This is an IELTS ENERGY PODCAST episode 1469.
Don't Fight this Vocabulary for IELTS.
Welcome to the IELTS ENERGY PODCAST from all ears English.
Downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner, Jessica Beck, an Aubrey Carter, the IELTS Wiz.
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Get loads of formal and informal vocabulary today that you can use on IELTS speaking and writing.
Today's topic is arguments.
We've all had them, and you'd be surprised how often you can use these words on IELTS.
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Aubrey, are you a quarrelsome person?
I am not a quarrelsome person.
I actually avoid arguments and quarrels at all costs.
I don't like confrontation.
I feel really uncomfortable.
What about you, Jessica?
Oh yeah, no, I don't like arguing.
I mean, nobody should like arguing.
I'm sure some people do, but my brother does.
My brother will like start an argument.
He loves to like debate both sides.
He actually prefers if you disagree with him.
So it depends on the person.
I'm curious like there's out there.
If you like that to argue to like defend your opinion, I do not.
I feel uncomfortable.
Well, I do enjoy a lively debate.
I will say that. Like I like going back and forth with someone and learning about their reasons for their opinion, especially if it's different than mine.
Yeah, I do enjoy that.
However, that will not happen on the test guys.
You are not going to have a chance to debate the speaking examiner or writing examiner.
However, you will have a chance to use today's vocabulary.
Yes. We are going to share some awesome vocabulary for quarrelling, arguing, fighting.
These all have slightly different meanings.
This is actually inspired by a question in our Q &A, this morning Tracy, one of the students in our course, was asking, like, what's the difference between these which context can I use them in?
And I thought, oh, this is great.
Vocab for IELTS, you definitely might be asked about this or could use this in a lot of different answers, both speaking and writing.
Yeah, totally. So on the next episode, guys, we are going to share some speaking and writing questions from Real Isles exams, that you could use this vocabulary for.
So let's get into the vocab.
I like this first phrase because this describes you, right?
But it's a very high -level phrase, conflict avoidance.
That's right. If you turn this into an adjective instead of just saying, I don't like conflict.
I avoid arguments and instead describe yourself as conflict avoiding very impressive.
That is a benign adjective.
So what is conflict?
Yeah. So this is any misunderstanding, anything that would be considered a fight or an argument.
All of that conflict is sort of the overarching term for all of this when two people don't agree or don't get along.
They are in conflict.
Would you say that conflict could also be like a physical fight, like actually using one's hands to hit someone?
Yeah for sure. It's definitely like the general overarching term.
We often hear this word used in the news talking about conflict in war -torn areas.
So this is actually talking about, you know, real fights, like physical fight, so it can be as small as an argument between two people.
And a war between multiple countries.
Totally, totally. So fight would be like the band five verb or noun, right?
Whereas conflict would be like the band seven in higher term, but they mean the same thing.
It could be verbal.
It could be physical.
It could be small, could be big.
Those are both just the general terms for any arguments.
arguments? Exactly right and especially if you're asked on part one, do you often argue with friends something like this, you would need multiple terms here.
You couldn't just be we argue about this, we argue about that.
You want to use all of these, conflict, fight, describe yourself as either confrontational or conflict avoidant and get a lot of this impressive vocabulary.
Nice bonus vocab there.
Yeah, so confrontational, that would describe Aubrey's brother, right?
That is the opposite of conflict of voident.
Such great vocab! And guys, you are asked to describe people all the time, right, on Isle Speaking Part 1 and Part 2.
So you can definitely use this vocab and as you'll see in the next episode there are writing questions as well that you could use this.
Okay, so let's distinguish between verbal and physical fights.
What are some terms that we could use to describe like a physical fight?
Yeah, so fist fight.
That is an actual fight where people are punching each other with their fists.
That's very specific.
You're not going to be talking about arguments and say someone was in a fist fight, right?
This is physical. We'll also call this a brawl or a scuffle would be like a small fist fight, but all of those are for a physical fight.
Yeah, I would say that there are differences between those words as well.
Like, brawl, it could be two people or it could be more than two people.
Like, if you watch sports, sometimes the most, like a baseball, for example.
Like, the only exciting part for me of watching baseball, this sounds bad, but is sometimes there's a bench clearing brawl, And that's when like the whole team gets off the bench comes on to the baseball diamond, right, or the field if it's soccer, the whole team goes on the pitch. And they start fighting each other.
That's a bench clearing brawl, but it could just be two people who are like really going at it.
It's like a long fist fight.
yes, I definitely hear this word used a lot.
If people are talking about like a Barroom bra like a fight.
Yeah, where someone's arguing.
Maybe someone's drunk and then more people get involved So yeah, you're right.
It could be two people, but often it is more people like someone's trying to protect someone else and accidentally gets Punched and suddenly it's a brawl with a bunch of people Totally whereas like scuffles scuffles like a cute word for like just a little fight or if you're If you're trying to make the fight seem not that bad, you could be like, oh, it was just a scuffle But scuffle is still like some sort of physical fight Yeah, we often might describe children who were in a fight as a scuffle because there you know It's usually not big enough that anyone's really getting hurt.
It's pretty small would call it a scuffle Yeah, exactly.
All right, so Now, let's turn our attention to verbal arguments, right?
Are there any great vocabulary words for that?
Yeah, so argument for sure.
This is not a physical fight, right?
If you are in an argument, quarrel is also a great word here too.
It means the same as argument about the same level, but definitely higher scoring, less common. And then just disagreement, right?
But the same thing.
an argument you're disagreeing about something, you can use that as a noun, as well and say, we had a bit of a disagreement.
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Would you say there's any differences between argument and disagreement as far as, like the bit more common, but I hear both, I hear students use the both.
I think call oral is higher scoring than both of these.
I don't hear students use that as often.
It's a little difficult to pronounce.
You've got to get that wuss sound at the beginning, so if you're going to use this on int, I'll practice it in advance in the mirror.
Make sure you're saying call all with that wuss sound.
Yeah, and those R's and L's and L's can be really difficult depending on what your first language is.
So like Aubrey said definitely practice that.
I love the the adjective even more though I used it in my first question to you today, Quoralsum.
That is also very high -scoring vocab and it's kind of a more polite way to say confrontational, right, to describe someone as Quoralsum.
Yes, I agree, right?
This just means that a person likes to argue is often in quarrels with people.
So it definitely has, I feel like, a negative connotation.
Both of them do. It doesn't just mean you like a healthy debate like you were saying, someone who's quarrelsome is sort of like picking fights for no reason often.
That is great slang there to pick a fight.
It means like you are trying to start a fight.
You purposefully say something that you know is offensive to the people around you because you want to start a fight, right, to pick a fight.
Exactly. Yes, awesome.
And then we have altercation.
This is an impressive word for just daily conversations.
It's very formal. I wouldn't tell Jessica, oh, I had an altercation with my partner with my friend, right?
If we're just having a casual conversation, but for ile writing and speaking, especially part three answers, this is perfect.
Yeah, you'll see this word in the news when they're reporting on like crimes, right?
Like there was an altercation involving three people on the corner of 16th Street or whatever, right?
Like you'll see it a lot or hear it a lot in the news.
So I wouldn't be surprised that it might come up in I'll's reading or listening.
Oh, yeah, good point.
And this is verbal or physical fights, right?
It could just be people shouting at each other on the street or it could be a brawl.
it could be a physical fight as well, both of those could be called an altercation.
Exactly. And our final word today is a fun word of feud.
It's FEUD by the way.
If you're just hearing me say it, it might be like FEW, what is that word?
No it's FEUD feud. What's a feud?
So this is usually a verbal fight, but often there's some length to it, right.
So often we'll talk about families feuding or neighbors feuding.
This means there have been arguments, altercations, over some time usually.
Exactly, exactly. So if you are in a feud with someone else or if you know that two people are in a feud with each other, it means they just generally do not like each other, right?
they maybe there was an initial argument and the disagreement was to such an extent that they still want to argue about that thing.
Yes, it makes me think of family feud the game show if you guys have the theme, family feud, that's what that means.
It would be like a fight between two families and it's just sort of a lideration, a play on words, right?
Cause this isn't really family's feuding, they're just playing against each other in a game show.
Um, do you watch that show?
Jessica, I love it.
Nope. I do not watch game shows.
I don't, I don't find them fun.
It's a, I don't watch the game show network a lot.
I understand. No entertaining.
Oh well, because you love games so much. I love games.
Absolutely. That's awesome.
All right. Guys, definitely look up some family feud clips on YouTube.
You can find out what Aubrey loves to watch. And we're going to be back on Friday.
with some examples of IELTS questions, speaking and writing, in which you can use today's vocab.
Yes, be sure to hit follow so you don't miss it.
It's really important that you not only learn this vocab, but then use it in speaking answers.
Here's sample speaking answers.
And for this vocab rating, as well, we'll do a brainstorm of a task too.
So be sure to hit follow so you don't miss it.
Awesome, awesome. Alright, Aubrey, thank you for chatting today.
Awesome, thanks Jessica!
See you next time! Thanks for listening to IELTS energy!
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