Political vocabulary and expressions in English

Hi, there, guys. I thought I'd better dress up and put my glasses on today because I have

decided to enter politics. Today's class, we're doing political collocations. "Collocations"

-- what a long, funny word. What does it mean? Well, "co" generally means "with", and "location"

is a place. So "with place". Political word that go together. So "enter", you often find

with politics or center management or a new thing. Okay? "Enter politics." "Today, I decided

to enter politics." Great? Got it? "To enter politics." Obviously, you can form this verb.

"He entered politics when he was 17." So we can have the past, "he entered". Or you can

have the future, "He will" -- you probably wouldn't say "enter", though. You'd probably

say "get into". "He will probably get into politics when he's older." Okay? "He will"

-- blah, blah, blah. So "enter", present and past, generally.

Now, "to hold" -- "hold". "I'm holding a pen." You can also "hold" a general election. It

means organize, make sure there is a general election, okay? So David Cameron will hold

a general election next year or the year after. I should know. I don't. "To hold a general

election." So often, we're going to use that with the future tense, "will hold".

Or you could do it with the past tense. "A general election was held in 1992." So, "A general

election was held." Okay? So you've got an irregular verb there.

Now, "to stand for something". If you want to become an important person, you need to

stand for positions of authority and importance. "To stand for the presidency." Yeah, I'm standing

here right now, but you can "stand" for a position. So "to stand" for the presidency,

if you're in North America. Or in the UK, we might say "stand for the position of prime

minister". But normally, you would get voted. People are going to say, "You, you, you."

Okay? You don't normally put yourself forward for the prime minister position.

"To launch a campaign." I'm launching a rocket into space, okay? I'm beating the Russians.

I'm beating the Americans. Benjamin, EngVid, launching a space rocket. Okay? But we can

also use "launch" with a "campaign". Notice the funny spelling, the -aign, but it's pronounced

"cam-pain". Okay? One of those words where the spelling doesn't look like the sound of

the word. "To launch a campaign", a campaign. So I might put posters up all over London

saying -- I wouldn't do this, okay, because I'm not, you know, an idiot, but, "Vote for

Boris Johnson." Okay? I put a campaign. "Everyone, do this. Do this." It's a campaign. I want

people in London to do this. A campaign. I want them to take action. I really wouldn't

do that. No.

"To win an election", okay? You "win" or "lose" an election. The labor party might win the

next general election in the UK. That's my little prediction. Have a little bet on me.

"To win an election", right? Okay? Win or lose it. You don't -- in football, we talk

about winning or losing or drawing. You don't really draw an election, unless you're David

Cameron, in which case you sort of have a bit of a partnership with Nick Clegg. Okay.

"To serve four years as" -- of course, the number doesn't have to be four. It could be

seven. So you could say, "I served for several years on a committee." Okay? So this is just

a number that you put in and then what it is that you did. So, "I served five years

as a trivia quiz host in London." Okay? I'm serving. It's an act of giving.

I'm cutting up my meat for my dinner. But you can also "cut the crime rate". Yeah? If

you're in an inner city ghetto, you need the crime rate to be cut so there are fewer muggings.

Yeah? "Cut crime" -- yeah, this is bad activity. "Rate" -- how often it happens. If you cut

it, it happens less. "To cut the crime rate."

Now, I might want to leave politics. Yeah? We talk about "leaving" -- exiting. You wouldn't

say, "I exit politics." "I leave politics to pursue" -- that's a lovely word. Let's

get that up on the board. "To pursue" -- to do something else. Right? Good. Try and use

this word. It's one of my favourites.

Now, an "economic boom". That's a time when -- I don't know if you do, sort of, stocks

and shares. I don't because I don't have any money. But it's when the charts sort of go

up and down. Okay? So an "economic boom" is when you're going up. Yeah? An "economic boom".

You can have depressions and all those kinds of things. I'm not an economist, though, so

don't quote me. An "economic boom". Okay, my collocations -- two words that go together,

just not in 2013.

"A proud achievement", okay? So our noun would be "pride", yeah? And when I want to use "pride"

as an adjective, I would say "proud", okay? A "proud achievement". This is my noun here.

An "achievement" is when you do something good.

So why don't you go and achieve something good and get ten out of ten in your little

quiz now, okay? You'll find it on www.engvid.com. You're very welcome to subscribe to my YouTube

channel and find all sorts of weird videos about learning English. And if you want to

soar like a bird to the top of the English mountain, then get in touch with me via

Exquisite English with the link here. Well done. I hope you've learned to communicate smoothly and

effectively in the arena of politics. Enter politics. Hold a general election, and get

voted in. Stand up for the presidency, for a position you want to get. Launch the campaign.

Win an election. Serve for years and years until you become grey. Cut the crime rate,

and then leave politics to pursue another dream, an economic boom. Make sure that achievement

happens, guys. See you next time.