Five verbs to talk about communication

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Welcome

Hello and welcome to Learn English Vocabulary. My name is Jack and I’m making this podcast for you to learn or revise English vocabulary. 

These podcasts are graded from A2 which is around lower intermediate all the way to C2 which is advanced. 

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Introduction

This podcast is B1 which means the vocabulary I’m going to talk about should be good for intermediate learners. I’m going to talk about different ways of communicating. I’m going to describe 6 verbs that people use to talk about communication. 

When you are learning at the top end of elementary and early into a lower intermediate course, you usually cover some grammar called reported speech. This is basically the grammar you need to say what someone said. The most commonly used verbs are say and tell. These are useful because you get to practise the tense changes in reported speech. Today, I’m going to describe 6 more complicated verbs and tell you the most common verb patterns and collocations. 

Advise

The first verb is advise. I advise you to take a holiday. She advised her brother to get his eyes checked. This means to offer suggestions or good ideas about the best thing to do. Or not to do if you think somebody is going to do something silly. Advise always needs an object, you always advise somebody to do something or advise somebody not to do something. If you are talking more generally, perhaps you helped someone make a decision about a new job, you can advise somebody about something. I advised her about working in Egypt, for example. Advise is quite formal so you can use it in professional situations. One of the strongest collocations is strongly. I strongly advise you to stop and think about what you are doing. Or I strongly advise you not to eat that, it will make you sick. The noun, advice, is similar in pronunciation – though the z at the end of advise is a s sound in advice. Advice is uncountable so you can use a piece of advice for example, let me give you a piece of advice if you have some wisdom to share. 

Congratulate

The next verb is congratulate. This is not very common. The noun, congratulations, is very common. But the verb is less common and more formal. It is still quite useful. Like advise, it requires an object. You always congratulate someone. There are two main verb patterns for congratulate. You can congratulate somebody on something that has happened. So you could say I congratulated her on her promotion or I congratulated them on their new house. The other pattern is to congratulate somebody for something they have done. So I congratulated him for winning the competition or I congratulated her for finding the answer first. 

Persuade

The next verb is to persuade. This means to make somebody do or believe something by talking to them about it and giving them reasons. You might say: I persuaded my friend to go with me to the concert even though he doesn’t like the music. Or I persuaded my sister to get two dogs so they could keep each other company. Persuade also takes an object. The main verb patterns are to persuade someone to do something and to persuade somebody that something is true. I met a strange man on the train who tried to persuade me that the earth was flat. A nice collocation is to gently persuade. We use this when talking about something that someone might feel a bit sensitive about. For example, I gently persuaded her not to get a tattoo of the name of her boyfriend. The adjective is persuasive. People who are good at persuading are persuasive. You need to be persuasive to work in sales.

Demand

The next verb is demand. This is far more commonly used as a noun, but it is a useful verb. It means to ask for something forcefully. If you demand something, when you demand, you make it clear that you expect to get what you demand. You can demand something or you can demand to do something. The angry man demanded an explanation. The angry woman demanded to speak to the manager. The word demand is quite strong and is often used to imply that the person making the demand is not very nice. There are loads of adverbs that collocate with demand. You can demand something aggressively or you can demand something angrily or furiously or harshly or irritably or sharply. You have to be pretty sure you are in the right before you go around making demands.

Encourage

The last verb today is to encourage. This is a more positive verb and it means to make someone do something or rather to make them more likely to do it. So for example, if your friend is nervous about asking someone out or starting a new hobby, if you encourage them, you persuade them that they are doing the right thing. It’s very similar to persuade, but it means persuade to do what you think is right. I encouraged him to learn to play the guitar. Or she encouraged me to go on a cooking course. Actively encourage is a strong collocation. The school is actively encouraging pupils to stay home during the covid crisis. The government is actively encouraging people to wear a face mask when they are in shops. 

Conclusion

So there are six verbs you can use to talk about communicating. I hope you have found them useful. 

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please leave me a comment or a review and don’t forget that you can read the transcript for this podcast and complete some language activities on LearnEnglishVocabulary.co.uk.

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1 Comment

  • MAJID POURKARIMI
    Posted 24/12/2021 at 8:54 am

    Thanks, Jack.
    You explained about 5 verbs but in the transcript wrote 6 verbs 😉
    sincerely.

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