IELTS Speaking Vocabulary: NEIGHBOURS

(upbeat music)

So, let's begin with vocabulary.

And let me just share my screen with you up here.

So, neighbors.

The pronunciation in the UK is neighbor.

Neighbor.

You'll notice in America, in the US,

there's more of a neighbor.

Neighbor.

It's very, very similar,

but there is a bit of an R sound.

A neighbor.

Neighbor.

Whereas English, UK English, is with a schwa.

Neighbor, neighbor.

Neighbor.

Stress on the first syllable, neighbor.

My neighbor.

The other difference, again,

it's one of these American British differences.

We spell O-U-R.

Americans just do O.

It's a bit like favorite, neighbor, color, right?

All of these words in the UK we have the U in there.

Okay?

We can say,

"I don't have many neighbors."

"I don't know many of my neighbors."

Interesting, even in British English, we pronounce the R

if it links with a vowel, right?

So if we say in British English,

"My neighbor is friendly."

"My neighbor is."

Ris.

There's a R.

My neighbor is.

So, although we say neighbor,

if you're connecting with a vowel in the next word,

we pronounce the R.

My neighbor is.

My neighbor is.

Can you hear the ruh?

My neighbor is friendly, right?

So, even in British English, you will connect,

you'll introduce the R if you have the next word

with a vowel, right?

So you will have that.

My neighbor is friendly.

So we pronounce the R in that case,

because we're linking it.

My neighbor is friendly.

As you mentioned earlier,

somebody mentioned the difference between neighborhood,

a neighborhood, the neighborhood.

Not the neighborhood.

The neighborhood.

Stress on the neigh.

Neigh.

Sounds like Dutch.

Neigh.

A neighborhood is a local area

or community smaller than your hometown, right?

Okay, neighbor.

Good.

So Moe says,

"Constant to vowel linking."

Yes, my neighbor is friendly.

Yes, exactly.

And here, because although it ends in a vowel ending,

because it's a written R, we are pronouncing it.

"I don't know many of neighbors."

Oh, look, this has happened again.

Why is this happening?

It's all come up a bit too small.

Lina, let me help you a little bit,

because this is a perfect opportunity

to introduce this idea.

"I don't know many of my neighbors."

You need to add my neighbors,

because they are your neighbors, not my neighbors, right?

Excellent, nice, good.

Collocations with neighbors.

We can say next door neighbor.

A bit more obvious.

Next door neighbor.

So literally the one living next door.

If you remember at the very, very start,

we have these houses.

This is the next door neighbor.

They live next door, literally.

Next door neighbor.

That's the closest neighbor.

Even though the houses aren't joined,

it's a next door neighbor.

So I have two next door neighbors.

Even though that neighbor, I'm pointing,

their house is detached and it's 50 meters away,

but it's still a next door neighbor, right?

The houses don't have to be joined together.

Next door neighbor.

We'd say, "My next door neighbor."

I think my next door neighbor.

We can say,

"A close neighbor."

Neighbor.

Or a good neighbor.

Yeah, he's a good neighbor.

Can you say a bad neighbor?

Yeah, bad neighbor.

Good, bad, friendly.

That's another one, right?

He's a friendly neighbor.

In fact, you can have lots of adjectives here,

but there you go.

Those are some common collocations we might have.

Friendly neighbor, good neighbor.

We would also say,

"She's been a good neighbor to me."

So here, we're talking over the years,

over the last five years she has been,

she's been a good neighbor to me.

You could say,

"She is a good neighbor to me."

She's a good neighbor to me.

You could say that in the present

or you could say it in the present perfect, right?

Both of those are correct.

Slightly different meaning, different emphasis.

You could say,

"She's a good neighbor."

"She has been a good neighbor to me."

To be good to someone, right?

Notice that, to be good to someone.

So you are friendly, helpful to be good to someone.

Listen to the sentence stress.

She's been a good neighbor to me.

(Keith hums)

She's been a good neighbor to me.

So, been a good neighbor to me.

You get that stress in the sentence.

She's been a good neighbor to me.

Can you practice?

She's been a good neighbor to me.

Nice.

Excellent.

So, nice collocations we can use, let's see.

Nasiba says, "I have a close neighbor that's so friendly."

So friendly, good.

You're writing so fast.

You forgot the D in friendly, but lovely sentence.

Great.

You could say that or who, right?

Both are okay.

Tito, "The neighbor before the home."

Hmm.

Now that's interesting.

Because the home, I think you mean your house, right?

I think you mean...

So, you would say the neighbor before our house,

because home...

Oh, it's interesting, right?

Home is the idea of the people and the place.

This is my home.

Santander is my home.

This house is my home.

But the people and the place, my family, that's...

So home is a much warmer word.

House is the building.

And if you're talking about position in front of,

opposite the house, then you're gonna say,

"The house."

"Our house."

And before is not the right preposition, right?

As I'm sure some people are screaming at me.

The neighbor opposite.

We would say it, right?

Again, not in front of.

It sounds like they're standing in front of your house,

but the neighbor opposite over here,

I can see the neighbor opposite our house.

And the neighbor here doesn't mean the the person,

it's their house, right?

The neighbor opposite our house.

Nice, Tito, thank you for sharing that.

That's really, really useful, I think, for everybody.

Daniela, "Close door neighbors if you live in a flat?"

Mm, no, no.

You'd say next door neighbors.

So, next door neighbors.

That's people on the same floor,

but if they're upstairs or downstairs,

you've got your upstairs neighbors and downstairs neighbors.

It's a good question.

Let me come onto that, 'cause I'm about to go through that.

We've got collocations, synonyms, close.

So you're talking about next door neighbors, right?

We can say they're close, close neighbors,

near neighbors, in close proximity.

More of a adverbial phrase, but in close proximity.

Proximity means close. (chuckles)

But this is the collocation, right?

In close proximity.

So these three mean the same thing.

We can say,

"They live near us."

"They live nearby."

So, notice the difference.

Near has an object.

Near us, near me, near our house.

There's an object.

Nearby, there's no object.

"They live nearby."

You cannot say,

"They live nearby us."

No.

We live nearby the city?

No, no, no, no.

We live near the city.

They live near us, right?

There's an object there.

Live nearby, no object.

So, let me just emphasize.

I mean, grammatical object, right? (chuckles)

"They live in close proximity."

Meaning, they live nearby.

They live in close proximity.

And Daniela, in answer to your question, they live upstairs.

You can say also,

"They live upstairs from us."

Or, "They live downstairs from us."

You can also say upstairs neighbor, right?

The upstairs neighbors.

Our upstairs neighbors.

Or our downstairs neighbors, right?

Similar thing.

Okay, good.

Krithika, "Friendly neighbors make people feel at home."

Yes.

Ibrahim, "In Turkey we say..."

In Turkiye, excuse me.

"Don't buy a house, have a neighbor." (chuckles)

Interesting.

Interesting.

paper, "Hello, I want to ask, what is the method

to practice pronunciation every day?"

Well, number one, paper,

watch my videos and repeat with me.

Number two, I can recommend the Elsa app.

You can download that.

There's a free trial

and you can try Elsa to do your pronunciation day after day.

Just five or 10 minutes practicing,

repeating and repeating day after day.

Elsa is good, because it gives you feedback

on what you're saying, right?

So, try that.

It's called the Elsa app and you can get a free version.

There's a pay for version as well,

but you can try that, okay?

Tito says, "It's a Moroccan proverb,

which means you should choose

whom you are going to live beside, the neighbor,

not the house."

Ah, so when you're choosing to buy a house,

choose your neighbor, not the house.

That is very interesting.

Yes.

Mavi says, "My classmate.

My classmate is my next door neighbor."

Great.

Stefano, nice to see you from Italy,

and Daniel from Poland.

"My neighbor lives near me."

Yes, Nasiba.

That's why he's a neighbor.

Yes, but you're right.

"The neighbor before the house, I think, is an idiom,

expresses a cultural feature which values neighbors a lot."

I think it's really interesting, right?

I think so, yeah,

because it is so important, your neighbors.

If you get on well with them, it can make life easy.

If you fall out or argue with your neighbor,

oh, it can make life a nightmare day after day, right?

Let's talk about arguing with your neighbor,

'cause you've brought that up.

And it's also something

we often talk about with neighbors, right?

An argument.

So we say, "I sometimes..."

Or maybe let's say,

"I had an argument."

"I had..."

Whoops.

Oh, come on!

I can't type. (laughs)

Position of the keyboard.

I had an argument with my neighbor.

Okay.

So, to have an argument.

Ah, argument.

If you see the pronunciation, it's a ah.

Ah.

It's a long vowel.

There's no R.

It's not R.

It's ah.

And it's a gia.

Gia.

A lot of people say ar, goo, ment.

Ar, goo, ment

No, no, no.

Ar, gia, ment.

Can you see that?

Ar, gia, gia, gia, ment

Argument.

Argument.

Argument.

Have an argument.

Have an argument.

I had an argument with my neighbor.

Listen to the stress again.

(Keith hums)

I had an... (chuckles)

No.

I had an argument with my neighbor.

(Keith hums)

I had an argument with my neighbor.

"I had an argument with my neighbor."

"I had an argument with my neighbor."

I would stress those two.

Sentence stress is really important

to get more natural English intonation.

Synonyms.

We can have...

I'm running outta space.

Let me bring that up.

Bring that down.

A dispute.

I had a dispute with my neighbor.

A conflict.

My neighbor and I have had a conflict.

A disagreement.

A falling-out.

To fall out is to argue,

but as a noun we can say a falling-out.

We had a falling-out.

You can say,

"We had a disagreement."

"We had a falling out."

I think dispute and conflict,

we would use a little differently.

I think we would say,

"There's a dispute between me and my neighbor.

There's a bit of a conflict about something."

So I think have, I would say, with these,

but not with the other two.

To have a disagreement.

To have a falling out.

Oops.

But I don't think I would say that

for the first two.

There's a dispute.

There's a conflict.

I think will be better.

I don't say,

"We have a dispute."

No.

I think there is is better.

Why am I whispering?

I don't know.

I'm whispering so the neighbor can't hear me. (chuckles)

Great.

Right, good.

I'm just checking in.

Leila says she's used the Elsa app,

which is perfect and incredible.

It is quite incredible.

I like it a lot.

"If I changed the preposition, they live upstairs."

No, they live upstairs to me?

No, no, no.

They live upstairs from me, right?

Yeah, they live upstairs from, not to.

Good question, Kuso.

Really good question, 'cause you're testing

and seeing what works and doesn't work,

and that is very, very good.

A very good strategy.

Nice.

Yes, there is a free version of Elsa.

Yes, soon as you download it.

Okay.

"My next house neighbor."

Rustem, not my next house neighbor.

It's gotta be my next door neighbor.

Yep, you wouldn't say,

"My next house neighbor."

No, my next door neighbor.

This is really good, Rustem,

because what's happening is,

we're testing, we're trying things,

we're seeing if they work,

and we find out what does work and what doesn't work.

And that is brilliant strategy, right?

Really, really good.

So, I'm gonna help you just a little bit

and so that everybody can see,

'cause I really like what you're doing.

I really like what everybody's doing.

So, my next door neighbor is the correct one.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Domicio says, "I have never had an argument

with my next door neighbor.

He always invites me for a drink."

That is a good neighbor.

Excellent.

"A brawl with my neighbors."

Yes, I had a brawl.

A brawl is quite...

A brawl is more physical, right?

So, a falling-out or a disagreement is up here.

A brawl is, there's physical.

You probably hit, or punched, or pushed your neighbor.

So, a brawl has a feeling of being more physical, right?

So just be careful with that one.

More physical.

There's probably some kind of contact with your neighbor,

but it's a really good word.

Bye-bye, baby songs.

"I had an argument with my friend."

Excellent.

Leila says, "I've never had an argument with my neighbors,

because I rarely see them."

Right, yes.

"I had a row with my neighbor."

Maria Josefa, that's really good.

Yeah.

Let's add that one, because I think that's a good one.

A row.

A row.

Think of it, 'cause I know it sounds...

This word has two pronunciations, right?

It can be a row or a row.

And a row is, imagine the cow.

Imagine you're having an argument with a cow.

I mean, how strange is that, right?

The cow's like,

"Ooh."

And you're like,

"No, no, no, no, no, no."

Row with the cow.

That's how you can remember it.

Never row with a cow, 'cause they always win.

Excellent, good.

Kristina asks, "Can I say hash out in this context?"

Ooh, I remember that in one of my videos.

We've been hashed out parcels we receive from Amazon."

So, no, not exactly, Kristina.

Hash out is to work out the details,

so you can hash out who is gonna take care

of the parcels, right?

You can work out the details,

but not exactly what you've put here, right?

Good question.

Yeah, Eva, good.

Quarrel, fight, row.

All of those are good, yes.

"Can we say having a row?"

Yes, we can, exactly.

To have a row.

Yep, we've got that one added.

"Can we say, I have a conflict

with my community of neighbors?"

Yes, you could.

I would tend to say, you know, there's a conflict.

I disagree with my neighbor, my neighbors,

or I disagree with the community of neighbors.

We have a conflict.

So, Karlos, I think have a conflict is possible,

but it doesn't sound natural.

I would say there is, right?

I would change things up.

Okay, excellent.

"I have an appointment with my next door neighbor

who is a physiotherapist."

Great, Nazmul, good English.

Good luck with that. (chuckles)

Yes.

Helene says, "I really got on well with my neighbors,

but unfortunately, they all passed away."

Really?

They all passed away.

All of your neighbors or just some of them?

Maybe you live in a community

where there are just older people, right?

And I know what you mean.

I live in a community where a lot

of the people here are retired in their 70s and 80s,

and sometimes they pass away.

It reminds me of a very funny interview I saw.

It was on the BBC.

There was an old lady, she was about 80 years old,

and she lived opposite the church.

Now, in England, the church

is also where you bury the people.

So, we have our graveyards in the church,

in the city center.

In Spain, it's a bit different.

The graveyards are outside the village or the city.

Here...

Sorry, here in England.

So this lady was living opposite the church

and they came to interview her, and they said,

"Doesn't it feel strange

looking over the graveyard from your window?"

And she said,

"No, it's nice to be near my friends."

Because all her friends had passed away.

She must have been 80 or 85.

And I thought,

"That was quite interesting

and a funny thing to say."

"No, it's quite nice to be near my friends."

Anyway.

Neighbors is what we're talking about, right?

Neighbors.

So, let's move on to our next question.

Let me just check how we're doing.

Yeah, Abdel, I like this.

"I had an issue with my neighbor."

"I had an issue with my neighbor."

Yeah, that's really good.

Like a problem, right?

Excellent, good.

I'll just correct you, 'cause it's just one issue.

That's absolutely good, absolutely good, absolutely correct.

I've got another question.

Do you get on with your neighbors?

Again, you can just write in the chat.

Do you get on with your neighbors?

To get on means have a good relationship, right?

To get on with someone, to have a good relationship.

To get on with someone.

So, just write in the chat what you think.

Do you get on with your neighbors?

You have a suggestion?

"Please give suggestion about a cue card."

Akash.

Suggestion about the cue card.

Well, describe a neighbor that you know.

There's a suggestion.

Describe a neighbor that you know.

So, let's have a look.

I'm gonna share with you

some of the things that you're saying.

Do you get on with your neighbors?

Jennifer says, "Well, I had a noisy, extravagant neighbor

who usually likes to celebrate."

Oh. "Yeah, of course."

Says Iron.

"Yes, I get on well with her."

Yes.

Caroline, "Yes, but a superficial relationship."

Tomboy, "I'm get on well."

I get on well with my neighbors.

natalia says, "She's really friendly

and we like each other."

emi says, "My family used to conflicts with my neighbors."

Used to have conflicts, maybe.

"If you live in the middle of nowhere,

there have a slim chance."

Julia, I have a slim chance, or you have a slim chance.

Maria Josefa, "I don't get along with my neighbors."

Marziyeh, "We really get on well with our neighbors."

Vesna, "Yes, I get on well with my neighbors."

"I have a wonderful bond with my neighbors."

Right.

"Not really, I don't talk with my neighbors."

MM.

severa, "Yes, I get on well with my neighbors."

Rasel Hossain, "My neighbor is very, very friendly.

So a close relationship between me and my neighbor."

Nice.

"Unfortunately, I don't have a chance

to get on with my neighbors."

I wonder why.

I wonder why.

"I don't get on well with my neighbor."

Says Rustem.

Nice, good.

"Yes, we get on with my neighbors."

If you say we, I would say,

"Yes, we get on with our neighbors."

mayrush.

We get on with our neighbors.

Zahra says, "Yes, now, we are getting used

to spending quality time together."

Very nice.

Phurong Nam, "Yes, I do,

because she's been a good neighbor to me."

Oh, you're such a good student, Phurong Nam.

Hussien, I'm very well. (chuckles)

dn, "Yes, I get on well with most of them."

Florence says, "I get on well with my neighbors.

I take care of their dog when they go on holiday."

You're a very good neighbor, Florence.

Brian says, "One of my neighbors is my English teacher,

so I hope you get on well with them."

Tom says, "Good neighbors make a good fence."

Is that a proverb?

"Yes, when they're not remodeling the apartment."

Very funny, lea.

Very funny, great.

Farjana, "I generally get along well with my neighbors.

We maintain a friendly relationship.

I appreciate having a good connection."

That's really good.

Very, very nice.

I love it!

Okay.

Liibaan, "We don't know each other."

Hmm.

Not with my neighbors, but we don't know each other.

My neighbors and I, we don't know each other.

"I get along well with my neighbors."

Okay.

Brilliant.

Really nice, some good expressions, right?

I get on with them.

Notice we say,

"We get on with our neighbors."

Right? Make sure you're changing that.

I get along with them.

I get along well with them is good as well.

Good, all of these are good.

We have a superficial relationship was one.

It was a common one.

We have a superficial relationship.

Great, good.

I'm just seeing what else is coming up.

"I treat well with my neighbor."

We treat each other well, I would say.

We treat each other well.

"We are best friends."

Great, good.

Let me come us back.

We treat each other well rather than that.

I get on well with each other.

We get on well.

We have a good relationship.

We have a close bond.

Maybe, maybe.

Any others coming up?

"We get on well with all my neighbors."

Hello, dear. (chuckles)

Okay, I think that's coming to the end.

Good, do you get on well with your neighbors?

Very, very interesting.

Let me close that for the moment.

Okay, so we've got,

"I get on with them."

"We get on with our neighbors."

We and our.

"I get along well with them."

"We have a superficial relationship."

"We treat each other well."

Good.

Okay.

Get along and get on.

The difference, it's the same.

It's the same, really.

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