IE 1594: Avoid This 4-Letter-Word on IELTS

This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1594. Avoid this four-letter word on IELTS. Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English. Downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl.

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What four-letter words should you avoid on IELTS? Curse words, yes, but also the word good. Listen in today for band nine idioms you can use instead on nearly any IELTS speaking answer.

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Hello, Michelle. Fancy seeing you here. How's it going? Fancy seeing you here, Aubrey. We're so excited to have Michelle join us on IELTS Energy. You will still be hearing from Lindsay, but Michelle's going to join me some.

Are you excited about IELTS Energy, Michelle? Yes, I am very excited. I love recording with you, Aubrey. And we're definitely, yeah, we're gonna have fun.

And yeah, I'm looking forward to getting into IELTS. Yeah. And we're talking about four letter words today, which in English, often when you say four letter word, you're talking about swear words, curse words, words we can't even say on this podcast because it's clean and that you should not say on IELTS.

You should not be cursing on IELTS, but that's not actually what we're talking about today. We're talking about a different four-letter word. Michelle, here's a question. On IELTS, because we need to use less common vocabulary, there's some words we need to avoid.

What would you say when describing things? Which words do you think people use the most often? Well, I would say probably good and bad, right? Those are just very basic vocabulary.

So common. Yes, absolutely. And I mean, they are common in real life, but we use more colorful words. And for IELTS, you definitely want to impress them.

Exactly. Well, you need them for a higher vocabulary score. You should not say good or bad on IELTS. They're very low scoring. And especially because there are so many high scoring ways to say this idioms, slang, just more interesting words, even like fantastic, amazing, horrid.

These types of words are higher scoring. But what we're teaching you today is even better than that idiomatic language that can boost your vocabulary scores.

Awesome. So yeah, in part one of this series, we are going to share idioms to help you avoid using the four little word good when describing something on IELTS. Yes. And then in part two, this is a two-part series, you will learn band nine vocabulary to describe something as bad.

So we have good and then bad. And yeah, so the reason you need idioms on IELTS speaking, it is required as part of your vocabulary score to use idiomatic language for the lexical resource score, the vocabulary score. You have to have especially flexible idioms that you can use for lots of different answers. So everything we're teaching you today is an idiom, is that idiomatic language.

And it's all pretty flexible because really it just means good. So you could use it when answering about a lot of different things. So for example, let's dive into our first idiom here, Michelle, a cut above. What does that mean?

I love that. That's better than the competition. So yeah, this is a really good one. So for example, if the examiner asked you about a place you like to eat or, you know, a place you like to spend time, what could you say?

You could say the cafe around the corner from my house is a cut above the rest. And that's a really common one, a cut above the rest. Exactly. Yes. Or maybe they ask you about hobbies or art you like.

You could say, I discovered an artist while visiting galleries downtown. I really loved his work and felt like it was a cut above everything I've seen lately. So yes, we have the chunk, a cut above the rest, or you can say a cut above and then compare it to something else.

Yeah. So yeah, this is a really good one. And Aubrey, I mean, would you say this is a cut above just one place? Or is it always about kind of a group?

I mean, I guess it could be either. Oh, that's a good question. So if I'm comparing two restaurants, I don't know that I would say a cut above like, oh, a new pizza place opened up and it's a cut above this other pizza place. Not usually.

I feel like it is used more to compare it to more things, a group of things, everything else or everything else in its category or all the other restaurants in that area, for example. Yeah. So it's possible, but it's less likely. And guys, before we move on to the next one, we want to remind you to hit the follow button wherever you are listening to the IELTS Energy podcast.

Right, Aubrey? Absolutely. Wherever you're listening, open your search bar and search IELTS Energy. And yeah, follow the podcast. We have two new episodes every week and you don't want to miss all this great strategy and vocabulary for the IELTS exam.

Awesome. So Aubrey, what's the next one? I love this. Yes. The next one is out of this world, which again, just means better than the competition. Oh, I did miss one.

You're right. I'm glad you brought us back. Top notch. Yes. Top notch, which is like best in class. So for example, Michelle, if I ask you about a time you were impressed with something, what could you say?

I don't know. Yeah. So I could say the service at that restaurant was top notch. So I would definitely recommend it to visitors. Awesome. So of course, this would be couched in a little bit bigger of an answer.

You would first share like, oh, I was super impressed this last weekend when we went to a new wine and tapas place. And then you could say this, right? Oh, the service was top notch. I would recommend it to anyone.

Very common. Or my university has top-notch facilities, especially the library and research labs. So yeah, you're going to college. You're hoping that you're going to be impressed by the cost of a school that you spend a lot of money on.

Yes. And on part one, you are very likely to be asked about school or study or work, right? You're going to be asked either about home, hometown, study or work. So be ready with answers like this.

And really, it just means good, right? We have good facilities. Don't say good, say top notch. Yes, exactly. All right. The next one is, as I gave us a little spoiler, a little out of this world.

What about if you're asked about, um, desserts you love or just foods that you enjoy? Oh yeah. That's a great time when you would say out of this world. Um, oh gosh, this is making me hungry.

Um, I tried a dessert from a local bakery that was out of this world. It had a lemon blueberry sauce that was to die for. And I love anything like a lemon.

I love lemon. Me too. Lemon blueberry scones or cinnamon rolls are to die for. And that's a good bonus. It also just means good, really yummy. But in certain contexts, we'll say it's to die for.

If we really love it, it's really good. Which sounds so morbid, but it really... It's true. That is weird. And of course, not literal. Would you literally die for that?

No. It's a little extreme. Yeah, a little bit. Just a little bit. Or if you're talking about a trip to a vacation, often you'll be asked about travel.

You could say, when I visited the mountains last year, the view from the top at the end of this hike was out of this world. So it can be about food. It can be about a view. It's pretty extreme.

This means amazing, right? So if you're just wanting to say like, it was pretty good, there are other things we would say. This is for things that are really good, really impressive. Yeah.

And then the last one we're going to talk about today is mind blowing, right? So you'll hear that certainly like it blew my mind. It's mind blowing. So Aubrey, what if we were talking about, you know, technology?

What is something you can say? It's one of the most common IELTS topics these days. This could come up anywhere on the IELTS exam, part one, part two, part three. I might say the technology we have today is mind blowing, especially advances in AI.

And this is a great way to say that. You don't want to say like, you know, AI is impressive. People think it's really good. No, that's super low scoring.

Anything that is very impressive like this, you could call mind blowing. Yes, yes. Or, yeah, this is how I felt. I have been to the Grand Canyon. And I could say when I first saw the Grand Canyon, the size of it was absolutely mind blowing.

I mean, I can't imagine them saying, oh, it was a good size. Yeah. Right now, or even just impressive, like a word like that is lower scoring because it's more common. Most students know it definitely don't say good.

But even some of these other words that are just more common, if you can replace them with top notch, mind blowing out of this world, that's idiomatic, and it's higher scoring is less common. Excellent.

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All right. I am going to answer a part two question here. Michelle, if you don't mind timing me for two minutes, as you know, listeners out there, for part two, the instructions say you have one to two minutes for this, which is kind of a trick. You need to speak for the full two minutes to show the examiner your fluency.

And you should not be thinking about the time. Don't summarize your answer. Talk for the entire time until the examiner says thank you when you hit two minutes. So that's what I'll be doing.

Yeah. Michelle, if you can give me a question. Here we go. Aubrey, describe a time you were impressed. Go. Oh, there's this new pizza place around the corner from our house called Slice House.

And I tried it last week and it is out of this world. They had a pie called the Wise Guy that was top notch. It had all my favorite toppings, pepperoni, spicy Italian sausage, and hot honey, which I am currently obsessed with hot honey on a pizza. I think it's so scrumptious.

It was maybe the most delicious slice of pie I've ever had in my life. But what's fun is, and I was so surprised because I never win anything. No one I know ever wins anything. But my daughter had entered this art competition that this new pizza place was hosting.

And whoever won the art competition earned free pizza for a year. And she submitted her pizza box, which was so cute. It said, you know, slice house out of this world.

And had a little astronaut holding a slice of pizza by a big planet that sort of looked like Saturn, but was a pepperoni pizza. And she won. She won the art competition, got all of these accolades. We took her to the grand opening and they honored her.

It was amazing. So exciting for her to be the center of attention for once, right? It doesn't happen often for an 11 year old. And we get to reap the benefits because we get an extra large pizza that is the best pizza in the universe once a week, 52 times throughout the year.

I don't even know if we'll end up using them. I mean, but maybe because it's such good pizza that I could eat it every week. I don't think I'm going to get sick of it. So part of why I love this place so much is because they made my daughter feel special and she won something.

It's so fun to see her art, her pizza box, it's displayed on the wall there. But also, it's fantastic pizza. I'm so happy it wasn't Little Caesars or Domino's or somewhere that we won pizza for, you know, the year. Thank you.

Oh, funny. Oh, that was good. Aubrey. And that's amazing. Congratulations. Yeah, that'd be cool. I also love honey on pizza. I love I don't I like pineapple on pizza.

I don't mind. I don't mind pineapple on pizza. Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's I don't know. It depends. But honey with pepperoni. I'll eat that any day.

Um, so yeah, um, I really like, there were so many things that I thought you did well on this. Um, so, you know, I love how you use the vocabulary that we talked about out of this world, top notch. Um, you, I think you did say the pizza is good, but it was mixed in with so many other things, right? Oh, I'm glad you pointed that out.

Yeah. Yes. If you are about to say good, don't let that derail you. You just don't want to say good over and over and over. Go back and listen to all of the ways that I said that.

I used a few different idioms. I used some just interesting vocabulary. I might have said good once, maybe even twice, but lots of other ways to say that. Exactly.

There's so much that, you know, the examiner knows, okay, they said good, but look at all the other vocab. Yeah, I think I said it was the best in the universe.

Yeah. I mean, I also loved, I mean, some of the, you said accolades, you just used some really, I mean, to talk about, I think your daughter. I also loved how you turned into a whole story about, you know, you kind of, yeah, it's how much can you actually talk about the pizza place, right? Exactly.

this is such a good example transitioned into a whole story about your daughter and so you were really talking about being impressed with your daughter and the pizza right it's true there were a lot of really good uh things in this i could have just answered that uh you know impressed with my daughter's art and then told the story about the pizza but first i was it's top of mind that i'm like i was really impressed by this pizza so i'm going to talk about that but you're right I had like a few things to say about the pizza and then good luck filling two minutes just talking about that pizza that I liked.

You don't have to stick on that. Share any related details. Tell a story. You've heard this from us before. If I didn't have this story about my daughter to share, I would have had a hard time filling two minutes.

Yeah, definitely. So really good job. I really like the answer. So thank you, Aubrey. And we also just wanted to let you know that you can also use any of these to say something that is not good.

So for example, it wasn't exactly mind-blowing, right? Sure. Yes, this is a really good point because all of these can be used as an opposite. It wasn't quite mind-blowing, but it wasn't exactly out of this world, but it was decent.

Yes, exactly. So guys, definitely follow us for part two with the vocabulary for bad words. Yes, that's a three-letter word you want to avoid. We're going to also provide some great vocab to say instead of that.

And be sure to hit follow. Make sure you don't miss that part two or miss any of our amazing episodes. And thanks for joining me today, Michelle. Yeah.

Anything to say for takeaway before we head off the mic? Yeah, I think it's definitely key to remember, first of all, for part two answers, you need lots of ways to say this. If you're asked to speak for two minutes about something you like, something that was good, something was impressive, you cannot just say good over and over. That'll be a very low scoring vocabulary score.

So you need lots of, you know, idioms, lots of ways to say that when you have to talk for two minutes about something that you're really just wanting to say, it's good. End story. You still have to fill that two minutes. Okay.

I love it. All right. Well, this has, I hope our listeners have thought this was an out of this world episode. And this was fun with you, Aubrey, and I look forward to doing it more in the future.

Awesome. We'll see you guys next time. Bye. All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.

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