REPHRASING LAST STRUCTURES

1. REPHRASINGLAST STRUCTURES SO / SUCH PREPARATORY “IT” TIME CLAUSES PURPOSE CLAUSES I WISH… HAD BETTER, WOULD RATHER EXTENSION OF SOME STRUCTURES INVERTED REPHRASING

2. SO / SUCH EXAMPLES: • “THIS EXERCISE IS SO DIFFICULT THAT I CAN’T DO IT”. • IT’S … SUCH A DIFFICULT EXERCISE THAT I CAN’T DO IT. • “IT’S SUCH A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE” • THIS… EXPERIENCE IS SO WONDERFUL. • THESE COMPUTERS ARE SO FAST. • THESE ARE… SUCH FAST COMPUTERS. GRAMMAR EXPLANATION: • “SO” IS ALWAYS USED BEFORE AN ADJECTIVE. • “SUCH” IS ALWAYS USED BEFORE AN ADJECTIVE AND A NOUN. • IT’S PRECEDED BY THE ARTICLE “A” IF THE NOUN IS COUNTABLE SINGULAR. IN THE REST OF THE CASES, IT’S NOT PRECEDED BY ANY ARTICLE. BEWARE: • SO/ SUCH… THAT CAN INTRODUCE OTHER KINDS OF REPHRASING STRUCTURES SUCH AS: • CAUSE/ CONSEQUENCE: “THE CLASS WAS SO BORING THAT WE FELL ASLEEP”  “ WE… FELL ASLEEP BECAUSE THE CLASS WAS SO BORING • CONDITIONALS: “THE WEATHER WAS SO BAD THAT WE HAD TO POSTPONE THE MATCH.” “ IF… THE WEATHER HADN’T BEEN SO BAD, WE WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO POSTPONE THE MATCH.”

3. preparatory “it” • These two sentences mean the same: • Eating vegetables is healthy. • It’s healthy to eat vegetables. • And these two: • The fact that this crisis gets worse seems evident. • It seems evident that this crisis gets worse. • In both cases, “it” serves to anticipate the real subject, which comes after the verb. In both cases, the preparatory it uses the same verb as the other sentence, although most of the times it will be “be” or “seem”.

4. TIME CLAUSES • When… / As soon as… • “I will send you a text when I arrive at my destination”. • “As… soon as I arrive at my destination, I will send you a text.” • … Until / When… • “I won’t have any celebrations until the exams are over.” • “When the exams are over, I will have some celebrations.” • After… / (Before… / …until) • After I come back from the USA, I will write my reports. • I won’t write my reports before I come back from the USA. • IN ALL CASES: If they have a future reference, the tense structure is like the 1st conditional: • Main clause  Present • Subordinate clause  Future (it changes from negative to affirmative or vice-versa according to the sense of the sentence).

5. I WISH… / If only I… • “I wish” and “If only I” are structures that express the desire that something were different. • The tenses of the following clause don’t match the real time. • “I wish I had started (past perfect) the project earlier”  past desire. • “I wish I was (past simple) taller”  present desire. • You normally use this type to express you are unhappy about your present condition. • I wish you would shut up (conditional)  future desire. • You normally use this type to express hope (and doubt) that something would change. • In the rephrasing application, you will get a whole situation, not always formally predictable. Therefore, it’s essential to understand it very well. • I would like to play basketball, but I’m too short” • I wish… I was taller to play basketball. • I didn’t memorize all the irregular verbs and I failed the exam. • I wish… I had memorized all the irregular verbs. • You are making such an irritating noise. • I wish… you would stop making such an irritating noise.

6. PURPOSE CLAUSES • PURPOSE CONNECTORS: to + infinitive, in order to + infinitive , so that + clause. • “I went to the pub to drink some beer.” • “I study a lot in order to get the highest possible mark.” • “She went to the library so that she could get as much material as possible.” • REPHRASING APPLICATION: it may result in another type of sentence, normally cause or consequence: • “I went to the pub to drink some beer.” • “I wanted to drink some beer… so I went to the pub.

7. HAD BETTER / WOULD RATHER HAD BETTER WOULD RATHER It indicates preference. It can be followed by a bare infinitive: “I’d rather stay at home tonight than go out.” In negatives, we use “would rather not”: “I’d rather not follow your instructions”. It can be followed by a “that sentence” with the same tense structure as “I wish”: I’d rather you didn’t tell me the truth (present) I’d rather you hadn’t told me a lie (past) Rephrasing app: Whenever the situation denotes preference and the rephrasing starts with “I’d…” or “I would…” • It means the same as the modals “should” or “ought to”. Therefore, it’s followed by a bare infinitive: “We had better grab our books now”. • In negatives, we use “had better not”: “You’d better not talk to strangers.” • REPHRASING APP: Same situations as “should” or “ought to”: sentences with “it’s a good idea…”, “advice” or even “should” or “ought to”, with the rephrasing starting with “I’d…” or “I had…”

8. EXTENSION • Present Perfect: • I haven’t exercised for two months. • It’s been two months since I have exercised / since I exercised for the last time / since I last exercised. • It’s been (duration) + since + present perfect / past simple + for the last time. • Reported Speech with prepositions: • He said to me: “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before” • He apologized for… not telling me before.

9. INVERTED REPHRASING • This can happen in twostructures: • Passivevoice. • Reportedspeech. • In this case, the original sentenceswould be in thepassivevoiceorthereportedspeech, and theobjectivewould be totransformthemintothe active voice and thedirectspeech. • Example: • ”FourgoalswerescoredtheotherdaybysomePolack.” • SomePolack… • Myfriendssuggested I gotothetrip.” • Myfriendssuggested: “…