Upgrade Your Vocabulary

Well hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish and in this lesson today I'll help you break some bad habits. Hopefully, we can prevent you from sometimes being a little lazy when choosing words. There are so many interesting and clever ways to express

your

ideas in English. In fact, we're going to take a lot of these boring English words and replace them with better ones. More colorful, more impressive language. We'll focus on expanding

your

vocabulary

and, as always, I have a mini test for you at the end of this video to make sure all of these exciting new words stick in your mind and become part of your regular

vocabulary

. everyday vocabulary.

So stay until the end and prove what you know. So we all have bad habits, right? And we tend to get stuck in those bad habits because they just become familiar and really easy. Many of my students get stuck in the habit of using basic vocabulary because it is easy and yes, you can communicate your message with basic vocabulary in English correctly and that is amazing, but there will come a time when you will realize or other people around you around you will begin to notice it. that you are actually using the same words over and over again.

To be interesting, impress and influence people, you must continue to expand your vocabulary and it is not just the vocabulary that you understand. It's the vocabulary that comes to you instantly as you use it, as you speak, as you write, so we want to activate that broader vocabulary today. And a sure way to expand your vocabulary and sound more impressive as you use English is to use better adjectives and better descriptive words in your sentences. And you can train yourself to stop using really boring adjectives by simply avoiding a little word very. Very happy, very good, very bad.

And a little clue. Some other words you could use with boring adjectives are words like such, such, and really. And the good thing is that this simple rule will help you be more aware of the words you choose when you speak and this is really important because using them very regularly is a habit that you must break. So I said I was very... Maybe it's too late to fix it at that point, but next time you'll be more likely to remember it and change the words you're using, and that's really what it means to be aware of your mistakes. .

Be aware of what is happening and this will help you change your behavior. If you practice this skill while you write, you have the opportunity to think of a better word in the moment or even look up one and expand the vocabulary you are using that way. So let's start very happy. Now, there are many different ways to express this idea in English, right? Full of happiness. Delighted. Ecstatic. Exalted. If we look at some examples we should be able to make it a little clearer when to use each one. You just found out you're pregnant. She is very happy.

We can add more meaning by saying: She is very happy. She is full of happiness and joy. We could say that she is excited especially if she is really happy and excited. We can tell that she is ecstatic or euphoric and that is even stronger again. That's joyful emotion, you know, an overwhelming feeling of happiness in a really positive way. So if you want to add even more meaning, choose one of those two. There are many better and more meaningful ways to say that you are very sad and I think this lesson will be like a roller coaster, it will be full of ups and downs.

Happy, sad, good, bad, but we'll hold on, okay? The truth is that we can be sad for many different reasons and we can be sad in many different ways. So, as you start to expand your vocabulary, you really need to be more aware of the little nuances between words like heartbroken, devastated, disappointed, and despondent. Because all of them are more meaningful ways of talking about that feeling of being very sad. Her girlfriend just left him. She is very sad. So in this context, she dumped him means she broke up with him. So she's probably heartbroken and heartbroken is the perfect adjective to use when love is involved in sadness.

You could also tell that he's devastated too, especially if she wasn't expecting it, and it was a bit of a shock. So when you have sadness along with shock and surprise, these emotions together, devastation is a very good option. Let's look at a different example. Sara seemed very sad. She was so confident that she would win the competition, but then she came in fifth. She seemed disappointed. She is unhappy because she was not as good as she thought she would be. But you could also say that Sarah seems dejected. Using despondent suggests that at that point, she has given up hope of ever competing again.

It's that sad, she has simply lost all hope. There are several other really great words you can say if you're really sad. You could use embarrassed, melancholic, crestfallen. I mean, you'll have a lot of fun with a thesaurus, but the trick with these new words is to study how they are used and make sure you use them accurately with the appropriate verbs and prepositions they tend to get used to. And the second thing you need to keep in mind is the context in which they are used, because those nuanced meanings are slightly different and make one more appropriate to use in one situation, while in another it may not be.

A great way to practice this is to write sentences using these words in the comments below so I can review them for you, help you choose the right one for the right context and that sentence when you practice with this activity. can be really simple. It can simply be that he or she looked with that adjective because and then include a brief description of the situation. He seemed devastated that she lost the competition. Stop saying very well, there are many other better ways to say very well in English. Very good should be banned because instead we can say amazing, fantastic, fabulous, magnificent, excellent, wonderful, splendid, exceptional and amazing.

Did I already say incredible? All of these words are so similar that you can use them in almost any situation. That's a very good idea. That's a wonderful idea. That's an excellent idea. I thought your performance was very good. Your performance was exceptional. Your performance was incredible. It was a splendid performance. Okay, get ready. Let's go down again, let's think of some alternatives for very bad. Can you think of any because there are many? I'm sure some are already coming to mind. Horrible, terrible, awful, awful and atrocious. Can you hear that stressed syllable in those words when I say it?

I am exaggerating the stressed syllable to add emphasis and even more meaning. Awful. Atrocious. You can do this with all adjectives, whether positive or negative, to add even more meaning. It tasted very bad. It tasted horrible! Gross! It tasted disgusting! Disgusting can be used when food tastes very bad or when something smells very bad. That smells disgusting! The weather has been very bad lately. The weather has been terrible lately. It's been terrible! If you are talking about someone's behavior and you say that she behaved very badly, you could say that her behavior was atrocious. Her behavior was atrocious.

I love that word, atrocious. There aren't many things in the world that are atrocious, but it's a very good adjective to use when you say something is very bad. The weather was atrocious. You have to be careful when using these negative adjectives because they have a very strong meaning and can be offensive, especially if you use them to talk about a person or something they do or something they care about, which can hurt. Can you think of any other way to say very bad? This is a very good activity to practice, to activate words that you don't use that often.

So if you can think of other ways to say very bad, add them in the comments below. If you find yourself talking about something that is very big, you can replace this type of average adjective with a more sophisticated one such as huge, obviously, huge, massive, gigantic and monstrous. We go through a very large door at the entrance. It was a huge door. The door we went through was huge. Gigantic and monstrous they are very, very large, exceptionally large. Some of the ships that come and go from the port near my house are monstrous. When I walk past these giant ships, I feel very small.

Can you think of a better way to say very small? Tiny, tiny, minimal. Paul was quite upset about the damage even though the scratch on his car was very minor. It was tiny, tiny. We could hardly see it. The chances of losing all our money are very small. They are minimal. The possibilities are minimal. Let's keep going. What can you think of that is very dirty? Your kitchen, your dog after being mixed up in the dirt. Don't let that dog in, he is very dirty! He's dirty! Dirty is a big word for very dirty. Your bedroom is dirty.

If we talk about a room or maybe a car that is very clean, you could say that it was spotless or immaculate, perfect, there was nothing out of place. We were very impressed when we got home, the house was very clean. The house was impeccable. It was impeccable. They must have spent hours cleaning it. And we can definitely improve and be very pretty, right? And I'm sure, absolutely sure that you have at least one alternative in mind. Hopefully it was beautiful, but we can also wear it impressive, elegant or even exquisite. She looked very pretty as she walked down the stairs in a blue dress.

She was stunning as she walked down the stairs. And lastly, as we get out of the very pretty level, of course we need to have the very ugly right. So instead of very ugly, you could say hideous. So it's not Heidis, which is a common mistake I often hear my students make. It is awful. And you can also say grotesque. Now, obviously, I don't need to remind you again, but I feel like I have to. These adjectives are extremely strong and negative, so do not use them to describe people. That's horrible! Some of the big houses up on the hill are very ugly.

They are grotesque. Its entrance roads are full of very ugly statues. The statues are horrible. They are horrible. Just because people have a lot of money doesn't mean they have good taste, right? Grotesque houses and hideous statues. Well, it's time to test everything you know with a little quiz. I am going to read a sentence and you must improve the words that are highlighted in the sentence. There may be more than one option you can choose from, which makes it a little easier, but I'll go through them pretty quickly because I want to test your recall, I want to test how quickly these new words appear. in your head, okay?

So this time we're going for speed. Normally your car is full of garbage, but today it is very clean! Today it is impeccable. Today it is impeccable. A very ugly monster came out of the cave. A horrible monster. A grotesque monster. Have you seen her engagement ring? Is very pretty. It's lovely. It is elegant. Is awesome. It's exquisite. We were very saddened to learn that the fire destroyed his family's home. We were devastated to hear that. They are getting married this afternoon but unfortunately the weather looks really bad! The weather seems horrible. Awful. Terrible. Atrocious. Look at the line of people waiting to enter, it's very long!

It's huge. It's huge. The queue is huge. Monstrous. Gigantic. It rained the entire weekend we were camping, so when we got home on Sunday, everything was very dirty. Everything was dirty. They suggested that we meet them in France, which I thought was a very good idea. It was a wonderful idea. An excellent idea. An exceptional idea. A splendid idea. John and Kate were overjoyed when they found out they had won the grand prize! John and Kate were delighted. They were excited. They were ecstatic. They were elated. Let me know how the quiz went in the comments below.

If there are a couple of words you got wrong or maybe it took you a little while to think of them, hit the pause button now and practice writing a few more sentences like these in the comments below. Another really great way to practice these adjectives is if you have a conversation partner that you practice speaking English with regularly or maybe you have a tutor or someone else that you hang out with, ask them to listen to you a lot. Every time you use very when you speak, ask them to stop you and let you know that you used very and give you a chance to think of a better word to describe that situation or that thing.

There is no better way to improve your vocabulary and the way you use it than to stop right then and have yourself self-correct, correct, or improve that adjective as you use it. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. If you did, be sure to subscribe by hitting the subscribe button down there. I do new mmmEnglish lessons every week. In fact, here are a couple that I prepared earlier. I'll see you in the next one. Goodbye for now!