hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy what is the ultimate goal in English for most it's this the C1 level why well it's the advanced level of English but C1 means having the freedom to express yourself it's the level where you can smoothly transition from giving an important presentation to cracking jokes with your friends we hear so much about C1 English but what does c one actually mean and what grammar do you need to know to reach an advanced level in English in this video I am going to teach you about all the grammar you need for C1 level English I've also created a free pdf guide It's got everything we cover in this lesson and it's your own guide to all of the grammar that you need to know to pass the C1 level of English I've also created a set of exercises to help you practice and test yourself if you'd like to download that just click on the link in the description box or scan that QR code there enter your name and your email address join my mailing list and the PDF guide will arrive directly in your inbox after that you've joined my PDF Club you will automatically receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news updates and offers it's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time okay before we get into the grammar we need to talk about what C1 means because a lot of people aren't sure so C1 is one of the six CFR levels that's the common European framework of reference they go from A1 to C2 with C2 being the highest at C1 you have an advanced level of English you're comfortable in a variety of Social and professional situations and lots of people who reach the SE one level use English at work or plan to in the future you can work in English at any level depending on the job requirements but you can pretty much take on any job you're qualified for at C1 without having to worry about your English skills if you're specifically aiming to thrive in a professional setting leading meetings negotiating deals or giving polished presentations my brand new C1 level business business English course is just about to launch and it will be just what you need it's called the professional English program level three it's opening soon you can join the wait list by clicking on the link in the description or scanning the QR code here if you join the wait list you'll be the first to know now at C1 you can speak spontaneously even though you might still search for Expressions sometimes you can understand nuance and implicit meaning so you can make and understand jokes the first time I told a joke in Spanish and people actually laughed was one of my proudest moments and you also have a wide range of structures at your finger tips what structures I hear you ask well at C1 you need to use all of the grammar you've covered from A1 to B2 which is a lot but I have some great news at C1 there aren't actually that many entirely new grammatical structures to learn there are a few and they're my favorite to teach but more on that later at C1 you mostly need to add to the grammar you already know and you need to employ structures flexibly in a variety of contexts from chatting with your friends to Leading a meeting at work or writing a report so here is all the grammar you need for C1 we'll start with something that's usually new for C1 students participle Clauses we use participle Clauses to make sentences more concise they are also a great way to add some variation and complexity to your sentence structure which is important at C1 here are a few examples frustrated by the lack of progress the CEO called an emergency meeting a longer version could be because he was feeling frustrated by the lack of progress or having signed the contract contract we went out to celebrate a slightly longer version here could be after we had signed the contract you'll also need to look at some of the more advanced uses of relative clauses and how to use apposition at C1 what is apposition well it looks like this notice the two noun Clauses next to each other referring to the same thing the new training program a vital component of our employee development strategy will launch in April let's move on to the next topic conditional structures by the time you get to C1 you should be familiar with the0 to third conditionals you'll probably have already learned about mixed conditionals too although using those accurately usually takes practice at C1 you're ready to dive into more advanced structures like these were we to invest in the company we would be taking a huge risk C1 students will also know the subtle difference between were we invest and if we invested or another example suppose we were to expand into the Korean market how would that impact our operations notice the semicolon between the Clauses when we begin with suppose using punctuation accurately in more advanced structures will help you get to C1 moving along our next topic is the passive voice again you should already know about the basic rules but at C1 you'll learn how to use more advanced structures like using ing forms in the passive for example the issue lies in the funds not having been allocated correctly not having been allocated is a passive form and you'll be introduced to impersonal passive structures for example it is thought that the company will announce a new product line soon okay the next thing we're looking at is hedging nothing to do with gardening hedging is when you soften your message making it sound less forceful or less certain you might do this in order to be polite or to avoid being seen as arrogant or to express ideas that you're not sure are accurate very useful in addition to other structures we often use modal verbs like May might and could combined with hedging adverbs like potentially or conceivably this really takes your language to a C1 level like in this sentence opening an office in that region could potentially lead to lucrative Partnerships polite and professional at C1 you'll learn about some of the more advanced uses of moduls for example you'll learn the difference between you might have told me that the meeting had been cancelled and you might have told me that the meeting had been cancelled so the first one means maybe you did I can't remember and the second one means you should have told me the sentences are identical in speech the tone of voice would be different but in writing you'd have to work out the meaning from the context okay on to the next grammar points clefted sentences and inversion they're my favorites and my students love learning these structures too both are used for emphasis we'll start with cleft sentences with this structure we take one message Mage and we split it into two emphasizing a certain part by putting it in a separate Clause they often begin with it for example it's effective time management that sets top performing employees apart from the rest of the team you'll see similar structures beginning with what and all and now onto inversion you actually saw an example of this earlier in the video in the conditional section in the sentence were we to invest the normal subject verb order in a statement is inverted to were we at C1 you'll learn to use inversion in several ways for example after negative adverbials rarely does an opportunity like this arise in such a saturated Market sounds so fancy doesn't it and after other words and phrases like so and such so successful was the marketing campaign that sales doubled within a month I think those sentences just sound so beautiful and advanced okay we're moving on to the next point now linking words at C1 you need to be able to produce extended detailed texts that are well structured and easy to follow one way to do this is by using linking words you'll have learned a lot of the linking words you need by the time you reach B2 in English words like nevertheless and furthermore the key at C1 is revising linking words and ensuring you're using them effectively but there's always time to pick up some more advanced words and phrases like much as and not withstanding I put a couple of examples using those words in the PDF so don't forget to download that okay we have two more topics to go the next is comparative and superlative structures you'll already know a lot by the time you reach C1 but at an advanced level you'll add in structures the faster we finish the sooner we can leave we're on our last topic and we haven't talked about tenses yet and I haven't forgotten about them you should already be a fairly confident user of a variety of tenses by the time you reach C1 at the advanced level it's about practice and getting truly comfortable employing the right tense in different situations a C1 course will also teach you some of the more advanced uses of tenses like using the present tense when narrating a story that happened in the past for example so I'm in the middle of preparing a big presentation and suddenly my laptop crashes it makes it sound more dramatic and you'll learn some Expressions that refer to the near future such as be on the verge of the company is on the verge of making a big announcement okay there you have it that is all of the grammar that you need for advanced C1 level English which of those structures do you need to consolidate to feel more comfortable using are there any that were new that you'd love to learn let me know in the comments and don't forget if your goal is to feel completely comfortable natural and confident using Advanced professional English at work join the waiting list for my professional English program level three it launches very soon and I want you to be the first to know the link is in the description I will see you in the next video bye [Music] [Music]