30+ Words and Phrases To Describe Your English Skills

What's up, everyone? I'm Andrea your RealLife  English fluency coach. And in today's lesson we  

are going to be learning words and expressions  to describe your English level. So if you love  

learning English then you're probably talking  about it a lot and chances are you have many  

friends and acquaintances that are also learning  it. So it's something you have in common and  

something you're probably likely to talk about.  This means that learning new words to describe  

your English is a good idea, don't you think? So  rather than just using the usual words like good,  

bad, beginner, intermediate and advanced, today we're  going to learn some more colorful language and  

vocabulary that's going to help you to describe  your English and the English of others. But before  

we get into it and in case you're new here,  we are here to guide you beyond the classroom  

to live and learn and speak English in the  real world. So be sure to hit that subscribe  

button and the bell down below so that you  don't miss a single one of our new lessons.  

So first of all let's start off more at the  beginner stage or maybe where you are someone that  

needs to work on your english a little bit more. You shouldn't describe your english as bad and  

you definitely shouldn't describe anyone else's  English as bad, I mean first of all English we are  

known for being very polite and speaking in a way  that's very polite with good manners too. So it's  

not really something that we would do and there  are better words to describe this kind of level.  

If you need to work on your English so rudimentary  is another way of saying basic or not so developed.  

So if you were to describe someone's English in  this way we would tend to think of someone with  

maybe more of a strong or thick accent. Now,  what we mean by having a thick or strong accent  

is someone that is speaking English with more  of a tone and the sound of their native language.  

So one person that springs to mind who speaks  excellent English but she does have more of  

a strong accent is Sophia Vergara. - We were talking very good about you. - But aside from  

accent rudimentary also means that this person  maybe is less able to express their ideas and  

their thoughts so they have more of a basic level  to express some basic ideas and thoughts here. So  

you could say, "When I started speaking English my  speaking was rudimentary." Now, if someone has poorly  

spoken or written English then we might describe  it as broken English. However, it's important to  

consider that this isn't used as much because  some people might take offense to it. I can  

imagine you and many other people would not really  want someone to describe their English as broken.  

However we use this as a way to describe when the  speaker is not really connecting their sentences  

very well, they might be using grammar rules from  their own their native language and so this is why  

it's described more as broken it's like piecing  some parts together to be able to communicate,  

but not really speaking fluently. Another way to  describe your English is to say that you're rusty.  

So rusty literally means oxidized so you might  think of some metal rusting when it's been left  

out for a very long time or it gets wet and then  is left out and it gets oxidized, but it is a way  

of describing your language speaking where maybe  you haven't really been practicing very much.  

So for example, sometimes when I don't speak  greek very much, my greek gets rusty because  

I'm now living in Barcelona and I speak English  most of the day, and then I also speak Spanish so  

then when I speak to family members on the phone  in greek I'm actually thinking in Spanish a lot  

more so my greek is a bit rusty, and it takes me  a little time just to get back into the practice  

with it. So when you don't practice enough you  can start to get rusty meaning that you forget  

words. Sometimes you can become tongue-tied and  this goes for anything not even just language  

learning, if you're really good at something  but then you're out of practice so you're not  

really doing it that much anymore then you become  rusty at it. So it could be any type of activity,  

really. You might also describe your English as  limited or poor which are quite self-explanatory,  

but basically means that you still have some work  to do. Now, if it's really bad, it sucks or it's  

terrible could also be ways to describe it but as  I mentioned before English is a polite language, so  

you really have to think about the context here  and whether or not it's the right time to use  

one of these words. For example, you might say  "When I first moved to the US my English sucked  

or my English was terrible" and if you want to say  the opposite you might say that it was terrific.  

Okay, so moving on to some ways to describe  now where your English is a little bit better,  

we are going to have a look first at alright. So  alright is used to describe something that is not  

so good and not so bad, so it's somewhere there in  the middle. You probably do okay but it maybe could  

be better. You might also describe your English as  conversational so that means that it's good enough  

for conversation. How about you? Is your English  conversational? let me know down in the comments  

below. An expression to describe this is that you  can get your point across, so if your English is  

conversational it means that you can somewhat  communicate so you can get the meaning across,  

you can get the point across, but maybe it's  not so clear and it's not so well thought out.  

But what it does mean is that you can understand  what someone is trying to say to you and they can  

probably understand what you are trying to  say to them so you can hold a conversation,  

which is a really great achievement. Another great  way of describing your English is to say that you  

get by. So if you move to an English-speaking  country you'll probably need to know enough  

English to just get by at least. So that means  again that you can understand certain things and  

you can communicate certain ideas that's just  enough for you to get things that you want to  

get done. A word that would express the total  opposite of this would be hopeless, so if for  

example you suddenly found yourself living in  an English-speaking country and you knew no  

English at all you might say that your English was  hopeless meaning you had no hope of communicating  

Now, to hold one's own means that you are competent.  So if you say that I held my own it means that  

you were able to communicate what you wanted to  maybe with little instruction as well and practice.  

So you have enough knowledge to get by in a way  and also to have the confidence and the security  

to hold your own to be able to  communicate what you want to say.  

Now, if you want to take your English from  rudimentary or just from holding your own  

to excellent then I highly recommend  our RealLife Native Immersion course.

This 41 week course will take you on a real-life  adventure of the English language each week  

exploring a different topic connected to our goal  to help you understand and use real native English  

and make it a permanent part of your life in a way  that is fun natural and convenient. And the best  

part is you can try it right now for free with our  three part power learning series. All you have to  

do is click up here or down in the description  box below to learn more and sign up now.  

So now we're moving on to describing your English  more as excellent, so this is where you have some  

great English skills that you want to share and  the first way to describe this is impressive.  

So something impressive is quite extraordinary  really and something that you might want to share  

with people and show off and communicate.  You might even describe your English as  

proficient or highly proficient meaning that  you have a really good command of the language.  

So you probably don't have any problems in  communicating or doing anything that you  

want to do with the language. If your English is  proficient and you're an advanced speaker then you  

are probably fluent in all four areas and by that  I mean in speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Now, if you've mastered English it means that you  feel totally comfortable with the language in all  

situations that you might come across. And if your  English is flawless it means that it's probably  

nearly perfect or very very close to perfect  meaning that you make hardly any mistakes.  

Now, if you're articulate or eloquent it means that  you can express your ideas clearly in speaking and  

in writing. Now, even some native speakers are not  eloquent or articulate, so these two words mean  

the same thing and it means also that you  might be really fluent in English, but that  

doesn't necessarily mean that you are articulate  or eloquent. So these words really go beyond the  

context of language, because it's not just about  being a fluent English speaker or writer, it's  

all about the way that you speak, the way that you  communicate and doing that clearly and effectively.  

Another one is native like. So this one is quite  self-explanatory because if your English is  

native-like it means that it's as good as that of  a native speaker. So if you have ambitions to speak  

more like a native or you even want to understand  natives better I highly recommend this lesson  

that I made all about connected speech which  really is the key to understanding natives.  

So you can click up here or down in the  description box below to watch that lesson next.  

Now, someone might ask you how is your English  coming along and you might say, "It's coming along  

well" or "It's come a long way" and that means that  you've made a lot of progress along the way. So  

maybe not so long ago or however long you've been  studying the language, you know you started off  

right at the beginning maybe, but you've put in the  effort, you've put in the work and it's come a long  

way. So, that means that you've made really good  progress and you've come to a really good point.  

Now, whenever you start a learning endeavor you're  going to make a lot of progress in the beginning,  

but then what usually happens at some point is all  learners reach a plateau. So this is the way that  

we pronounce this word plateau. So this means  that your progress will stop or really slow  

down, so most people get to this level sometimes  even before they reach the conversational level  

and maybe they give up and stop. But if you have  that fight in you or you have a great teacher  

or you find more creative ways of learning  you definitely can pass that plateau to keep  

making progress. Another great way to describe your  English is to say that you need to brush up on.  

So if you need to brush up on your English it  means that it's probably a little bit rusty  

and you need to do some things quickly to make  some quick progress to get it back to the level  

that it should be or that you were at before. So  for example, you might say, "Oh I need to brush up on  

my English before I move to Ireland." Some ways that  people describe their English as well is that they  

say, "I picked it up." So if you pick up a language  it means that when you immerse yourself in the  

language you pick it up very quickly so just by  listening and being immersed in the language you  

pick things up and you don't necessarily need to  study very thoroughly. So I know for example in my  

first year here in Spain, when I first moved here I  focused on my new job the new country I was living.

But as I was immersed in the culture and immersed  in the language I picked up lots of vocabulary,  

grammar points and other things as well. So  this is a great way to describe this aspect  

of learning as well, so if you are out and about  you pick up lots of vocabulary, lots of language,  

lots of cues as well and this can also help you in  your language journey so there you have it lots of  

ways to describe your English. And now I'm really  curious, so how would you describe your English? Let  

me know down in the comments below. And I'll see  you all soon. So there are four topics of connected  

speech that we are going to take a look at in  today's lesson. And they are weak forms, intrusion  

and linking, illusion and assimilation. Now don't  worry if you don't understand any of these words  

I think as a learner it's important to be aware of  them but you don't have to know these exact terms.