Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my advanced English lessons with Harry.
And if you like my lessons, and please like this particular video, and as always subscribe
to my channel because it really helps me.
So in this particular advanced English lesson, we're again going to look at some collocations
because collocations are really important to our students and our listeners.
And these collocations are connected to importance.
Collocations for importance.
And as I always say, in case you've only listening for the first time collocations are simply
two or more words that come together on a frequent basis to form some expressions.
And that can be very useful because they can help you to understand English better, it
can help you to be understood when you're able to put few words together rather than
just single words.
So I'm going to give you these collocations for importance.
And I'll go through them there are 10 of them again, as always 10 and then we'll go back
and look at some examples.
So here they are, a notable achievement, notable achievement.
Overriding concern, overriding concern.
Prominent role, prominent role.
Momentous decision, momentous decision.
Decisive factor, decisive factor.
Of paramount importance, of paramount importance.
Key figure, key figure.
Pricing...
Prime example, prime example.
Leading issue.
And then finally, enormous influence, on or over.
Enormous influence on or over.
The prepositions you can use with that, okay.
I'm going to go through them one by one and give you an example how you might use them,
make sure you understand the meaning.
So notable achievement.
Well, when something is a notable achievement, then it means that somebody or something has
been recognised.
Yeah.
Okay.
So a notable achievement isn't just any ordinary achievement, it's something meaningful.
So in a race, if somebody gets that bronze medal, silver medal, or even gold medal, then
this would be a notable achievement.
So perhaps you've been running in these races for quite a few years, never achieved anything
significant or important.
And then this is your day, you win the race, or you get second or third.
So you, you're on that podium, and you're going to have the medal presented to you.
And therefore, it's a notable achievement for you.
Yes, your first medal, and perhaps the first of many.
So lots of other things can be a notal.... a notable achievement.
Climbing a mountain that you hadn't climbed before.
Cycling for charity for that 40-50 kilometres you didn't think you could finish.
That's a notable achievement.
Something you did in work, that's a you had a special order or a big order something from
a client, nobody had expected that in itself could be a notable achievement.
So these are all things that are above than average, better than average, have certain
importance or significant importance, but somebody recognises them in the case of these
will be described as a notable achievement.
Overriding concern.
Well, overriding concern usually means the main concern.
So when you're planning something, or deciding on something, a course of action, there may
be lots of concerns, lots of situations that you have to consider, lots of situations that
you have to think about, but your overriding concern, your main concern, maybe public safety,
for example.
So if you're organising some parade, some event on the streets, so there'll be all sorts
of things about what time you can start, what time you can finish, what is the route that
this march is going to take?
But the overriding concern is about public safety.
Where will people stand?
Where will people sit?
Have we make sure that the traffic will not come through on those streets?
Do we get the correct permission from the police to block the streets?
All of these particular issues will be concerns and the overriding, the most important concern
for you would be public safety.
Next, a prominent role.
Okay, when we have a prominent role in something it's one of the most important or the most
important roles.
So if you're part of the school, theatrical society, or your local theatrical society
in the district where you live, you might be lucky enough one year when they're putting
on their the annual performance to be given a prominent role.
Yeah, it might not be the leading role.
But it might be the prominent role.
The main female character, or the main male character, something that people will take
notice of, and some people will see as really important.
And it could be really important for you because it's something you've been working up to,
something you've been hoping for, something you've been planning.
And you're telling all the family, you have to get tickets to come and see the show, I
have a real prominent role.
This time, I'm not just one of the crowd, and really got some lines to say I'm going
to be appearing in I think all of the acts or be I'm nervous, of course, but it's going
to be really, really good.
Okay, so very prominent role.
Other people can play prominent roles in certain situations.
If there's some negotiations between management and unions about salary increases, or increases
in wages, than the inflation aspects play a prominent role because the unions will want
to make sure that any salary increases, at least match inflation.
So for them, it's a prominent role.
Or a politician might play a prominent role in negotiations, trying to keep the peace
at some problems, perhaps, the streets are full of demonstrators that they don't want
the new public transport to go through their streets.
And he's trying to persuade people that well, of course, it's going to be for the betterment
of your district because there'll be a better connectivity with the public transport.
So he's going to play a prominent role in the negotiations, and trying to persuade people
that they really shouldn't oppose this, that they should support it because it's what they
really wanted.
Okay, so a prominent role.
A very, very important, upfront.
A momentous decision.
Well, momentous usually means something really big, and really important.
So a momentous momentous decision is a big decision.
A momentous decision was taken this week in the government when they decided to scrap
tax for the people over 65.
That would be a momentous decision.
So everybody who got to the age of 65, was suddenly told well, you don't have to pay
any more tax.
Woohoo, that would be great.
Yeah.
So people would be really, really happy.
And it would be looked on as a momentous occasion, certainly, in their lives.
But an momentous decision could be your decision to drop out of university, perhaps you're
just not so happy.
You've done the course that your parents persuaded you to do.
But after 18 months, you realise it's really isn't for you, and you'd like to do something
else, something a little bit more artistic, perhaps.
So you take the momentous decision, you sit down with your parents and say, You know,
guys, this really isn't working for me, I don't like it.
It's too much pressure.
And I'm not sure I'm going to get a job at the end of this that really would suit me.
So I think now would be a good time to change my course before it's too late.
I know it's a big decision.
In fact, it's a momentous decision, but I'd like you to support me.
Okay, so momentous meaning something really big, really, really important.
A decisive factor.
Well, decisive is usually something really important that makes the difference.
Okay.
So a decisive factor in getting the public to agree to the new bus route was the fact
that extra buses would be laid on at the very early hours for the when they go to work,
and in the evening, so they could get home quicker, that was a decisive factor in persuading
people to agree to the new buslane.
Okay,
so a decisive factor is something important that swings opinion in your favour.
Okay?
So the management in the office had decided to allow people to work some of that time
remotely from from home.
Okay, so they gave people some choices as to what they could do.
They didn't want all the people out on the same day.
They wanted to have some people there, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
And the decisive factor in getting people to agree to this was that those people who
lived furthest away from the office would get first choice.
And then those people who live close more closely to the office would get a later choice.
So this was a decisive factor in getting everybody to agree.
So a decisive factor, a very important issue that people took into consideration that then
got them to agree to whatever you wanted them to agree to.
Okay, a decisive factor.
A decisive factor for moving to this particular city was that the education was much better,
the standard of education for your children would be much better the opportunities to
go to university in the city would be much better.
And that was a decisive factor in your decision to move to this city rather than some other
cities that you could have moved to.
Of paramount importance.
When something is of paramount importance, it's really at the peak.
Yeah, it's really something that means more to you than anything else.
Okay.
So when you're deciding to buy a home for the first time, when you're deciding to take
a job, or to opt for another job, what's of paramount importance is perhaps, where the
office is going to be located.
Is it close to your home?
So even though there's a better salary, or perhaps promotion opportunity, what's of paramount
importance to you is the time that you're able to spend at home.
So more is better than less.
So you've regrettably turned down the job.
Okay.
What was of paramount importance to you when you decided to buy the house was that there
was a garden at the back of this particular house and its location, ticked all the boxes,
as we say, yeah, you tick Yeah, location that got this got that near to the shops near to
the metro or whatever.
So yeah, these are the things that were of paramount importance.
A key figure.
So when somebody is a key figure, they're a very important figure, they don't have to
be the most important, okay, but the key is something that made the difference.
Keys for everything are important, the key to the car.
Without it, you can't start the car, key to the office, the key to your house, the key
to get into your laptop, all of this, these are important.
So a key figure can be an important figure.
A key figure in the government today is the Minister of Finance, because finance is the
most important aspect in relation to budgets, taxation, and of course, that horrible word
inflation, what are the government going to do?
So the key figure at the moment is the Minister for Finance.
A prime example.
So Prime usually means first or near the top.
So a prime example of something would be the best example, the example that underlines
most what your the point you're trying to make.
If in certain situations there, let's say the teacher is talking to the class about
healthy eating.
Okay, this is a really topical product that we have to be really interested in our bodies
and interested in our health and have a healthy living style.
And the teacher might say, well, a prime example of what I'm trying to say is when I walk through
the canteen, at between 12 and one o'clock, I can absolutely guarantee that on most plates,
some kids are going to have packet of crisps or chocolate bars.
They're not healthy snacks.
Okay.
Healthy snack is a piece of fruit, or two pieces of fruit, or perhaps some sort of nuts,
not salted nuts, but other types of nuts.
Those are prime examples of healthy food.
So this is the sort of message I would like to get across to you about healthy eating
healthy lifestyle.
A prime is an example is when I asked the class last week, how many kids play sports
outside of the school.
And only a handful of children said they did and 70% of the kids in the class don't participate
in some sort of sport outside of the school.
So that's a prime example of what I'm trying to say that we need to have a healthy lifestyle,
a healthy approach to food and exercise.
So a prime example.
A leading issue.
Well when something is leading, it's near the front.
Okay.
So when we're talking about a leading issue, it could be a very important issue.
Okay.
So if we're talking about the local environment, and we're talking as we are often about climate
control, climate change pollution, a leading issue is about the number of cars that come
in and out of the city every day because when you press your foot on the accelerator, then
there's clouds of smoke coming out from the backs of cars and this carbon dioxide leads
to air pollution and the quality of air drops significantly.
So it's a leading issue for the town planners, those urban planners to try and squeeze the
cars out of the city centre.
So they're trying to find ways in which the government can encourage people to stay, or
to leave their cars at home to get on the public transport.
So this is the leading issue for politicians, local politicians, to try and persuade us
all to walk, get on a bike, whatever we have to do, but please leave the car at home, that's
the leading issue and in our fight against pollution.
And then finally, is something that is an enormous influence.
And I said, on or over.
So enormous is large or big, or very large, very big.
Influence is some sort of control on.
So an enormous influence on me, when I was growing up, was my father.
Okay, an enormous influence on somebody, when they were growing up was the school that they
went to an enormous influence on other people may have been some public figure that they
looked up to, yeah, that inspired them.
So if somebody went on to become a public representative, or working in a charity, it
was due to a really enormous influence that somebody had on them.
Now, if you have enormous influence over somebody, it can mean something not so positive, because
when you have an influence over somebody, you tend to control them, or looks as if you're
trying to control them.
So we look more to have an influence on rather than over people, but an enormous influence
means a very large, big significant or as we said, important influence on people.
Okay, so there are collocations dealing with importance.
Let me give them to you one more time.
Hopefully, the examples I've given to you are really really important and you can learn
something from them.
So, notable achievement, notable achievement.
Overriding concern, overriding concern.
A prominent role, a prominent role in something like politics.
Momentous decision, a really important decision, a momentous decision.
A decisive factor, a main reason, a decisive factor is...
Of paramount importance, of the utmost importance, of paramount importance.
Key figure, a key figure in something, a movement.
Prime example of...
A prime example of...
A leading issue.
And then finally, have enormous influence.
Or enormous influence on or over somebody or something.
Okay, so 10 specific collocations for importance
and hopefully, you get some good examples from those if you don't want you can contact
me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.
Always happy to hear from you if I can help you further, I will.
As always, thanks for listening.
This is Harry saying goodbye until next time, cheers.