This is the IELTS Energy Podcast Episode 1553, Band 9 Vocabulary for Questions About Gifts.
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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On IELTS, you might be asked about gift giving.
Today, get nine fan nine phrases that you can use when you get these questions for IELTS success.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
How's it going today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Excellent.
Excellent.
Aubrey, when is the last time you gave someone a gift?
I'm not a huge gift giver.
But at Christmas, I always get gifts for my family.
And I asked my parents what they wanted.
They said just a gift card.
They gave me a couple of restaurant options.
I'm like, that's easy.
I can get you a gift card.
I mean, it's so funny.
So I have my partner really hates gift cards.
So I can never gift my partner a gift card.
But I actually love gift cards.
And I think they're brilliant.
Because Usually if someone goes to a store I like and gets me something, it doesn't fit right or it's not exactly what I would have chosen.
But if you give me a gift card to the store I love, it's like the best.
Then you can go pick what you actually want.
It is kind of genius.
And for my parents, they don't live near me.
So I have to mail them.
And postage.
I don't know about everywhere else, but in the States postage has gotten really expensive.
So it's tough to like buy something big and mail it.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Yeah, true.
Yeah, really good stuff.
All right.
So what are we getting into?
Why are we talking about gifts today?
Yeah, well, you are likely to be asked on speaking part one about gifts you have given or received.
And on speaking part two, you might be asked to describe maybe a favorite gift, a gift you did not like.
Gifts come up really often on the IELTS speaking exam.
Yes, part one.
So in this episode, we'll cover potential answers for part one and part two.
So we're really knocking out a good portion of the speaking test here, right?
Exactly, right?
You need to be ready with high-scoring vocabulary and phrases that are topic-specific when you're talking about GIFs.
Yeah. be sure to hit follow guys.
We often teach high scoring vocabulary that can boost your vocabulary scores on both speaking and writing.
This is so important.
You can't just go in with that very common low scoring vocabulary.
Yeah.
So some of the questions that we might see when it comes to IELTS and gift questions are, for example what was the last gift you received?
How do you choose a gift for someone?
What else, Aubrey?
What might we see?
Do you think expensive gifts are always better?
Or on what occasions do people in your country usually give gifts?
And you might be asked, often you're asked to compare the past to the present.
So something like, has your attitude toward gift giving changed over time?
Did you receive more gifts as a child than you receive now?
Those types of things as well.
Right.
Yeah, and that's going to invoke some grammar, some different kind of grammar, if we get that comparing past and present right.
So we need to be ready for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we are going to share today some band nine adjectives, as well as some useful verbs and phrases that you can use if you are asked about gifts.
If you're asked any of these questions,
All right.
I'm excited to get into this.
So high-scoring adjectives, here are a few of them.
Thoughtful, right?
Yes.
What does this mean?
Which means considerate, showing care.
For example, my mother gave me a very thoughtful gift on my birthday.
And very similar, sentimental, meaning emotionally meaningful, right?
So you would not want to call a gift card, for example, sentimental.
These are gifts that make you nostalgic or maybe photographs, memory books.
Yeah.
Like, for example, give us an example.
Yeah.
The scrapbook she gave me with photos and ticket stubs she had kept was an incredibly sentimental gift.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Imagine someone has kept all of these photographs and you know ticket stubs for concerts you attended together.
That would be really sentimental because it's giving you you know, making you remember all these nice memories you had together.
It's invoking deep feelings.
Yeah.
I mean, a gift card is practical, but this kind of scrapbook is sentimental, right?
Exactly.
Um, heartfelt is another one meaning genuine and sincere.
This is probably a less commonly heard word on IELTS versus genuine or sincere.
It's just less common, which is when we invoke common uncommon vocab, we get a higher score, right?
Exactly, right?
The less common it is, the higher it scores.
And it's true, this is a little more rare to call something heartfelt.
And that might be partially because not all gifts are heartfelt, right?
Some things are practical or easy.
A heartfelt gift has to be something that people put some thought into.
Yeah.
So, for example, he gave me a heartfelt card and I loved it more than any gift he could have given me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And often that does seem more heartfelt.
If someone writes something is thoughtful about why they care about you, what they feel.
It's like something is handwritten or handmade, right?
A handmade gift is definitely more heartfelt.
Yeah, I'm sure for parents to receive, like often kids will make things, drawings or whatever they do.
And I'm sure that means so much more to you as a parent than anything that a kid could go buy.
Absolutely, especially because they're so proud of it.
And you can see that they're like giving you because they don't have money to go buy something.
So this is what they can get.
That's so cute.
Yeah, that's very sweet.
I love it.
Practical, of course.
Oh, we mentioned, okay, I didn't know we were going to mention practical, but we are.
It's just like you said, right?
Often there are practical gifts.
This is sort of the opposite.
And sometimes practical gifts are heartfelt as well, but it's often, yeah, a gift card or kitchen appliances, like something that's, yes, I'm giving it to you as a gift, but it's because you need it.
It's practical.
It's something that someone needs, right?
Something that someone needs.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And then personalized, so something that is custom made or tailored to someone.
So for example, my coworker gave me a personalized mug with my name and favorite quote on it.
That's nice.
You can do that.
Yeah.
A lot of websites will let you personalize things now.
So that's kind of fun.
This is getting a little easier to do with websites that will either embroider something on clothing or have something printed on a mug or whatever.
It is a t-shirt.
And so it's easier to personalize.
I was just.
I saw an ad for pajamas that have like pictures of your dog's face on them all over those like personalized pajamas with your dog's face with Kiefer all over his pair of boxers with Kiefer all over.
Of course we do.
And there's a t-shirt that uh, my partner has, with a picture of his face right here, like where the um, the little pocket is supposed to be on a t-shirt.
You know, it's his face, it's Kiefer's face.
I love it.
Those are the best personalized gifts are really fun.
And they can be funny to.
A personalized gift can just be like a inside joke between you and another person, which is also really fun.
Yeah, or someone just making fun of how much you love your dog, maybe, for example, right?
Okay, then we have some verbs and phrases, too.
It's not just adjectives.
Um, what are some of them, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So show appreciation.
This means, you know, that you are buying a gift to show someone that you appreciate them.
So, for example, I bought a bouquet of flowers to show my appreciation for my coworkers help on a project right.
So this is like the goal of giving the gift is to show them you appreciate them.
Yes.
Or I like this one, get out of my way.
Right?
Go out of my way.
Oh, sorry.
I read get out of my way.
That doesn't feel like it fits today.
That's hilarious.
Get out of my way means like move, please.
But this is a very different idiom.
Go out of one's way means to like take extra special effort to, because often it does take time.
You're going to multiple stores or looking through multiple websites, if you're going out of your way to find the perfect gift,
Oh, 100%.
Yeah.
And if someone knows that they've done that, the person that's done that, it can mean a lot, right?
It seems like you went out of your way, right, to get me this gift.
It's so, so kind, right?
That kind of thing.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Make someone's day.
My friend gave me a gift out of the blue just to show she cares about me and it made my day.
Okay.
Yeah.
These kind of idioms really up your vocabulary score. this idiomatic language.
You're required to use idiomatic language.
So a couple of these you want to have in your pocket too, right?
These are pretty versatile as well, that something could make your day.
If you're talking about visiting with a friend or going to a restaurant, you could say that it made your day.
Totally.
Really good one.
It could work on all sorts of other questions on IELTS, right?
Yeah.
What's the last one?
This is strike a balance.
So, for example, you might say I wanted to strike a balance between a thoughtful gift and something simple, so I chose a handmade notebook.
So this is where you're trying to get the best of both worlds, like we say.
Maybe you want to give something practical, but that is also heartfelt, so you're trying to strike a balance between the two.
Yeah.
And Michelle and I recorded an episode on All Ears English this morning that actually goes into depth on this phrase too.
So guys, if you're not listening to All Ears English, you should be, right?
We do five episodes a week over there.
So open your search bar, type in All Ears English and hit the follow button over there.
Okay.
Yes.
So much great vocabulary over there that would help you on IELTS as well.
So make sure you're following All Ears English as well.
Yes.
Okay, Aubrey, shall we do some sample answers?
What do you think?
Yes, let's do it.
I'll answer this first one, and then I'm going to try to use some of the vocabulary we taught today, and then we'll point out the vocabulary we used.
All right, here we go.
So here's the question.
Do you enjoy giving gifts to others?
Yes, I do.
Without a doubt, my love language is giving gifts.
I try to go out of my way to choose thoughtful gifts that show appreciation for my loved ones, for my family.
For me, it's all about giving a heartfelt present that can genuinely make someone's day.
Nice.
And just to note, strategically speaking, we know that you've said before Aubrey, that you're not a huge gift giver.
I'm the same way.
It's not my love language at all.
But that's just highlighting the fact that if it behooves you more to answer the question by saying yes, you can totally lie.
Totally.
The examiner doesn't know and doesn't care.
And so if I feel like it's going to be easier for me to use interesting vocabulary and intonation to say this is my love language, that's fine, right.
This is a band nine answer.
But you certainly could also answer this and say no.
My love language is not giving gifts, but then I would sort of feel like, what do I say beyond that?
Do I just share about why I don't like giving gifts?
I feel like I could use more interesting vocabulary and have more to say if I go the other route.
It's hard because you're supposed to answer the question and I guess you are answering it by saying yes or no.
But yeah, exactly.
What else do you even say?
What is the examiner expecting to hear if you say no?
Right.
You'd probably need to go into why.
Maybe like what your love language is instead.
Or you know, and you can, as long as you answer, you know if you enjoy giving gifts or not.
Anything related you could talk about.
Okay.
So, but it is interesting how sometimes it's a little more.
It's like I don't often talk about why I don't like giving gifts.
So I might struggle a little bit more to come up with details that I want to share.
Yeah.
So choose the answer, not that is necessarily true about you, but that will help you the most, will give you the most material and the most room for high level vocab.
Absolutely.
Definitely.
Okay.
Let's ask you a question, Lindsay.
Okay.
Do you prefer practical gifts or sentimental gifts?
Great question.
Honestly, I prefer sentimental gifts.
And that's because they're more likely to be cherished for years by the people I give them to.
So however, I try to strike a balance, and sometimes a practical present that a friend really needs can be even more useful.
Sometimes it depends on the person though and what they like to receive.
Ideally, I love to give personalized gifts anytime I can.
Nice.
Awesome.
So let's go through the vocabulary that we both used.
So in that first answer, I said, I try to go out of my way to choose thoughtful gifts, right?
So this is idiomatic language, meaning you go above and beyond.
You put in extra effort.
Yes.
And then what did I say?
Yeah.
And just to remark that we didn't say get out of my way, totally different meaning.
Totally different.
It's hilarious.
And then you said thoughtful.
I choose thoughtful gifts that show appreciation, right?
All good phrases, band nine, right?
And I said, for me, it's all about giving a heartfelt present that can genuinely make someone's day.
So this make my day, make someone else's day, that's going to be very versatile.
And And note the linking phrases as well.
These answers don't really sound the way we would speak in any conversation, because we know we still need linking phrases for the IELTS exam.
So I'm saying, you know, without a doubt, my love language.
And for me, it's all about giving.
We have to add these linking phrases to tie our thoughts together.
Oh, for sure.
I mean, the way we speak on the speaking test is nothing like how we would speak in a conversation.
We would never speak this long, first of all, in a conversation.
Right.
It's more of a back and forth.
So it does sometimes feel a little unnatural.
That's why it's so important for you to practice these answers.
Exactly.
And then it's for the vocabulary that I used.
So I said I prefer sentimental gifts, right?
They're more likely to be cherished.
That's another good word.
Cherished.
Yes, definitely.
Right.
So you're saying you prefer a gift that has meaning, personal meaning for someone, so that they're going to love it and cherish it.
This is a band nine word.
That means that it will be important to them for a long time.
Yep.
And then I said that I try to strike a balance and sometimes it's a practical present.
A practical present that a friend needs can be more useful.
So I'm trying to strike a balance between sentimental and practical.
Yes.
And then you use this personalized.
You said, I love to give personalized gifts anytime I can.
That's band nine word, right?
I don't know that I've ever heard a student talk about giving personalized gifts.
Seems like a simple idea, but because it's less common, this is really going to boost your vocab scores.
I mean, that's an important takeaway for today is look for the less common vocabulary.
Do not use the same phrases everyone else is using, right?
That will not lead to a band nine or eight or even seven, right?
Exactly, right?
You need less common phrases.
When you listen to a podcast, read a book, listen to a TV show, listen for those less common words.
Add them to your vocabulary notebook with the sentence you heard them in practice using them in your answers.
That is how you're going to boost your vocab scores.
You got it.
All right.
Great stuff today, Aubrey.
Thanks for talking about gift giving.
It's the right time of the year for it.
So we'll see you very soon.
All right.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Take care.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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