Say THIS instead!! UPGRADE your English speaking to ADVANCED! | British English

hi everyone welcome back to English with Catherine if you're new here welcome thank you so much for watching so today's lesson is going to be all about Advanced vocabulary so I'm going to give you 10 alternative ways to say the same thing but in a more advanced way and the reason it's Advanced is because usually with the way I'm going to teach you you need less words to make the same point it's also going to allow you to communicate more efficiently so instead of making two or three long sentences to try to make your point I'm going to try and give you an idiom or maybe a phrasal verb or just some vocabulary that will help you make the same point but using less words so we can call them 10 Advanced English swaps now the verb to swap is when you switch it with something else so you're swapping your original way of saying something with the new Advanced way that I'm going to teach you I hope you enjoy it let's get started number one I put the duvet on the bed and organized the pillows and then I put my teddy bear on top of the pillows after I got up the advanced way I made the bed I made the bed so this expression to make the bed literally means putting the duvet on you know onto the bed after you wake up and you get up you then need to make the bed look presentable for when you go to sleep again that following night so you can just say I made the bed much quicker easier and more efficient so usually I make the bed as soon as I get up because if I don't I will just forget and then it just will not get done for the whole day number two I went on holiday for a bit longer than two weeks I went on holiday for a bit longer than two weeks the advanced way I went on holiday for just over a fortnight I went on holiday for just over a fortnight so just over means a little bit more than and obviously just under means a little bit less than just in case you need that one instead and a fortnight I love this word it's just so lovely means two weeks I always think of fortnite is the perfect amount of time to go away for because it allows you to completely relax in a sort of more deeper way which is sometimes what we need number three is there are five years between our ages there are five years between our ages the advanced way we have a five-year age Gap we have a five-year age Gap so age Gap is the expression meaning the length of time between two ages so this is just a really nice expression age Gap it's just lovely I don't know if that's going to remind you of the underground train in London because there's always a voice a man on the tanoi system saying mind the gap okay just ignore me if you've never been to London because you will think I'm crazy right now but if you do know what I mean put it in the comments below number four he doesn't have any brothers or sisters he doesn't have any brothers or sisters the advanced way he's an only child he's an only child so this is an expression only child meaning he or she has no siblings and siblings means brothers or sisters it needs less words to say it's just more concise more native just sounds good so my cousin's an only child but because my sister and I used to live really close to her when we were young it was fine because we just felt like her sisters so it worked really well number five we flew to Thailand by stopping in China first we flew to Thailand by stopping in China first the advanced way we flew via China or we flew to Thailand via China so via is a really useful word and the meaning I want to show you today of via means traveling through a place when you are on route to a destination so you went via China to get to Thailand so China was on your route to Thailand and actually this is true when I went to Thailand we flew via China and we were only in the airport for about two hours but it was just so interesting I remember thinking it was such a culture shock so different to an English airport and wow it was such an experience number six they bought the little girl everything she wanted but unfortunately she didn't know the value of money the advanced way the girl was spoiled or they spoiled the little girl so the meaning of to spoil that I want to share with you today is to harm or damage the character of usually a child by being too indulgent and letting them have anything they want and often we use this with the word brat so she was a spoiled brat you know when you just meet a little child and they just they behave rudely usually and they're a bit of a spoiled brat it's quite mean to say that but it's the reality isn't it there are spoiled brats in this world number seven I couldn't stop watching the film it wasn't boring at all it was so exciting I just couldn't stop watching it the advanced way the film was gripping the film was gripping now just to let you know all of these examples are not wrong okay so it's not wrong to say it the first way like with all the other examples but as you can see here especially you just need less words to say the same thing so by definition it's just much easier and more natural to just sort of say it very concisely so gripping means to firmly hold the attention or interest of someone so the book or the film really holds your attention and you don't really get distracted by anything else because you're just completely absorbed by what you're watching or what you're reading so the other night my boyfriend and I we watched this really gripping film called the swimmer um it's not the usual type of film that I watch but it was just so gripping and also really thought provoking I was thinking about it for hours even into the night when I was trying to sleep um but yeah I really recommend it the swimmer number eight the situation is finally becoming hopeful and we are beginning to feel positive about the future the advanced way there's light at the end of the tunnel there's light at the end of the tunnel so I love this idiom honestly it's so amazing I remember it was really useful in the pandemic you know when it was all just so scary and then finally they had they found a vaccine and there was light at the end of the tunnel there was positivity there was hope I love I love it it's a great idiom to use so it really just means there's hope coming at last finally There's Hope number nine my sister and I are buying my dad a gift so we're sharing the gift and we're getting him something he really really wants the advanced way my sister and I are getting my dad a joint gift my sister and I are getting my dad a joint gift so this is just a nice expression that means you and someone else are combining your money together to buy something that the person really really wants and we call this a joint gift so my sister and I always get my dad a joint gift so any kind of Gadget usually goes down very well with him if you go into any of the rooms in the house there's usually like a machine that tests the the pressure of the air and the color of the walls even or something ridiculous I never understand any of them but he's a gadget man number 10. she's similar to her mum because of her eye color the shape of her nose and how big her lips are the advanced way she takes after her mum because of her facial features she takes after her mom because of her facial features so here we have a lovely phrasal verb I'm always telling my students to try to use more phrasal verbs because again they require less words to make the same point that's why they're so useful and so used by natives so to take after means to genetically inherit something from your parents or even an ancestor and this could be something physical so the color of your eyes your height your weight anything physical about you but also this could be about a personality trait so whether you're naturally very funny or your your general sense of humor you could take after your parents because of it so I take after my mum because of our nose we literally have the same nose it's actually quite crazy how similar our nose is it's just exactly the same but I take after my dad because of my personality because he's quite driven now driven means to be naturally motivated so I take after my dad because I'm also quite a motivated person but that doesn't mean that I'm always achieving things I'm also a massive procrastinator and if you don't know what a procrastinator is or procrastination it's an amazing word procrastination and it means you when you need to do something you will find anything else to distract yourself from what actually needs to be done so for me that's watching strange documentaries on YouTube or whatever it is for you procrastination is just a natural thing and unfortunately sometimes we just have to do it so I hope you've enjoyed this video today let me know in the comments which one um you'd never seen before or which one's your favorite also if you would like to hit the Subscribe button of course I would be very happy and I hope you have a great weekend and I'll see you next week for another video bye

Channel: English with Katharine

Views: 91,138

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Id: tNDpBnEBVsQ

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2023