24 Advanced Words and Phrases (C1/C2) to Build Your Vocabulary | Describe memories in English

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  

So that you can communicate with people, you  can help hopefully get through those interview  

processes. Step one, step two. Whatever it  is, improve your business English. So we  

look at things like expressions, phrasal verbs,  idiomatic expressions, for capillary grammar,  

everything and anything that will help you  to improve your performance in English.

So in this particular lesson, we're going to  look at some vocabulary that I think would be  

really useful. Particularly for those of you who  might be doing some proficiency exams in English,  

where you want to improve your vocabulary,  particularly for the spoken and the written  

test. So we're going to be looking at vocabulary  for describing memories. Things that you want to  

remember, some things that you want to recall.  If you want to talk about your childhood. If  

you want to talk about past job experiences, or  your sporting achievements, whatever it might be,  

you need to rely on your memory. And these  will be words associated, there'll be verbs,  

there'll be nouns and adjectives that you can  use in connection with that particular topic.

So we can often blot out. Means to forget  something with... something bad happened, Ah,  

I blotted that out, I've really forgotten about  it. So your friend might be saying to you, Do  

you remember that teacher at school? You know,  the one, he always used to throw something when  

he wants to get somebody's attention. You didn't  really like you. Ah, I have blotted it out. I've  

blocked it. I mean, I don't try to think about the  bad thing. So you know, I haven't thought about  

him really, until you mentioned it, I blotted it  out, I blocked it in my mind. So when you blot out  

something, you try to blank or forget and not  remember something, you do it to deliberately.

Evoke. Well, to evoke something, somebody  says something, which remind you, which  

evokes memories. So again, when this school  friend tells you about the teacher, reminds  

you about the teacher who used to be a little  bit aggressive or physical, it evokes memories,  

bad memories of things that happened and then it  comes back to you, you say, Oh, yeah, I remember  

the time when he hit me on the head with the  ruler or he threw something at me. Yeah. So you  

can evokes memories. So when we evoke something  it we recall, perhaps something bad, not always,  

but perhaps something bad that happened.  You could be talking about changing jobs,  

and it evokes memories of your past experiences  good or bad that you had perhaps a few interviews  

that didn't quite go well, or some exams that  didn't quite go well. And maybe you scraped  

through or you didn't get the results that you  hadn't intended or had hoped to get to evoke.

Recall. Well, recall is all about memory. When we  recall situations, we recall events, we recall,  

means we bring back memories. To recall. I recall  meeting him many, many years ago. I can recall  

the first time I met him or the first time I  went to that school. Memories come back to us.

Remind. Well, we can remind ourselves to do  something tomorrow. We can remind ourselves  

to do something next week, we can remind our kids  not to forget our grandmother's birthday or their  

grandfather's birthday. So we can remind give  somebody a little bit of a prompt, or something  

can remind you of something. Yeah. So you're  talking to your friends, meeting them after a  

number of years reminds you of the good old days.  Reminds you of the good fun you had at school.  

Reminds you of the times when you played football  together, reminds you of the time when you got  

into trouble taking apples from the orchard.  Yes, all of these little memories that you  

can bring back something happens. Somebody says  something that reminds you of a particular event.

To reminisce. Well, when we reminisce we sit back  and we think and we talk about the good old times  

or the bad old times. So we reminisce over a  beer with our friends. People like to reminisce  

because it's good. You can remember really  happy times about holidays, sporting events,  

the life of your children, so much to reminisce  as to recall or remember particular events in your  

life that you make you feel good. We reminisce.  It's good to sit back and reminisce about the old  

days. The old times. Yeah, some people don't  like it. They think you shouldn't live in the  

past and of course the right you can't live in  the past. But you can remember the past because  

lots of things happened. And as you get older,  you have lots of experiences you build up this  

library of events in your life. And you can  recall them from time to time to reminisce.

And as always, if you do really, really enjoy  this particular lesson, then like the video,  

okay, and if you can, please subscribe to  the channel because it really, really helps.

Suppress. When we suppress means to keep  something down. So suppress an emotion,  

suppress our feelings. Now, some people will tell  you, psychiatrist or psychologist will tell you,  

it's a bad idea to suppress your emotions, you  should let them out. If you're feeling angry,  

go into the forest and shout and scream or kick  a tree. So to suppress something means to keep  

it down, not to let it out so we can suppress  memories we can forget or try to forget about  

bad things that happen that we don't really want  to remember. Yeah, so and we're usually pretty  

good at that. Our memory is pretty good at that.  And often, we just remember the good times. Ah,  

summers used to be much better when I was a  kid. Yeah, well, of course, you probably do  

remember the good times when you're swimming and  you're playing football and doing other things,  

and you forget all the wet rainy days that  you had, and the bad times because our memory  

naturally suppresses those bad thoughts or bad  emotions or bad feelings to suppress to keep down.

Come back. Well, memories can come back to us  with a little bit of a jog. We jog our memories,  

meaning we give it a little bit of a gentle  shake. That could be your metaphorically,  

somebody starts talking about something and  you say, Ah, yes, it's coming back to me. Now,  

that guy... Remember that guy? Or remember  that girl? Oh, yes. She was beautiful. I  

really fancied her. Yeah. So something comes  back to us. We recall it. Somebody mentioned  

something that leads to another point. And  then yes, these memories, these pictures,  

these images, come back to us come flooding  back. If they come back to you in lots of  

amounts, lots of images. And you start then  reminiscing quite freely. Yeah, to come back.

Now on to the nouns. Everything we have is stored  in our mind. We remember things in our memory.  

We the mind. Yeah, we sometimes you have a good  memory. Yeah. Sometimes it's on our mind, we can  

have something that we want to talk about people  who say, I've had something on my mind for a few  

days. I want to talk to you about it. And what  was it? Yeah, I had something on my mind to tell  

you or I forgotten. I remember it later and I'll  talk to you about it. And so it can be on your  

mind. Yeah. You could ask somebody the question.  Do you have something on your mind? You look as if  

you have something on your mind. You look as  if there's something you want to talk about.

Nostalgia. Well, this is the noun about  those old days, the things that we like  

to remember from the past nostalgia. People like  nostalgia because it's a trip down memory lane,  

as we say which it gives them the opportunity  to tell the friends, tell the family, Ah,  

in my days, it was like this. I remember when I  was your age. I remember the first job. I remember  

that summer. I remember the first trip. That's a  bit of nostalgia, it's the way to to recall the  

past the good times. Okay, so old people, of  course, they like a bit of nostalgia, because  

perhaps they don't get the opportunity to have  those sort of experiences now. And all they've  

got are memories. Yeah. So a trip down memory  lane is really, really good. And unfortunately,  

if you're the grandson or granddaughter,  Yep, you got to listen to granddad or your  

grandmother because, yeah, they want to do it  and it can be fun. So a little bit of nostalgia.

And then recollections. Yeah, so this is the noun  recollections. These are things that we remember,  

we have good and many recollections. Or perhaps  we have very few recollections of certain parts  

of our life. Some people have really good they  can remember when they were three or four. I can  

only remember I think, when I was five, someone  I went to school for the first time ever, very,  

very clear recollection of my first  day at school, it wasn't so good,  

but I have a very good recollection of it's,  some people have really great recollections  

of every part of their life. So it's about  remembering something that something that  

creates a picture in our minds that we  can call back or recall at any time.

Adjectives. So we use the word evoke before so  evocative. Something that is evocative causes  

us to remember something. So an action  can be evocative. So somebody writes a  

book that could be quite evocative, or there's  a movie you watch that could be quite evocative,  

or a speech you listen to that could be quite  evocative and it promotes or, in some ways stirs  

some memories for you. So you begin to remember  things. Perhaps some things you don't want to  

remember some things you prefer not to remember.  So speeches, talks, documentaries, books, movies.

Lasting. We can have lasting memories,  memories that last for a long time,  

we can have lasting memories of childhood,  lasting memories of a relationship,  

lasting memories of some success that we had in  some sporting endeavours. So when we have those  

lasting memories, that really means we'll never  forget them. It's not so difficult to recall  

them. And we can have many pleasurable moments  recounting or retelling those particular stories.

Unforgettable. Well, when experiences or  memories are unforgettable. It means Yeah,  

we we will never forget off, I had some  unforgettable times with my friends or with  

my brother or with my family or some unforgettable  holidays in the south of France, when we we spent  

times very easy simple times in some campaign  or something mobile home, whatever it might  

be. But they're unforgettable memories, because  they're full of good images full of sunny days,  

nice evenings, whatever it is, they're  unforgettable, something that you cannot forget.

And then finally, fond memories.  Yeah. So when we have fond memories,  

memories that we are very fond of that we like so  fond is sort of a bit like love is not as strong,  

but we fond memories of a friend, fond memories  of our first pet fond memories of spending summer  

weeks or months with our grandparents,  perhaps when we were sent out of the city  

to the country life and we have fond memories of  that time helping grandmother hoping grandfather,  

whatever we were doing fond memories, meaning  good, nice, bright occasions that we can remember.

And then we have this expression to bring back  memories. Well, what brings back memories,  

actions, talking to people brings back memories,  sitting and pondering or thinking about the old  

days, bring back brings back memories. So lots  of things bring back memories we need, as we said  

before, a little jog, a little push, something to  remind us something, that kickstarts the memory.  

People, other people talking about their life,  then you start thinking about yours, and it brings  

back memories. Some cases bring back sad memories.  Hopefully for you, it brings back happy memories.

Okay, so these are all vocabulary that we use,  advanced English vocabulary for describing  

memories, and particularly if you're going to  get ready, as I said, for some proficiency exams,  

these are words and expressions that you  can use. So we've got verbs to blot out,  

to evoke, recall, remind or to recall to  remind, reminisce, reminisce, suppress,  

come back. Okay, and then we've got  nouns, mind, your mind, nostalgia,  

recollections, and then with adjectives,  evocative, lasting, unforgettable, fond,  

and then an expression, bring back  memories, bring back memories.

It can be really, really important for all of us  and any of you out there where whatever you're  

doing, but particularly if you're thinking of  doing or you're about to do some proficiency  

test in English, you'd really need to have good  vocabulary and know how to use these verbs,  

these adjectives and these nouns,  particularly when you're writing so  

you can avoid repetition. It's really important  not to repeat the same word over and over again.

Try to practice them, try to practice them  in your writing. If you need some more,  

you need some examples. Come back to me and let  me know and I've tried to help you. As always,  

I appreciate you listening and  watching and join me again soon.