PROFICIENCY STRUCTURES

PROFICIENCY STRUCTURES

The constructions with basic verbs

Life is simple but we insist on making it complicated

* Conditionals: 

1. Unless (if not), on condition that, provided that, supposing, as long as.

2. Should, were to (extreme improbability)

If you should ..., If you were (to) ...

3 In past conditionals and those with "should" and "were to", "if" can be omitted if an inversion is used instead. (were you to ... should you ...)

Should you ... , Were you to ...

4. Past conditionals are sometimes avoided by using "but for".

But for my help ...

* INVERSION

* THE PLEONASTIC "It" (The extra "It").

* THE GERUND

* THE INFINITIVE

* COMPOUND OR PHRASAL VERBS 

* INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES

* RELATIVE PRONOUNS. (WHAT)

* THE USE OF AUXILIARY VERBS

*"So" AND PREPOSITIONS AT THE END OF SENTENCES

* The passive in English

Passive sentences ending with a preposition

I cannot bear being laughed at.

She loves being flirted with.

His advice deserves acting on.

I don't like being read to. 

I enjoy being admired

The gerund always replaces the passive infinitive after "need", "want", "require", and "deserve" 

The photograph wants touching up.

The matter needs looking into.

My car wants cleaning.

This room needs decorating.

The infinitive can only be used after pronouns like "nothing", anything, something, or someone.

Nobody is to blame / to be blame for.

There is nothing to do / to be done.

Some verbs which are really passive in meaning have an active form in English:

Those new houses are selling well

The material wears well.

* Idiomatic Expressions

* The Subjunctive. 

I suggest you think over your position very carefully. 

If you're going to go through hell... I suggest you come back learning something. Drew Barrymore

If I were a boy, I could understand how it feels to love a girl. If I were a boy. (Beyoncé song).

May you ennoble / enjoy your present by recapturing the joys of the past. 

*  Expressions

Einstein developed a theory about space. And it was about time too. Funny Novelty

3. Cleft sentences (Clefts). What, What happens is (that), It is / was ... that ...

A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence. Clefts typically put a particular constituent into focus. In spoken language, this focusing is often accompanied by a special intonation. English is very rich in cleft constructions. 

A cleft sentence is a sentence in which some part is moved from its normal position into a different place to give it more emphasis. For example, instead of saying: Joe ate the cake. We could say: It was Joe who ate the cake.This puts the emphasis on the word Joe. This is a cleft sentence. Cleft sentences are used in spoken and written English, but they are more common in written English.

3.1. It-cleft sentences: 

It's the people who try to be clever who never are; the people who are clever never think of trying to be. Gilbert Parker

It's not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. F. Nietzsche

It wasn't until I started reading (and found books they wouldn't let us read in school) that / when I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters.

3.2. Wh-cleft / Pseudo-cleft: What he wanted to buy was a Fiat.

The emphasis in a pseudo-cleft sentence is on the phrase after the what-clause + be: What you need is a good sleep. What I didn't like was the end of the movie.

What I don't understand is how a person can tell you so many lies and never feel bad about it.

What's funny is funny. The same thing that made you laugh a hundred years ago makes you laugh now. Chevy Chase

What's interesting / weird, is the fact that not everyone truly understands what Bulling is. 

3.3. Reversed wh-cleft / Inverted pseudo-cleft: A Fiat is what he wanted to buy. 

3.4. All-cleft: All he wanted to buy was a Fiat.

All I need is everything. Aztec Camera.

All a girl really wants from a guy is for him to prove to her that they are not all the same. Marilyn Monroe.

3.6. Inferential cleft: It is not that he loves her. It's just that he has a way with her that is different. 

It's not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it. Seneca. 

3.7. There-cleft: And then there's a new house he wanted to build. 

3.8. If-because cleft: If he wants to be an actor it's because he wants to be famous.

It was because he was ill that we decided to return. 

It was in September that he first found out about it. 

It was with great reluctance that Maria accepted the invitation.

Prepositional phrase: It was on foot that he went there. 

Adverbial phrase: It was greedily and speedily that Homer Simpson drank his beer. 

Non-finite clause: It is to address a far-reaching problem that Oxfam is launching this campaign. 

Gerund: It could be going home early or slacking off at work that the boss reacted to. 

Adverbial clause: It was because she was so lonely all the time that she decided to move out.

4. PROFICIENCY PHRASES

Here is a selection of commonly found phrases, particularly in the Use of English parts of the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) exam.

Be out of the question – This is used to say that something is not allowed or impossible:

Be touch and go (often followed by ‘whether’) – To be uncertain, with an element of risk that something bad could happen.

Do wonders – To have a beneficial effect: 

Do your utmost – to try as hard as you can: 

Get your act together – To organise yourself and your work in a more effective way: 

Prey on your mind – If something preys on your mind it worries you over a period of time so that you can’t forget it:

Put paid to something – to bring something to an end: 

Take its toll – To have a gradual negative effect on someone or something: 

To say the least – used to say that sth could have been expressed in a much stronger way: 

5. PHRASAL VERBS

Here is a selection of useful Proficiency phrasal verbs for level C2 , commonly found in the Use of English parts of the Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) exam. Some of these may also have other meanings.

Catch on – Become popular: 

Dawn on someone – if something dawns on you, you realize it for the first time: 

Die away – Disappear over a period of time and cease to exist: 

Grow out of something – Become too old, mature or big for something:

Make up for something – Provide something good, so that something bad seems less important: 

Mistake someone/something for someone/something – Think that a person or thing is someone or something else: 

Put off someone – Stop someone concentrating: 

Set out to do something – Start taking action with the intention of achieving a particular aim: 

Stand for something – Be willing to accept something that someone does: 

Think over something- Consider a problem or decision carefully:  

6. CONDITIONALS

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star. W. Clement Stone

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Dolly Parton            See also: To my way of thinking, from where I stand ...

7. ADJECTIVES

7.1. PARTICIPLES:

My mother is a walking miracle. Leonardo DiCaprio. 

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright

8. ADVANCED STRUCTURES

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.'There can be differences of opinion without there being personal differences. Stephanie Perkins — 

9. "WHAT" PHRASES

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Charles R. Swindoll

10. AVOIDING REPETITION

Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. Willie Nelson

11. INFORMAL ENGLISH. 

12. IT ... PHRASES