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 seven 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 use collocations and in this video you're going to learn five new

collocations less common words including some topics specific vocabulary again in

this video five less common words you will learn three verbs you're going to

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 news full

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 he is 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 Colin's online dictionary to see if words are just less common or really

rare obscure and strange almost never news news the Colin's 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 do 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

donkey's 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 using

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 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 they are

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 2 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 he is 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 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 wealth 99% of experts these days bang on about how

great free traders this lecturer mmm 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 dishy this means sexually attractive but we news it about

a man so this is really only a word that should be used by candidates that find

men attractive free trade this means trade without export and import taxes

unfettered means without any restrictions or limits or laws staunchly

opposed to if you're staunchly opposed to something then you'll 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 banged on about

something if you bang on about something then you talk about it in a long and

boring way oh 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 3 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 board and fresh hold 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 that they don't just chew new out entirely

meanings a huge key a collocation meaning that something is very important

boredom threshold the points 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 else you stop

listening to them or paying attention to them so hopefully you're still listening

to me if you are if you found this useful

there's a little red subscribe button in the bottom right hand corner of this

video and you can subscribe there also you will find links within this video to

other news or videos from myself and also some from other teachers that can

help you with the IELTS exam so that's it from me except to say that in future

there will be more lessons like this phrasal verbs collocations idioms less

common words and they're all going to be based on various different topics from

the IELTS exam so that you get to learn about these words in context

incidentally in the comment section below this video if you have any

questions please ask them I will be providing some more example

of some of the collocations and phrasal verbs that we news in this lesson so

some more examples sentences of how you can use them I will be providing in the

next few days in the comment section of this video so look out for those okay so

thank you and goodbye