The Secret to Never Forgetting New Vocabulary - How to Remember English Words

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

number one English Fluency Guide and in

this video I'm going to be talking about

phrasal verbs but also about maybe an

important lesson for you as you're

learning and remembering things no

matter really what you're practicing in

this video actually I wanted to talk

about tools in talking about some of the

phrasal verbs that we use with that they

were quite a few things i wanted to

cover but more than the actual tools

themselves this idea of how you remember

things is much more important so I'm

always trying to get you to think about

the deeper like the things at the bottom

if you can master these things like how

to learn how to practice how to review

things kinda find people to practice

speaking with if you can master these

things at the bottom this stuff at the

top becomes much easier to learn so if

you understand how to learn vocabulary

then you can learn a ton of vocabulary

really quickly so let's say this is a

screwdriver and a screwdriver is a is a

tool that drives screws it's pretty

pretty interesting pretty simple name

right so it's screwdriver take those

little screws that have the little line

on the outside and we screw something

into some wood for maybe some people

that don't know the difference a nail is

something that does not have the line

around the outside and you hit that with

a hammer so you have a nail sticking up

and you hit and you hit the nail into

the wood but with a screwdriver you're

actually taking a screw and screwing

something into the woods so screw into

to screw into and this is our first

phrasal verb to screw something into

something else now when you're talking

about taking a screw out of something

this is to unscrew something but I'm

turning the screw in making it go up

so screw up become something where we're

talking about removing a screw or making

something loops now this is the

important part about the video where

this is kind of a story here where I

want you to not be shy about creating

your own stories to help you remember

things so as an example many words maybe

they have a specific origin like I was

explaining in a previous video all the

tools that I have now all digital

so they don't have little buttons and

knobs and other things like that but old

radios if you look

it's something electronic or like an old

TV you would have a button on there or

you would have liked a dial typically

that turns the turns the television on

and this is where we get the phrasal

verb to turn something on

so again all of these things just like I

explained before in a previous video

where I was giving examples of the

telephone and why we talked about

hanging the telephone up or dialing the

telephone because even though we don't

physically push buttons on that anymore

we're still kind of using that same idea

so often the the history of these things

becomes really important but the

important thing here is that even if you

don't know what the physical origin of

something might be you can create your

own story about that to help you

remember it so screw up is a really

popular very common phrasal verb that

native speakers use when they're talking

about making a mistake i was trying to

ask that girl out and I like I couldn't

speak I was like that

good i got really nervous and I screwed

up the situation so I screwed up my

chance or I missed my chance i made a

mistake and I wasn't able to ask that

girl out so I wasn't able to get a date

or you can screw up something at work i

was making some projects and then I

spilled some ink all over them and I

screwed up the whole situation so I

screwed something up now when you listen

to something like this and again try to

try to first look at the verb ok we're

screwing something and then we're

screwing something up like what what

does that really mean

and again it's it's really for you to

create your own story to help you

connect this and really make that idea

in your mind so don't wait for a teacher

or a native speaker to explain something

just like myself if I'm learning

something in Japanese I will often make

it like a story in my mind to help me

remember something that even might not

be exactly what a Japanese person might

do but it still achieves the same result

and so the the getting the result which

is remembering what that thing is is the

most important part so it doesn't really

matter if you take a different direction

to that than somebody else if you can

remember the word and use it confidently

when you're speaking that's the whole

point that's the whole goal so don't

really worry about how you get there so

as an example maybe we have something

like screw

and I'm talking about screw up now how

do i like if I think about like the idea

of screwing something up is making a

mistake maybe I create a story in my

mind of I'm unscrewing something so I'm

screwing something up and i'm making

that thing loser

so if I've got maybe two pieces of metal

together and i am holding them together

with one screw if I screw that thing up

then they start you know moving apart

and then if i remove the screw

completely then they come apart it

becomes a problem maybe I'm making a

mistake

so in this way i'm creating a story

about where a phrasal verb might come

from

so even if there's no logical reason

maybe some maybe like many years ago

people in the past they just created ok

we're going to call this screwing

something up even though there's no real

logical reason to do that but you create

that logical connection in your mind and

that's what helps you're under your

understanding developed especially for

using phrasal verbs in this way so for

things like the television where you can

either see the history of it like we

spoke about in a previous video where

I'm turning the television on I'm

turning it on

even though now we push a button to turn

the television on maybe on a remote

control or something else for the same

thing with the volume there used to be a

dial on the telephone where you would

turn up you would turn up the volume

were turned down the volume so that's

why now people say hey could you turn it

down

could you turn it down or could you turn

it up there talking about raising the

volume or lowering the volume but we

don't say hey could you slide the volume

up we don't use that even though that's

maybe what we're using now and the

reason is because we already have this

idea in our mind and it's really

difficult to remove that idea once we're

creating even if we have that maybe some

other way of explaining that the most

important point of this lesson is to

think about creating your own story so

that way if you have a problem may be

remembering how something works or you

don't quite understand why a native

speaker would use something in a

particular way

the first thing you should do is try to

think about the physical origin of that

phrasal verb and the second one is if

you don't if you maybe can't think of

one or you ask a native speaker and they

can't give you a good you know reason or

story

make up your own you can connect your

own ideas with whatever the meaning of

that situation is and it's much more

important to connect the meaning of

things in English than it is to try to

take maybe something in your native

language and connect that with English

so do not translate take the time it's

really important and it will help you

use these things in conversations when

you're speaking without having to think

about it if you create these stories in

your mind in English so just try to make

even a simple connection so to screw

something up maybe loosening something

and it doesn't go well i'm making a

mistake somehow if you have enjoyed this

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helping you improve even more and also

if you have problems with your English

and it could be learning phrasal verb so

this kind of vocabulary if you struggle

with having to think about grammar rules

or tenses or even if you just have

problems understanding what people say

maybe you're listening to me and you can

understand my lessons quite well because

i'm speaking quite clearly but maybe you

have trouble understanding other people

in maybe movies or regular conversations

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even if you have multiple problems

really the key to improving is to focus

on your weakest English fluency habit so

that you can become a fluent speaker

much faster so really like this is

probably the most important piece of

information even more important than

this idea about stories but when you're

thinking about improving your English

it's not about learning more vocabulary

you want to develop the right habits and

if you do this all of the vocabulary

stuff comes naturally it comes very

quickly anyway do click on the link in

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taking this free quiz that will help you

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help you improve and i look forward to

seeing you in the next video bye bye