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
