English Vocabulary: 5 ESSENTIAL Vocabulary Words! | Vocab Lesson For IELTS and TOEFL

110,979 views ・ 2020-09-29

Rachel's English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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I’ve got 5 new vocabulary words coming at you, with context, so you’ll never forget them.
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If you’re a non-native speaker preparing for the TOEFL or IELTS exams,
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or you just want to make your conversational English a little bit more sophisticated,
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you’ll want to know these words.
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We’re using the Academic Word List,
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which has narrowed down the most important words for you to know.
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So let’s get started.
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But first, if you like this video or you learn something,
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please give a thumbs up and subscribe with notifications, it really does help.
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We’re starting with Band 1, which is the first set of words in the Academic Word list.
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This is our third video in this series, I’ll link to the full playlist at the end of this video.
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Our first word is CONSTITUTIONAL
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and it’s most common use is as an adjective.
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It means relating to an established set of principles, a constitution.
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In the US we have what we call the Constitution of the United States, it's the law of the land.
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It establishes the separation of powers in the United States, for example.
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It has amendments that address things like personal and other rights.
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For example, if I’m out protesting and someone says ‘go home!’.
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I can say, it’s my constitutional right to protest.
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The courts interpret the constitution and apply it to our lives today.
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Let’s look at some more examples on the web.
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I’m using Youglish as my search tool.
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A constitutional right to an appointed attorney.
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A right. Something that the government says you get to do, or to have, that is protected by law.
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Let’s watch that one again.
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Here’s another example.
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Again, talking about constitution rights.
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Someone’s right to do something as written in the constitution.
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Let’s see it again.
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Here’s another example.
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A constitutional majority refers to America's house of representatives.
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Whichever political party has the most members in the house, that party has a constitutional majority.
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Let's watch that clip again.
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And now, the next clip:
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A constitutional amendment is a modification,
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a change to the constitution.
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Let's watch it again.
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Now, one more example.
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He used this adjective twice:
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a constitutional question, meaning, are laws being broken?
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And a constitutional lawyer, meaning, a lawyer who focuses on and is an expert in the constitution.
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Constitutional.
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This is a five syllable word, let's say it slowly together, and do focus on stress.
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Simplify those unstressed syllables,
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which are lower in pitch: Constitutional.
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Constitutional.
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Constitutional.
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Let's look at that up close and in slow motion.
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Before we talk about 'context', I'd like to take a moment to talk about Cambly, who is sponsoring this video.
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You may be familiar with them, they match you with tutors on demand,
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They have all sorts of topics from general conversation to business English,
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This can give some great structure to the one-on-one lessons that you take.
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Cambly is offering a great deal for you,
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anyone watching this video, to get a discount, 32% off an annual lesson package.
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I really encourage you to try it out.
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Pick a course, pick a teacher, and get yourself speaking English.
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Actually doing it is the best way to learn.
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Now back to our vocabulary. Our next word is CONTEXT.
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Do you remember at the very beginning of this video, I said,
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you're going to learn the words, with context, so that you never forget them.
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Context is something around something else, the parts before and after,
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to help it be fully understood, to help explain something.
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Don't just learn the word and definition, study the context,
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the words before and after in a sentence,
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in a couple of sentences, to help you really understand what the word means, and how to use it.
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Let's go to Youglish for some context, some examples.
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He said, put it in a broader context.
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That means, to understand it, let's look at even more factors, at an even more general story.
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If we're studying a word and we see it in a sentence,
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there's a chance that you might not really understand how to use it.
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But if you use a broader context, maybe you read the whole paragraph,
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the meaning of the word can become more clear.
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So to have a broader context means to take in even more information about something.
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Let's see that clip again.
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And now, another example.
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A new context. So he's talking about changing our understanding of something.
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We used to think this was good, he's a doctor talking about being a doctor and medicine,
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but now that we've learned more, we see that oh, we have a different context,
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a different understanding,
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different things we're considering when we're looking at what it means to be a good doctor.
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Let's look at that clip again.
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Another example.
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In a business context.
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So, considering something as it relates to business. This is different than how you might think of it as
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it relates to family, or religion, for example.
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In a business context, maybe the goal has to be to make more money.
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But in a different context, a familial context, you might say,
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you know, about money, the goal isn't just to make more.
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It's to spend time with my kids or my parents, so how you approach a problem or question might be different depending on the context.
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Let's watch that clip again.
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One final example.
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To put something into context.
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This is something we can say when we've said something that might be hard to grasp or understand.
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She says 86 billion dollars. Well, that's just a number.
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If you compare it to other things, that can help you understand what this number really means.
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Is 86 billion a lot or not that much?
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It depends on the context.
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Let's watch that example again.
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This is a two-syllable word with first syllable stress.
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Let's break it down and say it slowly together. Con-text. Text.
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Here, the letter X here make the KS sounds, ks, ks.
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Context. Then the T: kst, kst, kst. Context.
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Context.
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If this word links into a word that begins with a consonant, you'll want to drop the T.
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For example, that's the context that I want you to consider.
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Context that, Context that, Context that.
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Right from the KS into the TH, we drop that T.
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It's pretty common in American English to drop a T between other consonants
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so that's what we'll do here.
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Let's look up close and in slow motion.
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Next, CONTRACT.
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A contract is an agreement between two or more people or groups of people.
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For example, when you buy a house, you put in an offer, it's accepted,
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and you're under contract.
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You've signed an agreement saying you will buy this house for this amount of money
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on this particular day.
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Let's go to Youglish to get some more examples.
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A book contract.
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That means she has signed with a publisher,
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that she will write a book on a certain topic that they will publish.
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An agreement. Let's see it again.
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Another example.
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Extending a contract: this means he worked it out do something even longer than he had originally agreed to.
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He extended his work contract another month.
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Let's watch that example again.
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Another example.
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So we're talking about a book contract again.
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And here, and he was too young to sign it.
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There are laws about how old people have to be to enter into official agreements like a book contract.
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Let's watch that one again.
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And now, one final example.
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Signed the contract without even reading it.
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Okay, that's something you probably shouldn't do!
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Contract. An agreement, something official.
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A two syllable word, first syllable stress, CON-tract.
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Contract. The word ends in the CT cluster.
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Do you know what will happen if it's followed by a consonant?
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Here's a hint: the T will come between two consonants.
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We'll drop it. Here's an example sentence.
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Did you sign a contract for the house?
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Contract for the- for the-for the- K sound into the F consonant, no T sound.
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We drop the T because it comes between two consonants.
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Let's see it up close and in slow motion.
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Next, CREATE. A verb.
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To make something. Something that wasn't there before, to bring it about.
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To use thought and imagination to make something.
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An actor might create a role.
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Someone wrote the movie,
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but the actor took what was written on the page and made it a person, created a character.
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Creativity, a related noun.
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This is the ability to make something new, new ideas, new methods,
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to do away with rules about how something should be done.
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The ability to make something really original.
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Let's look at an example.
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How to create something new.
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He's looking at a problem,
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he knows all the ways we've tried to fix it before that don't work.
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We need something totally new, totally different.
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We need to create that. Let's watch again.
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Here's another example.
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Create a platform. Something that wasn't there before, a new kind of platform.
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We're not using the old platform, we are creating something. Let's watch again.
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Another example.
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Ah yes. Creating jobs.
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That's something you'll hear politicians say a lot.
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Creating a job where there was not one before.
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Let's watch that again.
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And now, a final example.
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Create a future. Oh yes, that's definitely something new that hasn't happened before, the future.
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Let's watch that again.
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Create is a two-syllable word with stress on the second syllable.
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Create. Create. Create.
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The final T will be a Flap T if this word links into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong,
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like in the phrase: create another.
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Create a-dadada-Flap T, create another--
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Can you create another draft? create another--
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That's more natural than a True T, which would sound like this:
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create another-- create another-- create another--
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We don't do that, we flap: create another-- dadadadada-- create another--
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Also in the word 'creative', it's a Flap T.
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In the word creativity, now there, the first T is a True T, the second T is a Flap T,
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that's because of stress.
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Creati-tih-
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Tih-- that syllable is stressed and if a T starts a stressed syllable, it will be a True T.
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But the second T is a flap.
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Creativity.
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Creative.
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Create.
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Let's watch create up close and in slow motion.
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Finally we have DATA. Let's start with the pronunciation of this word.
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Now, this is something I really hate about online dictionaries.
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It has a phonetic spelling, it has a recording, and the recording is totally robotic.
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Data or data.
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Data or data.
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No. We totally don't say that. We say: data or data.
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We make it a Flap T because the T comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds and
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doesn't start a stressed syllable. Data, data.
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Also, when she said it, the two syllables sounded like they were the same length. Let's listen.
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Data or data.
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But they're not. The first syllable is stressed, so it's longer.
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The second is unstressed, so it's shorter.
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Data. Data. Data. Data.
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Now, the online dictionary says there are three pronunciations, the AY diphthong, day-ta,
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the AA vowel, da-ta, I heard both of those, but it also says dah-ta,
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with the AH as in Father vowel, and I've never heard that one in the American accent before.
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Data, with the AY diphthong is definitely the most common pronunciation and is what we'll hear in all our examples on Youglish.
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Data means information, facts, statistics.
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It's something we gather to learn about something,
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something we use to make decisions.
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Let's go to Youglish for some examples and context.
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Now, this word can be used both as a plural or singular:
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individual facts or statistics, for example:
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These data are convincing. Plural.
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Or it can mean a body of facts, a group, then it's used with a singular verb. For example:
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Additional data is available at our website.
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Okay, let's go to Youglish.
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The data to prove. You have an argument, something to prove, you have to back it up with information,
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maybe statistics, data.
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He also said the data shows.
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The data shows, the data proves, these are verbs you might hear with this subject.
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Let's look at another clip.
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Any kind of good or data, we don't want tampered with.
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Like personal data. Have you heard this term? Name, address, social security number, family members.
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This is all personal data that we want kept private.
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Let's watch that example again.
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Another example.
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They looked at the data:
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the real numbers, the real information on what veterans need.
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They didn't just guess, they got the information and they spoke to the veterans themselves.
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Let's look at that example again.
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And here's one last example.
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Big data. Have you heard this term before?
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It refers to sets of data that are so big that companies can't use traditional methods of processing.
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In this case, she was talking about health data.
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Let's look at data up close and in slow motion.
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Constitutional, context, contract, create, and data.
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Five new words that you've learned with context and examples.
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Now you'll probably understand them if you hear them, but are you comfortable using them?
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That always takes more time.
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A great exercise is to go to Youglish now,
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type in one of the words,
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and say the sentences that you're hearing out loud, repeat them over and over.
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Do 20 sentences, maybe even 50.
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Even though you're just repeating, I guarantee you'll be more comfortable using them in a sentence yourself.
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Thanks for sticking with me. I make new videos every Tuesday,
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primarily to help non-native speakers of American English feel more comfortable with,
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confident in, and knowledgeable in speaking American English.
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I also have an Academy, Rachel's English Academy,
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where you can train your English communication skills to take them to a new level,
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check it out at RachelsEnglishAcademy.com.
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That's it, thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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