3 Things You Need to NEVER Forget Vocabulary Again

It's true, there are a lot of words in English,

but you don't need to learn them all.

Number one, prioritize.

Just learn the words you need at your level.

And number two, learn them properly.

Don't learn thousands of words badly

and then you just go blank

'cause you can't speak and use them.

Learn the words you need deeply.

And there are just three things you need

to learn words deeply.

Let me tell you.

(upbeat music)

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy,

oh, and the YouTube channel "English Speaking Success"

here to help you become a more confident speaker of English.

Now the three things you need to learn vocabulary deeply

are first, understand the word.

Secondly, know how to use it.

Thirdly, be able to use it.

And with those three things, you'll be able

to learn vocabulary deeply.

In this video, I'm gonna show you how to do that

with some very clear and fun examples.

But first of all, let's rewind.

Let's just stand back a moment

thinking about learning vocabulary.

There are two big opportunities to learn vocabulary.

First of all, when you're reading,

great book by the way,

and secondly, when you're listening.

So make sure you're doing plenty of both, right?

And also, when you are doing these,

make sure that you are noting down new words.

Noting, writing down, jotting down new words

as you are learning, right?

It should be key vocabulary.

What do I mean by key vocabulary?

So, words that are either interesting or useful.

Don't try and learn all of the words, right?

Remember what we said, learn fewer words more deeply.

So pick out the interesting words and the useful words.

Now, let's come back to the three things you need

to learn vocabulary deeply.

Understand the word.

Knowing how to use it.

Being able to use it.

Let's take these step by step, okay?

I'm gonna show you with a story.

Let me tell you a story.

It's the beginning of a story about two people,

Tom and Emily, and this is called "Watchful Eyes."

It's actually a mini novel from my gold course

that we use to review language.

I'm gonna introduce you,

well, let me tell you the beginning of the story first,

and then we'll use this for some examples.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I'll begin.

"Tom and Emily had been friends since they were children.

Growing up in the small town of Glossop

in the north of England, they had spent countless days

exploring the nearby woods,

riding bikes down the winding roads,

and imagining all the adventures they would one day have.

At the age of 21 their friendship blossomed

into something more, and they started going out together.

Tom was always there for Emily

through the ups and downs of life,

and she knew she could always count on him."

Let me stop there. The story goes on.

You can find out more in the gold course,

but let's have a look now, first of all,

at understanding a word.

The first step, okay?

So when it comes to understanding a word from a story

or a podcast, I always say first guess it,

then check it.

Guess it first.

Try and guess the meaning from the context.

And then check it, if you're not sure or to make sure.

Guess it, check it.

Let's look at an example here.

In the story we had Tom and Emily,

blah, blah, blah, growing up in Glossop.

Glossop, right?

Capital G. It's a place name, the name of the town.

"They had spent countless days exploring the nearby woods."

Countless.

What does that mean?

Well, if we look at "countless,"

we can separate "count" and "less,"

we can analyze the word to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

"Less" meaning, well, without or not.

So without counting, what can that mean?

I'm not sure.

Let's check in a dictionary.

So I'm using the Cambridge Dictionary online.

Countless, adjective.

Says very many or too many to be counted.

So it means a lot, right?

A lot of days.

They spent a lot of days exploring the woods.

Great, when you are looking up a word, do be careful

'cause sometimes words have many different meanings,

so make sure you scroll down to check.

For example, the word "woods."

Exploring the nearby woods.

It sounds like a place, right?

Wood, I know wood as in the wood that you burn for a fire.

But "woods" here, I'm not too sure.

If we check in the dictionary, we find...

Okay, wood.

So it's a a hard substance that forms

the branches of trees.

Right, that's what I thought.

Oh, going down it can also be a type of golf club.

Interesting.

Or, ah-ha, an area of land

covered with thick growth of trees.

It's a place. I think this is the meaning I'm looking for.

It also says in the plural "woods."

So it's a forest, I guess, right?

That's the meaning I look.

So be careful to scroll down and check different meanings.

Now, moving on to step two,

knowing how to use that word,

let's say "countless" or "woods."

We can see how to use it

from from the context first of all, right?

So, "Countless days."

A lot of days.

We can see we can use it with "days."

I spent countless days doing something.

I spent countless days sleeping.

I spent countless days working.

I can see how to use it.

"Woods."

It says, "Exploring the woods."

So I can explore woods.

Maybe there's other ways of using it.

So we can also check in the dictionary,

look at the examples that they give,

and very often that will help you.

For example, with "wood," it says,

"We went for a walk in the woods."

So I can say, explore the woods.

Go for a walk in the woods.

I'm beginning to see how to use it, right?

The next thing I suggest you do is to look

and note the word form.

Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, preposition?

What is it exactly, right?

Because if it's an adjective, remember in English,

adjectives go before the noun.

Nouns, in English, if they're plural,

they're followed by an S or ES.

So here "countless" is an adjective

and it goes before the noun.

Days. Countless days.

"Woods" here is in the plural, is also a noun.

If it's a noun, is it countable or uncountable?

It's a key question to make sure you use it correctly.

"Woods" here it says, is countable.

An oak wood.

We went for a walk in the woods.

A big wood, a small wood.

So you can count woods.

However, I noticed earlier when it talked about wood,

like burning, it can be uncountable as well.

So just be careful. It's a key question.

If it's a verb, is it followed by a preposition?

In, on, at, away, over, right?

Look at, listen to, speak about.

So what is the preposition? Again, make a note.

If we look at the story, let's come back.

It says, "At the age of 21,

their friendship blossomed into something more."

Blossom?

Well, I know that's something to do with flowers,

but I can see "ed" so it's probably a verb in the past.

So, "blossomed."

I can check in the dictionary,

but what I can see is also "into."

"Blossomed into," right?

And I look at the examples in the dictionary,

"Their friendship blossomed into,"

or, "She blossomed into a lovely person."

So it's to become like a flower.

To become and grow into something attractive.

So check with verbs if they're followed

by a proposition, and which one.

The other thing to do is notice the words before and after.

And these are the collocations.

Collocations are critical when learning vocabulary.

So don't just learn "blossom" to blossom.

You want to look at the word before,

the words that can go before.

A friendship blossomed.

A person blossomed into something.

So when you are learning this, you're learning,

"She blossomed into."

"He blossomed into a beautiful person."

You're not just learning blossom, learn the collocation.

Finally look for idiomatic expressions.

So, often when you're looking at a chunk of language

and you're not sure if it means what it says,

it could be idiomatic.

In our story we had, "At the age of 21,

their friendship blossomed into something more

and they started going out together.

Tom was always there for Emily

through the ups and downs of life."

Up and down of life?

What actually means is the difficult moments.

So this is idiomatic.

It's not an idiom as such,

like, "to be tickled pink," to be happy.

It's just an idiomatic phrase,

"The ups and downs of life."

The idiomatic phrase is "ups and downs."

You can check it in the dictionary.

We can have the ups and downs of working life.

The ups and downs of marriage.

Again, the dictionary gives us those examples.

Brilliant, so now we've understood the word

and we can see how to use it.

Next step is actually being able to use it.

Right, the final step, of course,

is being able to use the word.

So here, what I suggest you do is you just repeat

the examples in the text you're reading or listening to.

So for example, "They had spent countless days exploring."

Just say it out loud.

If you are listening, stop and just repeat.

"Their friendship blossomed into something more

through the ups and downs of life."

A great technique, actually, is if you're listening

or not reading, but listening, is to shadow.

So play it and you repeat it almost at the same time.

Just a second behind.

I'm doing it more and more with French,

and it's really good for intonation

and pronunciation as well as vocabulary.

You can also repeat the examples from the dictionary.

Say them out loud.

The next step is to start making your own examples.

Just change one word or the tense.

For example, "They had spent countless days exploring."

They spent countless days exploring.

I spent countless days exploring.

When we visited Barcelona,

we spent countless days exploring the city.

I spend countless days

working at home.

I spend countless days

studying French.

I spend countless hours studying French.

And just change one word or two words

until you are becoming more confident, right?

And also, the next step,

is to try and use these in a conversation.

So a quick tip, I would just write down two or three words

on a piece of paper, and then try and use them.

You can even tell your speaking partner,

"I'm trying to practice these.

Can we practice together?"

Let them know.

And it's a great way to do that.

All of this takes time, and you will make mistakes.

Now, if you've got a teacher, they can give you feedback.

If not, you also get feedback when you listen and read more

'cause as you look and listen to more language,

you'll just notice these words in different contexts

and your understanding, being able to use them

grows over time.

It's a marathon.

Be patient.

It does take time, and you will make mistakes,

but that is normal.

It's learning.

It's great.

Now, a final piece of advice.

As you're discovering the language,

understanding the meaning,

understanding how to use it,

and you're practicing,

I suggest you also do lots of reviewing.

Review the language as well.

And this system of discovering, practicing, and reviewing

is a great way for learning vocabulary,

but for just improving your general English overall, right?

It's a system that is at the heart of my online courses,

especially my gold course, where people discover language,

they practice it, and they're reviewing it all the time.

The story today, "Watchful Eyes," is one of the stories

that we use to review the language in the gold course.

I won't tell you what happens to Tom and Emily.

It's a long, long novel.

It goes on an on.

You can join the course and find out.

You can find out more details.

There's a link below, or go to my website,

keithspeakingacademy.com.

That's it for today.

Just remember what I said at the beginning of the video.

Learn fewer words,

but learn them more deeply so you can use them,

not forget them, not go blank,

and you'll be a more confident speaker of English.

Great. Listen, thank you so much for watching.

I hope this has helped you,

and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.

Take care, my friend.

Bye-bye.

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