Oh my God! I I was like a goddess last night! You know, I looked like a celebrity!
I should have been somewhere better like a red-carpet event, or with a really hot
guy like Johnny or Trey! I swear Johnny likes me, he seems like he
really likes me. You know what? I feel like texting him right now! I'm gonna do
it! I'm actually gonna do it! He seems like, I'm gonna do it! Babe! "Like"
can be a difficult word because there are like so many different uses, but it's
not difficult if you know what to do. My name is Toby,
this is SMASH English and here is all you need to know about "like" for the B2
First Cambridge exam.
First, let's start with the more conventional uses of the word "like". At
the end of the video we will talk about the more colloquial and modern uses, so
make sure you keep watching until the end. Right? Yes! We can use like as a
preposition to mean "similar to". However, remember it must be
followed by a noun or a noun group in this instance. Yeah, it was the worst kiss
I've ever had! It was like having a washing machine in
my mouth. Disgusting! No thank you! And if you cannot relate to kissing
washing machines here are some more examples for you, so read them now, yes. We
can ask for descriptions with the word "like" too.
This follows the question word "what". What? you kissed him to!? What was it like. Here
Monica is asking her friend to describe the kiss. If you don't want to hear about
that then here are some examples. We can also use "like" to give examples in
informal situations. However remember we cannot start a sentence with "like"
instead "like" replaces "such as". You can use this in informal situations like a
letter to a friend or in videos like this one. Wheeey, see what I did?
Like yeah totally I think I need a real man like maybe someone that's
like a basketball player or like a musician.
Famous, of course! Alright there, Monica!? Ewww gross. And if examples of men you want to
kiss are not appropriate for you, here are some others. Much better, right? Yes! We
can "feel like something" or "feel like doing something" to talk about things
that we want or things that we want to do. Hold on a second babe, umm Bruce
you're disgusting like seriously I feel like vomiting every time I see you! Yeah
and I feel like a drink.
We can also use "like" to speculate, to talk about things that appear to be true
but might not be. To do this we can use "seem", "sound", 'look" plus "like" plus an
object, or "seem", "sound", "look" plus "like" plus a subject plus a verb. Yeah oh my
God, wait a moment, babe. Bruce you look like you've been drinking again! And
you look like Gandalf has given you his beard! yeah! Oh my God, Bruce! Shut up!
And thank goodness, for the last time. So to recap we can use "like" as a
preposition to mean "similar to". wW can use "like" with "what" to ask for a
description of something. We can use "like" to give informal examples. We can say
"feel like" to talk about something we want or something we want to do. And we
can speculate with "like" with "seems like", "sounds like" or "looks like". Yeah finally
well done, we did it in the end. Oh hello, so when could you use "like" in
the exam? Well actually this is very useful for every part of the exam but
let's look at some examples together. Of course the Use of English.
Especially part two the Open Cloze section. Some examples could be "it was
difficult I had to work ______ I had never worked before". "Smartphones are
slowly replacing other forms of technology ______ computers and televisions". "I
was so hungry I felt ______ I could eat a horse" Here
all the answers are "like", of course. This is just to give you an idea of what sort
of questions you could get in the exam that require you to use "like". "Like" could
appear in part 4 - of course the difficult part, the Word Transformations.
An example question could be "Kim wasn't hungry so she didn't come with us
to the restaurant" Oh, how about this? Do you think you can do this? It's difficult.
The answer is "Kim didn't feel like eating so she didn't eat out with us"
Another example, "he could be dancing but I'm not sure". Are you ready for the
answer? "The man looks like he is dancing but I'm not certain". Again this was quite
difficult but it comes up quite often so make sure you know it. And now for the
Writing. This can be used in all parts of the writing but remember we do not
use "like" to give examples in formal writing. Many students do this and it is
a mistake. If you are writing something informal like an email or letter to a
friend then using like to give examples is fine. Also think about your target
audience. Maybe you're writing a review or an article and the people that are
going to read your review or article are young people, teenagers. If that's the
case then you can use "like" to give examples, but please not for an essay,
please not for a report and please not for a letter of application. "Like" can be
very useful for part 2 of the Speaking the part where you must talk about
pictures and answer a question. We can use "seems like", "looks like" to speculate.
For example: in this image "they look like they are happy because they've just
graduated". So we are using "looks like" and "seems like" to speculate about a
situation. We don't know that they have just graduated. I cannot be sure because
I don't know them. However they are wearing clothes that
suggest that they have. So they "look like", they "seem like" they have just
graduated. We can also use "like" in this way to agree and disagree with our
partner. This is especially useful in part 3 of the speaking exam. For example
"I don't know that doesn't seem like a good idea to me", "oh wow that sounds like
a great idea!" if you agree with your partner yeah. I'm finished now.
Let's look at the more informal uses of the word "like" but remember you can use
these all the time in the speaking exam. It will actually make you sound more
natural. "Like" can be used as a discourse marker. Here you say "like" at the
beginning of a sentence before making your point, it means absolutely nothing
but it sounds natural even though some people hate it but in the exam, sure! Go
ahead! Do it! Oh Monica, what's your favorite sport?
Like, I'm not really into sport. I watch it like sometimes like but when I do I
only like like watching it because of the guys yeah. Here you can eliminate all
of the "likes" that Monica has said apart from one. Which one?
Exactly! Very good! We can also use "like" after the verb "to be". Here "like" means to
"say" or "to think", and it's not always clear which. And I was like oh my god are
you serious right now!? For example here we don't know if Monica said "oh my god"
or if she was just very surprised and thought it. It's not clear from what she
said. Yeah totally, I saw her and she was like how are you and I was like why are you
even sayng that to me you don't even know me and she was like yeah I do
we were friends years ago and I was like yeah that was a long time ago like I
don't want to be friends with you anymore and she was like why not and I was like
oh cuz you're so ugly you're not cool you could never be friends with me and
she was like yeah I so am and I was like ah-ah-ah what are you trying to say?
And in this fascinating story "was like" just means "said". Simple enough! We can also use "like"
as an approximate adverb, and that sounds really complicated but it's not.
Literally, "like" means "more or less" or "approximately". Oh my god! Babe! I haven't
spoken to you in like forever! It's been like three days since I last spoke to
you! Such a long time! And with that we are finished. Now you know all you need to
know about "like", both formally and informally for the Cambridge B2 First
exam. If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe,
leave a comment down below. My name is Toby and this was SMASH English.
you