my entire life, because I like to be close to my relatives and friends, although I love them very much, I will move to Boston in a couple of months.
Fantastic Mandy!
Dear Keith,
I bought your online courses on the 22nd of June, 2021 with lifetime access, but now I can’t log in unfortunately. I don’t know what to do, Im really confused, as I haven’t finished all the lessons yet((
Hi Dilora, I have just checked and sent you an email to show you how to get into your course. You still have access. Please check that and let me know via email if you still need help.
Hey Keith I was born and bred in India ,which is really famous for lush greenery landscapes and temples aswellas every indian carrying out tradition and culture to our future generations.
You are really helpfull for me to learn more about ilets but exactly I don’t my level ,I’m going to give my ilets in October 25 .
I live in Argentina which is a great country with a lot of resource and different landscape, but actually i think is quite undevelopment because our government are always fighting trying to keep their own in power but in spite of this we are a kind of society that never change.
Lovely answer Eduardo. Just be careful with the ‘s’ (different landscapeS, our government IS, never changeS) 😉
Although I’ve been searching for the pdf note which you mentioned could be downloaded, unfortunately I haven’t yet got it. I love that video because it’s very valuable, top- notch. Thanks a lot.
My mistake, I have just changed the comment on the video – it should be ‘read and study the lesson’. I only do PDFs for the live lessons. Glad you liked the video!