Back to: The Structure Key
Watch and listen to the video above about how the structure key is formed.
The transcript for the video is in the download is below. You can change the language to your own if you have little or no English level so that you can ensure you have understood everything. There is also a download link at the end if you prefer to download for further reading or reference.
Slide 1:
Hello and welcome to Let’s Speak English GC. Firstly, my name is Amanda, and I will be your English instructor and tutor throughout all the courses. Secondly, I am going to guide you through learning the structure key. Like with all languages, English is no exception, to the many grammar structures and elements of speech. This can be confusing and difficult to remember. For this reason, I use a simple structure key for each verb tense and for other grammar elements.
Slide 2:
A structure key is a group of letters which we use to represent different grammar components in a sentence. This group of letters is an abbreviation or indicator of a particular element. By using small abbreviations, we can quickly remember the grammar associated with verb tenses or sentence structures. If you have ever studied another foreign language or studied English before, you will have seen this. Whilst most structures are similar, in this case I have added structures for not only verb tenses but also other elements of grammar and lexis. Therefore, I recommend you take the short time to go through this course, so you are aware of everything.
Slide 3:
If you look at this slide you can see all the subject pronouns we use in the English language.
I, you, he, she, it, we, you (plural) and they. You may have seen these referred to with other names such as personal pronouns, the subject, a person or persons. Throughout the lessons you will see all subject pronouns using the letter ‘S’ as its abbreviation. For every new piece of grammar, you will be able to identify the subject pronoun in the sentence, wherever it may be. It’s a very simple method to remember. So of course, the letter V will refer to our verb in the sentence. The verb is our action word in the sentence like play, work, walk, eat, drink. The V for verb will always refer to the tense of the verb you are studying, unless indicated. Other specific types of verbs will be abbreviated in other ways.
Slide 4:
You will see the word TROTS in almost all sentence structures in the lessons. TROTS is the abbreviation for ‘The Rest Of The Sentence.’ In most cases this will appear near the end or at the end of the sentence – but not always! You may have seen this in other sentence structures named as the complement. I like to use TROTS, as it is what it is – ‘The Rest Of The Sentence’
But what is it? Well, it’s simply the additional information we put in a sentence so that it makes more sense. Usually, it comes after the verb. For example, at the shop, a sandwich, in the hotel.
Transcript download.