Stop saying “VERY” in IELTS Speaking: Build your Vocabulary

i see and would you recommend this film to others uh yes it was very interesting um a very good film you know yeah um very useful yeah very very nice yeah very good not bad but how many times did i say very and how can we improve this repetitive answer come with me and find out [Music] hi my name is keith and i run the website the keith speaking academy and the youtube channel english speaking success now many students have a good pool of adjectives to describe things right like interesting useful engaging amazing but they often have fewer far fewer adverbs oh it's very interesting oh it's very useful it's really engaging it's it's really amazing right now you may know other adverbs like totally completely awfully but are you sure which ones go together with different adjectives do you know the correct collocation well you're about to find out so in this video i'm going to show you 18 synonyms for very with the accurate collocations so you can show off your vocabulary in the ielts speaking test now as a bonus today i'm going to give you at the end of this video an extra practice activity you can do after the video on a mobile app how nice is that and the app is elsa speak and this activity will help you learn the collocations and also improve your pronunciation elsa speak is a unique english learning app that pinpoints your mistakes in pronunciation with cutting edge technology artificial intelligence technology and then gives you feedback so you can improve and correct your pronunciation mistakes check it out elementary elementary and there's the feedback you get scored actually not only on pronunciation but also on fluency and intonation compared to a native speaker and then you can see how to get even better for me it's the best pronunciation app out there i love it because of its great technology but also because of the high quality teaching that it has i'm going to tell you more about elsa later and that bonus activity so you can stop practicing all of the language in today's video but for now let's begin with some very interesting stuff so let's have a look first at describing things sometimes people may ask you how was that film how was the book what did you think of that lesson and you may want to say well it was very interesting very useful or very good let's look at some different collocations we can use instead of very you know that book i read was extremely interesting i thought it was an incredibly interesting book the book you recommended was tremendously useful i found it to be a particularly useful book because it was full of great ideas and practical tips yeah that film was dead good i thought that film was extremely good now with good there are very very few adverb collocations you've got dead uh extremely very really so with good you may actually want to use an adjective an intensified adjective if you like things like that film was amazing terrific splendid um awesome outstanding things like that great let's move on okay we've talked about things let's talk about describing people next right so you may want to describe i don't know a family member a family member we don't say that in english a member of your family that's right you may want to describe a member of your family a friend a colleague a boss anybody right and if you want to say maybe they're very nice they're very friendly they're very intelligent let's look at some other synonyms for very here yeah my boss she's a perfectly nice woman yeah i think my new boss is a thoroughly nice man we've just moved into a new flat and the new neighbor is exceptionally friendly i think my new neighbor is a genuinely friendly person yeah my teacher i think he's highly intelligent can i say that yes i think my english teacher is remarkably intelligent okay a little bit tonguing cheek but there you go great we've talked about people let's move on okay so we've looked at describing things describing people what about describing activities right we often need to do this in ielts speaking maybe you need to describe a concert or a party or even a meeting you may want to say it's very boring very slow very bad let's find some exciting synonyms for very here well i went to a party last week and to be honest it was mind-numbingly boring i went to a party with my friend but it was just downright boring there was nothing to do no music no dancing last week we had a meeting with my boss and some colleagues and to be honest it was just painfully slow you know what i can't believe the meetings with mr smith they are frustratingly slow i thought lady gaga's last concert was extremely bad oh dear i might upset a few people there if you're a lady gaga fan no offense meant i thought the concert was really bad now bad similarly to good um doesn't have a lot of collocates right you've got extremely really very so again with bad you may want to use an adjective that intensifies it being extremely bad possibly you could say the concert or the party or the meeting was appalling it was an awful meeting what a dreadful concert that was a terrible party that was an agonizing meeting things like that great let's move on so there you have 18 at least 18 synonyms for the word very with some beautiful collocations now as i mentioned the bonus how can you start practicing them i'm going to show you right now using the elsa app how you can start practicing all of these synonyms and collocations first of all download the app in the link below and then we can get started i think one of the great things about elsa speaking app is not only does it help your pronunciation and intonation but it also as you're practicing helps you build up a really wide range of vocabulary right including collocations which i think are going to be tremendously useful for you so let me show you how the app works and especially the study set which is what i've made for you okay so we've got here um you've got different topics in the app for example on the lifestyle category we've got topics on travel transportation culture but i want to show you here the study sets right so let's have a look first of all we can explore study sets by topic for example here are some study sets that ielts students have done um and you can make them and you can share them i want to show you one that i've made though with synonyms a very of course so here we can have a look you can see here all the lists all the phrases that i've been teaching you today let's just have a look at one of them and try it right let's try this one i didn't like that film it was just downright boring i didn't like that film it was just downright boring hurray fantastic result almost like a native speaker now then let's try another one now this time i'll show you what happens if i pronounce it incorrectly okay what about this this meeting is frustratingly slow and let me say it incorrectly this meeting is free-streakingly slow now you can see it's pointing out where the mistakes are right the if they actually tap on the frustratingly it breaks it down and tells me that i said e instead and instead of a i said e free-streakingly but it should be a and a frustratingly let's try it again this meeting is frustratingly slow excellent lovely so you can see we've got all of these phrases and words you can start practicing straight after this video and if you like as a student you can also create your own study sets words or phrases you may find difficult you put them in here you can share them publicly so that other students can listen and give you help as well and suggestions there's a whole community going on come on social learning this is absolutely brilliant love it all you need to do to start practicing with me is make sure you click on the elsa study set in the link below this video and of course make sure that you have downloaded the app and then we're ready to go now elsa are giving some great discounts to my students and that's you you can actually get 30 percent off a one-year membership and if you want the lifetime membership you get a huge 80 percent off and then lifetime membership you've got the app for the rest of your life you can be studying you know what i believe learning english preparing for ielts it's a long term investment you need time to improve having elsa in your pocket with you all the time means you're always going to get better and better brilliant deal so thank you very much elsa remember click on the link down there download it now and get cracking thanks for joining me today i hope this has been helpful that you can learn and expand your vocabulary with these great synonyms and collocations for very please do remember subscribe turn on notifications on youtube so that you can find out about my upcoming videos in the near future take care my friends see you soon bye [Music] now [Music]

Channel: English Speaking Success

Views: 449,169

Keywords: ielts speaking success, ielts keith, ielts speaking, ielts speaking test, ielts speaking tips, ielts speaking practice, ielts speaking linking words, ielts speaking synonyms, adverbs ielts speaking, stop saying very, advanced english vocabulary, build english vocabulary, avoid using the word very, ways to avoid using the word very

Id: ErXWy50FgXY

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021