IELTS Energy 1469: Don’t Fight This Vocabulary for IELTS
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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 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

forward slash my score. 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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Yeah, no, I don't like arguing. I mean, nobody should like arguing. I'm sure some people do. My brother does. My brother will start an argument. He loves to debate both sides. He actually prefers if you disagree with him. So it depends on the person. I'm curious, listeners out there, if you like that, to argue, to defend your opinion. I do not. I feel uncomfortable. Yeah.

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 quarreling, 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. Yes.

Totally. So on the next episode, guys, we are going to share some speaking and writing questions from real IELTS 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 avoidant. That's an impressive phrase.

Yes, 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 avoidant, very impressive. That is a band nine adjective. So what is conflict avoidance?

Yeah, so this is any misunderstanding, anything that would be considered a fight or an argument, right? 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 real fights, like physical fights. So it can be as small as an argument between two people. And I'll

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 and higher term, but they mean the same thing. It could be verbal. It could be physical, could be small, could be big. Those are both just the general terms for any arguments, right?

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 avoidant. Such great vocab. And guys, you,

are asked to describe people all the time, right? On IELTS Speaking Part 1 and Part 2. So you could 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 baseball, for example, like the only exciting part for me of watching baseball, this sounds bad, but is sometimes there's a bench clearing ball.

brawl. And that's when like the whole team gets off the bench comes on to the baseball diamonds, 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 like it's a it's like a long fist fight.

Yes. I definitely hear this word used a lot if people are talking about like a bar room brawl, like a fight in a bar 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 scuffle, scuffle is like a cute word for like just a little fight.

Or 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 some sort of physical fight.

Yeah, we often might describe children who were in a fight as a scuffle because they're, you know, it's usually not big enough that anyone's really getting hurt. It's pretty small. We'd call it a scuffle. Yeah, exactly. All right. So, Aubrey, 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? For 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. Mm-hmm.

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allairsenglish.com/fluencyscore. That's allairsenglish.com/fluencyscore. Would you say there's any differences between argument and disagreement as far as like the level of vocab goes?

Very similar, I think. Argument is maybe a little bit more common, but I hear both. I hear students use both. I think quarrel is higher scoring than both of these. I don't hear students use it as often. It's a little difficult to pronounce. You've got to get that qu-s sound at the beginning. So if you're going to use this on IELTS, practice it in advance in the mirror. Make sure you're saying quarrel with that w-s sound.

Yeah. And those R's and L's, right? R's and L's can be really difficult depending on what your first language is. So like Aubrey said, definitely practice that. I

I love the adjective even more though. I used it in my first question to you today, quarrelsome. That is also very high scoring vocab and it's kind of a more polite way to say confrontational, right? To describe someone as quarrelsome.

Yes, I agree. Right. This just means that a person likes to argue as 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 IELTS 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, 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 IELTS 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, a fight.

Feud. It's F-E-U-D, by the way. I know it's if you're just hearing me say it, it might be like F-E-W. What is that word? No, it's F-E-U-D, 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. Yeah.

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 like they just generally do not like each other, right? They like, 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 seen Family Feud, that's what that means. It would be like a fight between two families and it's just sort of alliteration, a play on words, right? Because this isn't really families feuding. They're just playing against each other in a game show. 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. I don't know why. I used to watch the Game Show Network a lot. Really? I just found it so entertaining. I don't watch it anymore. 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 so 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, hear sample speaking answers, and for this vocab, writing 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. All right, Aubrey. Thank you for chatting today. Awesome. Thanks, Jessica. See you next time. Bye.

Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.

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