Hello, my lovely English learners.
I am Monica, your new English teacher.
I am British and my accent is neutral,
quite easy on ears and pretty understandable.
You're watching me on that talk your ultimate
destination on YouTube to learn English online.
There are many ways to become fluent in English,
and one of the best ways that I recommend
to my students is to learn collocations.
Now, what are collocations?
Collocations are words which naturally go together.
They blend with each other, making
your English sound natural and fluent.
For example, pass an exam or sports car.
These are basic examples of collocations in English.
There are different types of collocations, such as
combination of an adjective and a noun.
For example, sunny day, a verb and a noun.
Take a break.
A noun combined with another noun.
Security guard, an adverb and a verb.
For example, deeply regret or an
adverb and an adjective well dressed.
For this English lesson, I have
hand picked two advanced collocations.
From these five types of collocations that
you can use in your daily conversations.
I will give you the meaning of each
collocation along with example sentences for better understanding.
Let's begin.
First objective and noun collocations.
Global demand.
A global demand is the total demand for a particular
product or service in all parts of the world.
It tells us how much demand there
is for something in all countries.
For example, global demand for air travel has
increased by 20% in the current year.
This means more and more people
are choosing to travel by plane.
Global demand for entrylevel smartphones has decreased drastically,
which means people these days prefer smartphones with
better features and technology, even if they have
to pay a bit more money.
I hope you got that.
Here's another one.
Narrow escape.
If you have a narrow escape,
you survive a very dangerous situation.
It's mostly associated with accidents.
It's used to say you were lucky.
For example, he had a narrow stake
when he fell off his motorbike.
If he had fallen off a second earlier, he would have
been killed by the truck that had just passed by.
In short, he was lucky.
Roy nearly lost all his money
in the stock market crash.
But he made a narrow escape thanks to a friend who told
him to sell off his shares the day before it happened.
Well, if he hadn't sold his shares,
he would have lost all his money.
So again, he was lucky enough
to be warned by his friend.
I hope you got that.
Now, let's look at a verb and noun collocations.
Go dark.
When we look at the meaning of dark as a
noun, it means absence of light in a place.
But when we say go dark, it
means to stop all activities or communication.
It's for a temporary period of time,
but fairly for a long period.
Take a look at these examples.
Two of the company's offices will go dark
by the end of the month, which means
they will stop operating for a temporary period.
Many investors have gone dark as the
startup bubble has begun to burst.
Quite an interesting example, isn't it?
It means many investors have stopped funding new
startup ideas as they are not getting desired
returns on their investments to go dark.
I hope you got the meaning.
Up next is a noun and a noun collocations.
The first collocation in this
category is conspiracy theory.
I am sure you have heard
this collocation in a news report.
It means making people believe that an event or
a situation has occurred because of some secret plan
or some powerful people are behind such events.
It's mostly associated with some suspicious events, such
as a murder or defaming a public figure.
For example, there are many conspiracy theories behind
the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight 370.
The Malaysian Airline flight that disappeared on 8 March
2014 around 38 minutes after it took off.
Even after launching the most expensive search in
the aviation history, the plane couldn't be located.
Well, there are many
theories surrounding its disappearance.
Here's another example don't always believe
what you see on social media.
There are a lot of conspiracy theories.
We all are aware of the fake news that floats
on social media and are tempted to believe it's true.
But it's not.
Here's the next one status Symbol a status
symbol is something that you own to show
how important or rich you are.
Something people want to have because they
think people will respect or admire them.
For example, most youngsters think having
an iPhone is a status symbol.
Have you come across someone like that?
Let me know in the comments.
Driving a luxury car is a
status symbol for some entrepreneurs.
Some entrepreneurs think that owning a Mercedes
S Class will gain them more respect
and people will admire them.
Do you think that's true?
Well, I don't feel so.
Let me know in the comments.
What do you think about it?
The next collocations are a combination
of an adverb and a verb.
Here's the first one seriously doubt.
When you doubt something seriously, you think it
may not happen or it's not true.
In short, you are uncertain about
the possibility of something happening.
Here's an example sentence I seriously doubt he
will be able to recover from his condition.
You think it's not possible for
someone to recover from their illness?
The chances are very minimal.
Another example we seriously doubt
that he owns that penthouse.
Again, you think that someone is
lying, that they own the property.
In short, you are not certain
if someone is telling the truth.
The next collocation is thoroughly approve.
Now, this collocation is somewhat the
opposite of the previous one.
It means you are in total agreement about something.
You approve it 100%.
For example, I thoroughly approve
of your marketing ideas.
They are new and fresh.
It means you are impressed by the new marketing
idea and are giving your approval to proceed.
Here's another example.
All the investors on the Shark Tank show thoroughly
approved the pitch and showed their willingness to invest.
Wow, what a great moment.
All the judges giving their approval is quite rare.
The business idea must have impressed them and they
all were eager to put in their money.
Do you like to watch Shark Tank?
Let me know in the comments.
And finally we will look at
adverb and an adjective collocations.
Here's the first one widely available.
When something is widely available, it's quite popular
and is used or practiced by masses.
Something that is easily available everywhere.
For example, paracetamol tablets are widely available
in all chemists and you don't need
a doctor's prescription to buy one.
Well, it's the most popular pill you
consume when you are down with flu.
Another example high speed Internet is
now widely available throughout the country.
I am sure it's easy to relate it with.
You are probably watching this
lesson on high definition.
Because of the availability of
high speed internet data.
The next collocation is painfully shy.
I am sure you know what does it mean to be shy.
But when you are painfully shy, you are extremely shy.
You are so shy that other people
around you may find it disturbing.
Here's an example ryan was painfully shy when he
was in high school and now look at him.
He's one bold extrovert.
How many of you have been shy in
school and have grown up to be confident?
I would love to know in the comments.
Here's one more example.
She's pretty confident, but is
painfully shy in social situations.
There are many people who face social anxiety issues
and are self conscious in a public setting.
Painfully shy can also be used
to describe someone's social anxiety.
That's all for today.
I hope you found this lesson useful
and learned some useful advanced English phrases.
If you want more lessons on collocations,
do let me know in the comments.
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I will see you soon.
Until then, happy learning.