IELTS Energy 1467: Fess Up for Higher IELTS Speaking Store
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1467, Fess Up for Higher IELTS Speaking Scores.

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

Today, we'll teach you three high-scoring synonyms for telling lies and three more high-scoring synonyms for telling the truth. Listen up because you'll be surprised how often you can use this great vocabulary on your next IELTS speaking exam.

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Aubrey, when you were a kid, did you ever say liar, liar, pants on fire? Absolutely. Like sing-songy, liar, liar, pants on fire. So guys, today we're going to talk about vocabulary you can use on IELTS Speaking to talk about lying, but also to talk about telling the truth. Why would today's vocabulary be useful?

Oh, I feel like you could use this all over the speaking exam. No matter what you're asked about, it seems like you could sneak in there, whether you're telling the truth or lying or someone who lied to you. We talk about this a lot, so it could definitely come up on your IELTS speaking answers.

- Think of how many times you hear students say, to be honest, right? We could replace that with some of today's interesting vocabulary, right? Like instead of saying, to be honest, to introduce an unpopular opinion,

you could use today's vocab and be like, I'm gonna come clean. I actually do not like reading books or like whatever your opinion is. Yeah, all of these will make great fillers as well, right? Whether before you start answering, you know, use this vocab to not only boost your vocab score, but to boost your fluency score to give you something to say before you start actually answering the question.

And there are some part two questions that relate to lies and honesty. And on Friday, guys, we're going to give you a sample answer about one of those part two questions. Awesome. All right, let's dive in here with some really fun vocab. First, we're going to talk about lying by omission, right? So this is where you don't actually tell a lie. It's more that you're leaving something out. You're omitting information.

Exactly. Do you ever do this? Can you think of a real life example? Absolutely. If we want to talk about... Everyone does this.

we want to talk about the tooth fairy and christmas like i'm really good about not outright lying but just not sharing all of the details totally right so it's like if you're saying um oh you're gonna get a dollar under under your pillow uh because you lost a tooth you can omit the fact that it's you giving the dollar and not the tooth fairy

Yeah, you just leave some stuff out. You feel like you're not really lying, but it's a lie of omission. Exactly. And again, guys, in my sample part two answer on Friday, I'm going to expand on that idea. Okay, so the next is a great slangy synonym for lying. It is fibbing. Fib is lying.

It sort of takes the power out of lying. It doesn't sound like it's that bad, but it's still a lie. Right. It's sort of like a little white lie, sort of like a less important, smaller lie would be a fib. And we also use this as a noun to call someone a fibber instead of a liar, which that's a big accusation that feels very serious and heavy to call someone a liar. But a fibber, that's sort of more playful and fun, not quite as serious.

Yeah, if I picture fibbing, like if you're answering a speaking part one question, right, about telling the truth, because there are question groups like that. You'd be like, do you always tell the truth? You could say like,

I mean, I consider myself an honest person, but I do fib on occasion so I don't make people feel bad. Yeah, and you could use this on so many questions if you're asked what restaurant you like to go to and you say, you know, whenever my partner asks where I want to go, I know he wants to go to Thai. So regardless of what I'm craving, I'll tell a little fib and say, I feel like Thai.

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All right. There is one more vocabulary phrase for lying, which is to distort the truth. And then, guys, we're going to give you three phrases for being honest. OK, but first, distorting the truth. How is that different than lying, do you think? Yeah, this is maybe exaggerating or just changing details. Right. So this is a little more harmless than outright lying. This means you're changing some facts.

Yeah, so distort is a verb that means like to change slightly, right? All right. And then we have this really fun vocab for telling the truth. So first of all, fess up. This came up recently in an All Ears English episode, actually. Oh, cool. Episode 2346. Lindsay and I recorded this. It was called This is Tricky English Grammar, though.

And so you could make sure you're following the Allers English podcast. Lots of amazing vocab over there as well. This means you have either lied or, you know, you've done something you shouldn't. And fess up means you're going to admit that you did it. So it's a good phrasal verb. It's the same as admit.

Exactly. And again, guys, I'm going to use that in my sample answer on Friday. So stay tuned. To come clean is the same. It's exactly the same as fess up, right? But it's a wonderful idiomatic way to say, like, you're finally telling the truth about something. So maybe you omitted a fact earlier, or you outright lied, or you did something wrong. Eventually, if you do, if you are honest about that fact, then you are coming clean.

This reminds me of, it makes me think of like confession. If you are part of a religion where you have to like confess anytime you lie in order to be like cleaned of the guilt or wrongdoing. So you can imagine that with this idiom, you are being cleansed when you admit that you've lied and then you come clean.

Well, we also use clean as an adjective to describe our conscience, right? After we've lied. So you could be like, my conscience is clean or my conscience is clear because I told the truth. Yeah, it means I have nothing to be guilty about, right? Nothing to feel guilty about. And the next one is really interesting. We'll say, I'm going to be straight with you or I'm going to be straight up. And this means I'm going to tell the truth.

So this could, you could start a lot of answers this way. If you're going to say something a little bit surprising, you'd be like, let me be straight with you. And then however you're answering the question, you wouldn't want to use it for like, you know, what's your favorite color or something that you would never lie about, but something where your opinion might be a little controversial, this would be perfect.

Exactly, exactly. What a wonderful IELTS filler phrase to keep in your back pocket, guys. Just anytime you're going to say something that is surprising, like Aubrey said, surprising or controversial, right? Or an opinion that goes against the norm, you could use this phrase like,

I'm going to be straight up with you. And then you give your opinion. I'm going to be straight up with you. I really love fast food and I eat it every day.

Nice. And that would likely be a part one answer. Very useful there when you're just sharing about your personal life, but also in part three, if you're asked about crime or the environment, and maybe you have a controversial opinion, a hot take on something, you could use this, right? If you're asked if crime is big in your city, you could say a lot of people feel it is, but I'm going to be straight up. I have never witnessed any crime. So I think maybe everyone's wrong.

Totally. Exactly. Oh my gosh. So great examples. And remember, Friday, we're going to give you a part two sample answer about a story involving a lie. But first, guys, we want to talk to you about a Spotify poll.

Yes, there was a really fun recent one where we mentioned googly eyes in the episode, episode 1451, burning listening answers from Bend, Oregon. That was some great listening practice for the exam. And our Spotify poll question was, do you know what googly eyes are? I have a feeling whoever's answering the poll may be answered before they listen to the episode because we got only 33% yes and 66% no. Yeah, that's the

that's surprising because we did say what googly eyes were in that episode. That is such a great listening practice episode. Scroll up burning listening answers from Bend, Oregon. Listen to that for some IELTS listening practice. We talk about some recent news from my neck of the woods in Oregon. And what's funny, I'll update here a little bit. I then heard that story on wait, wait, don't tell me on that podcast. I heard it. I

heard it mentioned there on like the following weekend and then I saw it like in a news article after that we're just ahead of the curve right we know what news is going to be picked up

So funny. Okay. And then today's poll, I think is very interesting. What is today's question? Yeah. We want to know, do you think lying by omission is the same as lying? So answer this poll for us. Do you think outright telling a lie is more serious or not?

I'm kind of strict on that. I think lying by omission is often the same as lying. Like, I don't like it when people use that as an excuse. I didn't lie. I just didn't tell the whole truth. Like, that's still lying in my book. Right. It's interesting how I get that from my kids a lot. Like, well, I didn't actually lie. And you sort of have to teach children that, like, that's still dishonesty because you can see how it's a sort of a gray area in their minds. Totally.

Totally. And that would be such a fascinating IELTS part three question. I wouldn't be surprised if it's on the test. All right, guys, thank you for listening today and we'll see you on Friday. Awesome. See you Friday. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com/myscore.