26 KEY words (from A to Z) to take you from INTERMEDIATE to ADVANCED level English
Can you speak English ok and yet you find it difficult to understand native
English speakers? can you have a conversation but find it hard to
understand films and TV shows in English? Can you write an email without problem
but when you read a newspaper article or a novel you kind of get lost? If so then
you may be suffering from that well-known malady stuck at intermediate
You can't sleep at night you feel nervous, anxious. You wake
up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. No? okay exaggerating a bit
but listen - learning a language, any language, is like a triangle
lots of beginners stuck at the bottom
and a large section in the middle trapped at intermediate and just a few
reaching advanced level. Now my job here at LetThemTalk is to get you from
intermediate to advanced level from B1 or B2 to C1 or C2 and if I manage to do
that then my job is done and I'll give up making videos and spend the rest of
my days on the sofa eating donuts and watching
Netflix and trying to learn the ukulele. so today we've got 26 words to propel
you from intermediate to advanced and these words you can start using in
written and spoken English twenty six - one for each letter of the alphabet from
A to Z and I'll show you how you can use each word with a definition and an
example sentence. Let me just give you an example before we start this take the
word CONFUSED it's an intermediate words I'm sure you know what it means for
example I was confused this morning I put the keys in the fridge and I tried
to lock the door with the butter. No problem there we
might use that - native speakers might say it like that but you could use another word
a native speaker might use an advanced words such as MUDDLE or IN A MUDDLE I
was in such a muddle this morning I tried to put my trousers on my head and
I stepped into my hat. So this is just one example so words that native
speakers or advanced users will use. 26 words that will help your speaking and
help your comprehension coming right up so stay tuned.
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk and today we've got 26 words to take you
from intermediate to advanced English now these are all common words with one
possible exception which I'll explain in a minute so let's go.
A is for ALBEIT. Now this is an extremely useful word that you use
to show a contrast to a statement that you've just made for example "You made a
lot of progress, albeit slowly." So you have a statement followed by ALBEIT
followed by an adverb or adverbial phrase or an adjective which contradicts
or modifies the earlier phrase and the beautiful thing about ALBEIT is that
it can be followed by just one word you don't need a pronoun, you don't need a
verb - just an adverb or an adjective phrase another example "he
arrived at the meeting albeit an hour late" you see no verb no pronoun"
B is for BUDGE and this is a synonym of to move or change
position and we especially use it when we want to talk about people changing
their minds or their decisions so for example "we asked them to improve their
offer but they wouldn't budge." "We tried to convince the President to resign but
he wouldn't budge." You can also use it to mean move something heavy "hey! can you
help me budge the sofa." So there you are you can use BUDGE instead of MOVE
C is for COMEUPPANCE which means a punishment or fate that someone
deserves "He's a dishonest guy now he's free but
one day he'll get his comeuppance and end up in
prison." "All those people who try to hide their millions in tax havens got their
comeuppance when the newspaper published their names."
D is for DODGY. DODGY is a great word because it has so many uses it can
mean suspicious or bad quality or strange for example "it's got a a
dodgy haircut" "There's a dodgy man outside". "My
position in this company is a bit dodgy I might lose my job any minute."
E is for TO EGG ON now you all know what an egg is but TO EGG ON is
a phrasal verb meaning to encourage but in a bad way we could also say to incite
for example "the accused would never normally steal anything but his
so-called friends egged him on it was a case of peer pressure Your Honor." "Look I
don't want to take any drugs stop egging me on."
by the way EGG ON doesn't have anything to do with eggs
it comes from an old-world Old Norse world EGGJA not sure I'm pronouncing
that right which means to incite and it's been in the English language since around 1200.
F is for flustered flustered which means to be confused and nervous
at the same time. "I always get flustered when lots of people are asking me lots
of questions at same time" I was getting flustered because my train was delayed
and I thought I would miss my flight.
isn't that beautiful word GALORE and GALORE comes from Scottish Gaelic there
aren't many words in English language from Gaelic but this is one of them and
it just means a lot, much or many but in a positive way but the trick about
GALORE is that it comes after the noun. it's quite a literary and poetic word but
it's common enough so do use it for example "For my birthday everybody bought
me a bottle of whisky so now I have whisky galore" WHISKY is also a Gaelic
word which means water of life so WHISKY GALORE is
the only phrase in the English language just using words from Gaelic. "I went to
the tech show and there were gadgets galore wonderful wonderful gadgets
H is for HULLABALOO now this means a lot
of noise, a fuss, a disturbance a commotion for example "On the first day of the
sales there was quite a hullabaloo outside the shop just before it opened". "I
just wanted to get a refund but God what a hullabaloo they made of it all."
I is for INKLING now INKLING is another way of saying that you have a
feeling that something might happen or something is true an idea even though
you're not 100% sure so for example "I have an inkling that Jane
might break up with Jim something she said gave me the impression that she's
not happy." "I have an inkling that Johnson had something to do with the murder even
though he denies it. yes indeed I think Johnson"
usually a noun and it means taking a short trip for pleasure
for example "I say Samantha, do you fancy taking a jaunt with me in my vintage
Bugatti this Sunday." "I don't travel much these days
except for the occasional jaunt to visit my family in Scotland"
KNACK means a skill or an ability or a talent usually something positive
but not always for example "you've got a knack for choosing the right
moment" but it could be used to describe a negative Talent
for example "you really have a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time"
L is for LEEWAY and it means a little bit of freedom or space to act we
often use it to talk about a little extra or additional time we've been
given so for example "I think we should get to the airport two hours ahead and
not one and a half hours that will give us a little leeway in case we are held
up in bad traffic." "The deadline for tax returns is the 31st
of March however they usually give you a few days
leeway so it arrives on the second or third of April you are probably still OK
M is for MAVERICK this is a noun and refers to someone who acts in
a non conformist way often breaking the rules but it's used positively "She is a
maverick politician she didn't join any political party but still got elected as
an independent." "Detective Jones was something of a maverick his techniques
and his investigations were really unconventional but he got results."
N is for NITPCIK to NITPICK is the verb and NITPICKING is the noun and it means to
criticize someone for small unimportant details for example "you are complaining
because I use the American spelling of color C-o-l-o-r
does it matter you're just nitpicking" "so I forgot to clean one teaspoon and
you complain to the manager you like to nitpick don't you"
which has two meanings it can mean a liquid coming out slowly from inside
of something such as blood oozing out of a wound but the meaning I want to talk
about today is when we use it figuratively to mean a powerful
impression of something so for example "she used confidence", "he used sex appeal",
P is for PUSSYFOOT yeah I know it sounds kind of
strange PUSSYFOOT but yes it is a fairly common
verb it's a verb TO PUSSYFOOT now it means to tread carefully often to take
too much care, too much attention or maybe when you don't want to commit to
something and it's usually followed by AROUND so the phrasal verb would be to
PUSSYFOOT AROUND for example "stop pussyfooting around and
tell me exactly what it is you want". "Politicians should stop pussyfooting around and
commit themselves to one side or the other."
"John stop pussyfooting around and just cross the room and speak to the girl"
Q is for QUALM usually used in the plural form QUALMS and it's a noun and
you use it when you want to talk about having doubts or worries about something
so for example "yes I have a few qualms about moving to Dubai but it's a good
job so I'll take it." "I left her twenty years ago without any qualms"
R is for READILY really is an adverb which means without hesitation or
willingly. "I readily admit that swimming across the river is not the preferred
option but the bridge has collapsed and we have no choice." "If you let me keep the
house and the kids I will readily agree to the divorce"
S is for SPARK and it's a very useful word and it's both a verb and a noun as
a noun it literally refers to the first flame of a fire but not yet a fire just
a spark and we can use it to mean a small amount of something a hint a touch
of something for example "when he was found guilty by the jury and sentenced
to life imprisonment he stood there without a spark of emotion." "After working
all night finally there was a spark of inspiration." As a verb it means to create
or emit something so for example "He insulted his colleague and this sparked a fight"
T is for THRICE now I said that
all the words on this list were very useful with one exception and this is
possibly it because THRICE means three times but it's rarely used these days
yes we use ONCE we use TWICE but why not THRICE it's logical and it's a beautiful
word so I'm encouraging you to start using it so it becomes much more common
in the English language as it once was so for example
"it's incredible he thrice won the lottery" Yes, you told me that once, you
told me that twice and he told me it thrice. That's enough!"
U is four UTMOST another extremely useful word that's used to
emphasize how important or serious something is and it means to the
greatest extends to the highest degree for example "I will do my utmost to
ensure that you get the best deal." "This is a delicate situation and you should
handle it with the utmost care." "I will do my utmost to stop brexit."
V is for VIE. VIE is a verb and this means to compete for or to strive for something and it's
usually, though not always, followed by the preposition FOR for example "Jim has
been vying for a place in the English football team." "LetThemTalk are vying to
be the best English language learning channel on YouTube"
W is for WHIM. WHIM is a noun and it means a sudden desire or change of mind especially one
that is unusual or unexplained usually we say ON A WHIM for example "you know
one day I was in a boring meeting at work when, on a whim, I walked out, got my
passport and took the first flight to Fiji and I've been here ever since and
that was 20 years ago." "We had only known each other for a week when we decided, on
a whim, to get married. Unfortunately within a month we had broken up
yes be careful about getting married on a whim."
X is for XENOMANIA. Now we are on the Xs here and obviously there's not a lot
of choice with the X's there aren't many common words in English beginning with X
now there is XENOPHOBIA I was initially going to choose, which means the
suspicion or the dislike of foreigners or outsiders
but it's a very negative word so instead I've chosen as my X word XENOMANIA
which is the delight and the pleasure of meeting strangers or visiting foreign
countries and yes I am a XENOMANIAC what about you? Let me know in the comments.
Y is for YEARN now YEARN is a verb and a noun and it means
an intense desire or feeling for something for example "I live in Paris
but I yearn to be back in London my hometown" ok that's not necessarily true
it's just an example. "I yearn to retire and spend the rest of
my days eating donuts and learning the ukulele just as I said earlier" Is that true well
Z IS for ZIGZAG ZIGZAG and that is a line that has
sharp right and left turns "she was drunk and drove in a zigzag across town." "The
wallpaper had a zigzag pattern." so go out and start using those amazing advanced
words and let me know how you do also I'm sure when you start watching TV
shows and speaking with native speakers you'll start recognizing those
words and hearing those words a lot.
what was your favorite word in the list? do you have a word you'd like to add to