How to build expand your vocabulary 4 useful steps for improvement

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy don’t worry guys it is

me this time not my weird lucy replica

in the form of a leaf or a poverty tree

that was a lot of fun i’m glad you liked

the response was honestly hilarious i

had a blast so who has been with me

since the very beginning of english with

lucy not that many people I had well I

had very few it took me a couple of

months to get to 1000 subscribers but my

second ever video was a video called how

to learn and remember vocabulary the

video is a little bit disorganized it

was my second video ever I was 21 years

old and I was eager to get onto YouTube

and share this knowledge that I had but

the videos done really really well but

looking back at the video there are some

updates that I would like to add on

because that teaches you how to learn

and remember vocabulary it’s a great

method but it doesn’t teach you how to

expand and widen your vocabulary which

is something that could benefit

basically everyone I want to expand my

vocabulary in my mother tongue my native

language which is English and I also

want to expand my vocabulary in my

second and third languages Spanish and

Italian and maybe even Portuguese if you

haven’t seen my video about Portuguese

yet check up there yeah so this is a

video that will be useful for both

native speakers and non-native speakers

I want to share with you some tips that

I’ve picked up some pieces of advice but

it’s not going to be your typical how to

improve your vocabulary video it’s like

read books Oh watch films I want to give

you some tips that are really really

gonna help that you might not have

thought of before so bear with me before

we get started I’d just like to thank

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let’s get started with the video so my

first tip is don’t get overwhelmed when

I think I want to expand my vocabulary I

feel I feel overwhelmed and I just think

oh my god there are so many words and

there are so there’s so many words that

I’m lacking in my vocabulary and how on

earth am I going to learn them all you

need to realize that it’s not humanly

possible to swallow and regurgitate the

full Oxford Dictionary unless you have a

fabulous gag reflex joke I’ve seen a

couple of comments on some of my videos

from people saying I like to read the

dictionary before I go to bed which if

your mind is capable of doing that and

you can read a little bit of the

dictionary each day and take it in wow I

take my hat off to you because that’s a

really really impressive amount of

dedication you have there I personally

cannot do that so I recommend that you

chunk your vocabulary learning into

three sections and you focus your time

and energy and effort into learning the

vocabulary sections it’s not as

complicated as it sounds session 1

topics you are interested in I am

interested in gardening so I like to

watch gardening videos and I have picked

up loads and loads and loads of

vocabulary especially Latin terms

actually for plants just through

watching videos and doing research and

reading books so yes reading books

watching films watching videos is a

great technique make sure you’re

focusing so you’re choosing a video that

will help you expand your vocabulary and

and you’re absorbing it and then you’re

applying what you learnt in my previous

video how to learn and remember

vocabulary basically you’re keeping a

vocabulary diary and you’re being really

really aware and meticulous about words

that you don’t know already

don’t let

anything slide if you don’t know that

word you find out what it means and you

write it down in your phone or in a book

doesn’t matter just make sure you are

meticulous section number two vocabulary

that you use and come across on a daily

basis now why do I say use and come

across there’s two different parts of a

vocabulary expansion they’re seeing a

word that you don’t know and learning

what it means but there’s also taking

words you already know and finding

alternative ways of saying them synonyms

for example so it’s really really useful

to look into synonyms there may be words

that you’re using every single day for

me a bit of a problem is the word light

so you’re using some words every day all

day like the word like for example like

the word like and you will sound much

more eloquent if you find alternatives

and you switch between the alternatives

words that you come across on a daily

basis things in the news political terms

if there’s you know for example when the

brexit was going on I learned loads of

political vocabulary because I was

coming across the terms on a daily basis

I was reading the newspaper I was

watching the news I was very conscious

of the fact that I didn’t totally

understand what was going on so I made

myself understand both on a political

level and a vocabulary level and section

number three my favorite section random

spontaneous randomness is you know when

you sit down and you think I wonder what

that extra toe on the back of a dog’s

leg that doesn’t work is called your

brain wanders use it to your advantage

use it to improve your vocabulary find

out what it means now the next one the

next point that I want to talk about I

know I’ve already said that I don’t want

to say read books watch films but what

I’m gonna say is read books and watch

films but not in the normal way everyone

knows that if you read a book your

vocabulary will improve if you watch

your film your recovery will improve I

want you to think first about in your

language what is a good vocabulary what

makes one person sound eloquent and

another person sound uneducated so I

want you to really pick

and choose carefully which authors you

read and which people you listen to now

I don’t mean cut out people that you

find uneducated

I mean dedicate a couple of minutes

every day every other day to listen to

talks and read books written by people

that speak eloquently for example I

really admire the way Stephen Fry speaks

I know I mentioned Stephen Fry in so

many videos I love the way he speaks so

I’ll put on you know speech or a

monologue from him and I’ll really try

to listen to you know elements of his

accent but also elements of speech his

vocabulary the vocabulary that he uses

which words the Stephen use that make

him sound really really educated and

eloquent and then I’ll note those down

and I’ll try and implement them into my

own vocabulary and you can do the same

it will work in any language so I guess

the way you could summarize that point

is pick and choose reading and listening

exercises from which you want to improve

your vocabulary okay number three if you

want to improve and widen and expand

your vocabulary and sound more eloquent

I want you to avoid the most boring

words in the English dictionary do you

know which word it is the word is very

oh my god very is such a boring word

every time I hear are you on why say

very good if you can say excellent

fantastic amazing incredible why say

very bad if you can say dreadful

appalling hideous revolting stop using

the word very and start incorporating

more advanced adjectives into your

everyday speech and writing when you’re

speaking try and be conscious of every

time that you use the word very and

which adjectives you used it with then

you can go and search the adjective in a

Fuss horas and find synonyms very dirty

can be filthy or squalid very cross can

be seething livid I actually have a

video about that you can check it up

there but yeah being conscious of when

you use the word very

is very very useful how ironic

so I just made that mistake there being

conscious of the word very is an

invaluable tool doesn’t sound better

doesn’t it sound better I think it does

my last tip might not be for everybody

but it really helps me especially when

I’m bored and waiting for something I’m

an incredibly impatient person I hate

waiting and if there’s one room that an

impatient person cannot stand it’s a

waiting room so I recommend that you use

this time to your advantage when you’re

doing nothing so you’re sitting on a

train you’re sitting in a waiting room

anytime you’re waiting do vocabulary

checks so just sit or stand and observe

the room around you or the area around

you and try and find something that you

don’t know how to say it’s most likely

going to be a noun but it could be a

verb it could be somebody doing

something somebody could be skipping and

you think oh god I don’t know how to say

that in Japanese it could be an emotion

that somebody has just used that time to

look around meticulously note down what

it is that you don’t know and then

search it if you’re trying to acquire

vocabulary in another language then you

can just write it down in your own

language it gets a bit more complicated

if you don’t really know how to say the

word in your own language use what you

can take a picture of it video it if

appropriate try and describe it use

other words to describe it note it down

and then you can talk to somebody about

it something that I’m going through at

the moment is farm vocabulary my

boyfriend is a farmer and I have

suddenly been launched into this new

world of machinery and he said to me the

other day oh we use farm save or

something so I just noted it down and

got back home searched it and let them

hold I know what’s farm savers now I

think it’s when you you keep your own

seed and then you use it the next day

sometimes if he’s gone off in the

tractor and I have to wait for him I’ll

just look around the farm and I think

Bale

challenger John Deere tractor and if

there’s anything I don’t know how to say

I will then ask him later and it might

be a bit annoying for him but I’m trying

my best right guys that’s it for today’s

lesson I hope you learned something I

hope you enjoyed it

don’t forget to check out the lingo de

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excellent tool and don’t forget to

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another lesson yeah I’m almost half

tempted to put Allie at the end of my

video

shall I enjoy Allie dancing bye

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