Improve your Vocabulary: 8 verbs to talk about movement

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid.

Do you want to be able to speak and write in a more dynamic way in English?

Do you want to be able to enjoy literature, movies, and television in English?

Well, the key to all of that is to expand your vocabulary. Now, of course you

know that and I'm sure you've been trying to do that. And I'm going to show you one

way to do it, and it's by focusing on a particular theme. And the theme of this lesson is movement,

so I'm going to show you and introduce you to eight different words that are connected

with movement, moving in different ways.

So if I were to ask you what vocabulary you know that is related to people moving, what

would you say? Think for a second. Maybe you can think that people... What do people do?

People walk, people run, but do you know a lot of other words around that? Well, I think

in a few minutes you will know. Okay? So let's look at some of this vocabulary which will

make it more interesting for you to express what's happening around you. Okay? Let's get started.

So, the first word is "crawled": "The baby crawled along the floor."

So, what does it mean to crawl?

"To crawl" means to move on your hands and knees like a baby does before

it learns how to walk. "The baby crawled along the floor." Okay? Good.

Next one: "The young child toddled into the kitchen." What does it mean to toddle?

Like this. You know when children have just learned how to walk? They can't sort of walk too straight,

so they move like this. So this movement is called "toddling". And in fact, a child who

is about... I think up to about one and a half year or so is called a "toddler". Okay?

Because it toddles. He or she toddles. So: "The young child toddled into the kitchen."

Next: "The old man shuffled along."

So, "to shuffle" means to move without moving or lifting

your feet very much. So think of an old man with a walker, walking along the corridor

and he's not really able to move his feet very much or very high, so he's shuffling

along. Okay? "The old man shuffled along." Good.

Next one: "The injured player limped off the football field." So, he's injured, he hurt

his leg, he can't walk properly, so he limped off the football field. So, you limp when

you have hurt some part of your body, one of your legs or your feet, or something like

that and you can't walk properly, then you are limping. Okay?

So, now you've learned four words already. "Crawled" on your hands and knees, "toddled"

like a young child, "shuffled" like an old man, and "limped" like somebody who is injured.

Okay?

Next: "The nervous father paced back and forth." You know sometimes when you're scared, or

nervous, or afraid of something, you can't sit still, you feel very restless, so you

walk back and forth? That's what it means to pace. To move in a nervous way. All right?

That's pacing.

Then we have the next one: "The young couple strolled in the park." Okay? So they're holding

hands, it's a beautiful day, and they're walking along, and they're strolling in the park.

They're walking in a very relaxed, happy way, very calm way. They are strolling. Okay?

"The young couple strolled in the park." All right.

Next one: "The businessman hurried to the airport." Okay? He hurried.

"To hurry" means to walk or move fast.

The next one and the last one that we have here today is: "The teenager tiptoed into the house."

Okay? "To tiptoe" means to walk quietly on your toes, because maybe the teenager

didn't want his parents to know that he was coming home that late, so he tiptoed into

the house. All right? So that means to like walk on your toes to be very quiet.

So, you also learned these last four. "To pace" means to walk nervously, "to stroll"

means to walk slowly and in a relaxed way, "to hurry" of course means to rush,

and "to tiptoe" means to walk on your toes in a very quiet way.

So, now we're going to check how well you've expanded your vocabulary with these eight new words.

So, let's start. So, now we're going to express the words in the present tense. Okay? You

choose the words. Help me along here. So, what's the word if I want to say that somebody's

moving fast? To move fast like the businessperson is to

"hurry". Right? Very good.

To move on your hands and knees. The word starts with "c". What's the word? To

"crawl". Okay? Good.

To move quietly. What's the word? Like the teenager. To...

To "tiptoe". Right? To walk on your toes literally. To tiptoe.

What does it mean...? Or, sorry. What is the word that means to move nervously back and forth?

You're waiting for some important news, and you're moving back and forth. It means...

To move back and forth is to

"pace". Very good. All right.

To move with difficulty because you're hurt or due to an injury, like a player we said,

a football player. The word is to...

To "limp". Okay? He limped along the way. Okay. All right.

To move in a relaxed way, like a young couple. To

"stroll". Okay? Very good.

To move without lifting your feet very much. We gave the example of an older person was

walking along, not moving his feet very much. And that word is to

"shuffle". Okay? He shuffled along.

And the last word refers to a young child who's moving a little bit like this, little

bit unsteadily. To move unsteadily means to...

To "toddle". Okay?

Repeat the words after me. "Hurry", "crawl", "tiptoe", "pace",

"limp", "stroll", "shuffle", and "toddle".

All right? You have just expanded your vocabulary by eight words that all relate

to the theme of movement. You can do the same thing by choosing any theme and trying to

find some vocabulary with a dictionary, or a thesaurus which gives you a lot of synonyms

(words that mean the same thing). But, of course, you must know what the exact meanings

are, just as I've explained to you here. So, if you can do that, you'll find a very interesting

way to expand your vocabulary.

If you'd like to practice this, please go to our website: www.engvid.com,

and there, you can do a quiz on this,

as well as watch one of over I think about 600 or 700 other videos. Okay?

Thanks very much for watching, and good luck with your English.