hi i'm andrew
and this video is mainly for two
particular groups of people
anybody learning english that wants to
sound like a native english speaker
and also for any of you doing your ielts
exam because if you want to get a score
of 7 and above then you really do need
to aim
to sound as much like a native speaker
as possible
so how do you do that to sound like a
native speaker
you must news collocations and in this
video
you're going to learn five new
collocations
less common words including some topic
specific vocabulary
again in this video five less common
words
you will learn phrasal verbs you're
gonna learn
four of these and finally the occasional
idiom
in this video you're going to learn
three new
idioms so what's a collocation it's
simply when two words
regularly appear next to each other in a
language
much more often than you'd expect just
by chance
in this video we're going to look at
useful collocations
including a fresh start and a golden
opportunity
the collocations are going to appear in
blue
the less common words will appear in
purple about less common words here's a
really good tip for you
don't make the mistake of behaving like
a walking
dictionary okay don't act like you've
swallowed a dictionary
don't try and use very rare words
because native speakers
don't do that in spoken english and you
will just sound very strange
you can use the collins online
dictionary to see if words
are just less common or really rare
obscure and strange
almost never news news the collins
online dictionary
that's a top tip from me phrasal verbs
a phrasal verb is an ordinary verb plus
a preposition the preposition changes
the meaning of the verb a good example
is to give up
meaning to quit or stop doing something
so instead of saying i
quit smoking when i was 20 you could say
i gave up smoking
when i was 20. idioms they are simply
very common expressions in a language
but the meaning is normally very
difficult for non-native speakers to
understand
because they don't seem to make sense
here's a perfect example
he's been working at that company for
donkeys
years this means he's been working there
for a
very long time
so how are you going to put together and
use these collocations less common words
phrasal verbs and idioms to sound like a
native speaker
here's an example of a question from the
ielts exam
and an example answer you could give
newsing
collocations less common words phrasal
verbs and idioms
the question have you ever studied
abroad
the answer yes i studied spanish at
university and
in my second year i had a golden
opportunity to go and learn about
another culture in ecuador
i'd been stuck in a rut during the first
year of my course
i didn't really enjoy it and so when i
got this chance i jumped at it
and it gave me a fresh start really
so meanings a golden opportunity
is a really good chance to go and do
something
a fresh start means a chance to start
again
with something if you feel stuck in a
rut
you feel as though you're not making
much progress maybe you're a bit
bored a bit depressed if you jump at
something
then it's an offer that you're very glad
to receive
and you happily and quickly decide to do
this
thing that you jump at so
here's another example from part two of
the ielts exam
this is a common cue card describe an
interesting
lecture that you once attended you
should say
where it was when it was what it was
about why it was so interesting
a common card here's an answer using
collocations idioms
phrasal verbs and less common words
i'm going to recount a story about a
lecture that i attended as part of my
economics course
the first thing i'm going to comment on
is the lecturer himself
my word he was dishy he looked like a
movie star or something he was the last
person that i expected to see
giving a lecture on free trade um
as i said this was part of my economics
course so it must have been back in
about 1996 i think it was in the main
conference hall at the lse the topic as
i already mentioned
was about free trade and what was so
very interesting about this particular
lecture
was that whilst 99 of experts these days
bang on about how great free traders
this lecturer
whose name i seem to have forgotten was
staunchly opposed to unfettered free
trade
because he said that the amount of jobs
that are lost as a result
is too high a price to pay for any
benefits gained meanings
to recount an advanced word meaning to
tell a story
or talk about an experience dishi
this means sexually attractive but we
use it about a man
so this is really only a word that
should be news
by candidates that find men attractive
free trade this means trade without
exports and
import taxes unfettered
means without any restrictions or limits
or laws staunchly opposed to
if you're staunchly opposed to something
then you're
strongly against an idea or a policy
incidentally that's also a very good
collocation
to news in your ielts writing essays
the phrasal verb to bang on about
something if you bang on about something
then you talk about it in a long
and boring way
the last person i expected to see
this means that it was a big surprise
that he or she
was there at whatever event you're
talking about
if something is too high a price to pay
then the bad effects of something are
more significant
than anything good that comes from it
final example a part three question from
the ielts exam
how can teachers make lessons
interesting for children
answer well a huge key has to be to make
everything interactive you've got to get
the kids
up and about kids have a very low
boredom threshold and if you're not very
careful
they'll just nod off completely during
your lesson
so i think about it's about getting them
up and moving around
so it's vital to ensure that you have
things like
games and songs planned for them so they
don't just
tune you out entirely meanings
a huge key a collocation meaning that
something is very
important boredom threshold the point
beyond which
people become bored interactive
this means that everybody is involved in
something
and communicating with each other if you
nod off you go to sleep
if you tune somebody out you stop
listening to them
or paying attention to them so hopefully
you're still listening to me if you are
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and also some from other teachers that
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with the ielts exam so that's it from