This is an IELTS Energy Podcast episode 1537.
Do you know a plethora of IELTS vocabulary?
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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Do you find yourself using the phrase a lot over and over?
Today, get 10 alternatives for speaking and writing which are sure to boost your score from a 6 to 7 or higher.
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Hey Aubrey, how's it going?
I am great, Lindsay.
What are you up to today?
Oh my God, I have tons on my to-do list as usual.
As usual.
I asked you that on purpose.
I was hoping you would use an interesting way to say that you have a lot to do, a lot of things on your to-do list.
And you did.
An informal one.
Tons.
Yes, you can count on that pretty much every day.
Yeah, for sure.
A lot gets boring, right?
A lot gets boring.
But we say it all the time, right?
Sometimes I'll have, I'll do like a mock speaking test with an IELTS students and they'll say a lot, or a lot of four five, six times.
There are so many band nine ways to say this.
So today you're going to learn both formal and informal ways to say this, because this could be used in your essays for IELTS writing, as well as your speaking answers.
Yeah.
So today a lot of listeners will ask us you know how do I bump my score up from a six to a seven on writing and speaking.
This is it.
It's isolating missed opportunities and then converting those into opportunities, right?
Chances, to jack up that score.
Exactly because the definition of a seven or higher for vocabulary in speaking is that the candidate shows a range of words.
So that's informal and formal, but also exhibiting knowledge of interesting phrases slang, idioms and rarer words that many students don't know.
A lot or a lot of does not count for any of that, right?
Every student knows a lot of, but the words we're going to teach you today will boost those vocabulary scores, because not every student uses them.
And there are also good opportunities sometimes for pronunciation, improving your pronunciation score, depending on which word you choose.
Yes, because a lot of these you have to hit harder, right?
You need to punch them more to vary your intonation.
You got it.
So let's not leave our listeners in suspense anymore, Aubrey.
What do we need to know today?
Yeah, so let's dive in first with the formal meanings here.
Think of how often that you say a lot of when you're speaking, Lindsay, or write It's right.
This will come up on IELTS.
So it's worth it to learn these higher scoring ways to say that.
For sure.
So should we go first into the formal ones, the formal examples, Aubrey?
Let's do it.
Our first word is plethora or a plethora of.
So, for example, on a part three question or a task two essay is often going to ask you for the solution to a social issue.
So, for example, you could say the government should provide a plethora of educational opportunities so that everyone is aware of their options.
So notice how I'm giving an example for speaking part three or writing task two, because these words are more formal.
It would be a little strange if in a part one question you're asked like what's your favorite restaurant?
And you say, there are a plethora of restaurants where I live.
It's too formal, right?
Yeah, you would never say that to a friend, because speaking part one is kind of like speaking to a friend, right?
A little bit.
The topics are friendly topics.
Right.
Whereas part three, writing task two, you need this formal vocabulary to get that range.
Got it.
Okay.
So plethora is the first one.
Abundance is another one.
I hope our listeners are writing these down, guys.
Absolutely.
Get a pen and paper, jot these down.
Yeah.
So, for example Lindsay, if I asked you in a speaking part three question, or if you got a task two essay about the environment, how could you use abundance?
Yeah, you could say.
I know many people deny that global warming is a problem, but there's an abundance of evidence disproving that idea.
Yeah, very formal sounding, right?
It is formal sounding.
It's high scoring because you could say there's a lot of evidence disproving that idea.
It means the exact same thing, but a much higher scoring.
Students don't use these words very often.
Oh, and the next one's even fancier.
What is it, Aubrey? profusion.
So, for example, in part three, if you're asked about homelessness or any social issue, really you could use this to say there is a profusion of homelessness in the city where I live.
It is vital that the city provides services and education to curb this problem.
Okay, perfect.
And then host.
I like this one.
This one's probably very rare, right?
A host of factors contribute to this issue.
Yes, but so flexible, right?
It just means a lot of factors contribute to this.
A host of factors is a band nine way to say that or write it in a task two essay.
And I love how flexible it is.
This could plug into any of the topics about homelessness, about global warming, right?
A host of factors created this issue, right? contribute to this issue.
Use this impressive vocabulary when you're introducing your ideas.
You haven't yet said the factor that you are going to cover, but you're using this impressive vocabulary to introduce that.
And then myriad.
Tell us about this one.
Yeah.
So myriad, same thing.
A lot of, a myriad of something.
For example, if you're asked about you know what, actually let's provide a temple, a template.
A template because you can add these to templates.
So, for example, when you are providing a solution for a problem solution essay, you can have a template ready with myriad right.
It would be a myriad of strategies can effectively address this issue, including.
Then you name the strategy that you will support in the essay.
So this could be used on any problem solution essay.
We love to give templates.
We give a lot of templates right inside our Three Keys IELTS course, right, Aubrey?
Yes.
And they're so helpful because then you just add your own ideas and they already have that band nine vocabulary and grammar structures.
So let's use this template.
Let's say you get a task to problem solution essay about children using technology.
How could you use myriad?
Yeah.
So a myriad of strategies can effectively address this issue, including screen time limits or on any devices being used by minors.
Yes.
And then, of course, you'd provide an example, more details.
Right.
But this is a very high scoring way to introduce your idea, the idea that you're going to support, in that body paragraph.
Love it.
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Okay, Aubrey.
We've talked about the formal, where we're likely to use those that we just talked about in part three of speaking or part two of writing.
But what about maybe part one of speaking, for example, or task one?
Let's share some more because there are informal ways to get this message across.
Other ways to say a lot of, for example, loads.
I say this a lot.
Oh, I have loads of laundry to do.
I have loads of dishes.
I've eaten loads of pasta today.
It just means a lot of.
I hear this a lot from Australians too.
I hear Australians using loads a lot.
There were loads of people there, way more than I expected.
Yeah, if you're asked about a concert maybe in task one, oh, there were loads of people there.
Just means there were a lot of people, a big crowd.
Or tons, right?
Tons, very common.
Maybe task one asks you about what you eat for breakfast or something you do in your free time.
And you might say there are tons of coffee spots near my home, but my favorite is an assuming sorry is an unassuming little cafe that's only a block away.
Nice.
And I actually did write assuming there.
So I tripped you up a little.
That's a tricky word.
This is a band nine word too, to call something unassuming.
It means it's not super bougie.
It's not posh.
It's more humble, right?
Maybe just like a little diner, nothing special, but sometimes it has the best coffee.
Lies below the radar, but it's usually the best for sure.
I mean usually the best food is from the sort of the places that don't have the fanciest signs in front, things like that.
And notice for both of these, for loads and tons, we're punching it harder.
It's strange to use these in a monotone to say there were loads of people there.
No, you want to emphasize it.
Oh, there were loads of people there.
Tons of coffee spots.
And that will improve your pronunciation score.
Right, Aubrey?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Okay.
Number three here is a bunch.
Maybe, if you're asked about weekend plans on part one, you could say we invited a bunch of friends over for a barbecue this weekend.
I'm super stoked to try out our new grill.
Notice all of this informal vocab that you should be using on part one.
Stoked is very informal, right?
It's kind of like surfer language a little bit.
Totally.
Nice.
Gobs.
Gobs is another one that I feel like I hear from British English speakers or Aussies.
I'm not sure.
And I say it too.
We say it in the West.
Gobs.
Yeah, sure.
If someone asks you to oh, if you're asked to describe a friend, maybe on Speaking Part 2, or someone who impressed you, you could say you know you're describing someone and say she made gobs of money when she launched her app.
Just means a lot of money, but a very informal way to say that.
Love it.
And then galore.
This is fun.
So maybe you are asked about a bakery you like or your favorite dessert.
So a bakery close to my home has pastries galore from croissants to eclairs.
It's hard to choose just one.
Yes, this is such a high scoring word.
But there's one caveat here that for all of these others, notice the structure.
We say tons of gobs of, and then the noun.
Whereas this one comes after the noun.
We say, oh, there are museums galore in my hometown.
This bakery has pastries galore.
We say it right after the noun, which is strange.
That's rare for an adjective.
That's really good to know.
Really important.
So guys, practice this one, get used to using it.
Just use this in your daily conversations and then it'll be ready to break it out during IELTS.
Okay.
Yes, exactly.
You need to be very systematic about using these in your IELTS answers.
It's like you said, you're not going if you just look at this list and think, OK, perfect.
I know band nine ways to say tons of that's not enough.
They're not going to be able to come to mind during the speaking test or when you're writing your essays.
You need to practice this so that you have this arsenal of band nine ways to say that.
And we've said this before.
We know that the students that do the best on the test tend to take this on like it's their job.
They study for multiple hours a day.
They study the right things.
They use a study plan.
They really take it on like it is their job.
And that's why they get past IELTS.
It's not a casual thing.
Listening to the podcast is usually not enough, Aubrey.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we're going to give you a very systematic way to add these to your vocabulary arsenal.
Choose one each day and challenge yourself to use it at least five times that day.
Use them out loud, either to yourself or in conversation with someone else, or post something online using one of them and practice answering IELTS questions using it.
Yes, I love that.
I love that.
Then the next day, what will we do?
Yeah, choose a new one, repeat the process, but then also review the previous words.
So we have 10 new words here today.
Maybe you choose four or five, your favorites, right?
And on the fifth day you're going to be reviewing all five of them because you want to make sure they're in your active vocabulary.
You don't have to refer to your notes or a notebook.
You're able to write an essay and use them or answer a speaking question anywhere on the IELTS exam.
Answer a speaking question and use them.
Okay, good methodology.
It's good that we have a method.
We have a way to do it.
Don't expect to remember these if you just listen to today's episode and move on to the exam, right?
You will not be able to pull them up.
So find a method that we've suggested. get into our course.
One other recommendation, guys, is go check out our other podcast, Business English.
Check out episode 234, where we used these words.
Aubrey, what was the name of that episode?
Yeah, it was Multitude or Plethora?
What are quantifiers and why do they matter?
So if you want a dive more into the grammar, you know what these words are, why we use them so much in English, why you need to stress them for your intonation.
That'd be a great episode to go, try out.
And we didn't talk about multitude today, but this is another one that you'll learn about in that episode.
You can also say a multitude of instead of a lot of.
Good.
So to find that podcast, you just open up your search bar wherever you're listening and go ahead and hit the follow button on Business English.
You will need to scroll down quite a bit to get to 234, because right now we're around the high 400s on that show.
I think so.
But you'll find it.
All right.
Yeah.
You can also come back to the blog.
I'm pretty sure there's a blog post for this.
So if you come to allersenglish.com, you can search that episode number 234 or these keywords.
We have a lot of blog posts about most of our episodes.
So that's also a really good resource to be using.
Awesome.
Aubrey, what's our final takeaway today?
Yes, you need flexible vocabulary that could be used in nearly every IELTS speaking question or essay.
You're definitely going to need to express this, meaning a lot of, and you need higher scoring ways to do it.
All right.
Good stuff today, Aubrey.
You take care.
I'll talk to you very soon.
See you back here on IELTS Energy soon.
Awesome.
See you next time.
All right.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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