IELTS Energy 1473: Perennial IELTS Band 9 Savvy Vocab.
16:04 Share

This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1473, Perennial IELTS Band 9 Savvy Vocab. ♪

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. Are you perpetually impressed by our episodes? Today, you'll be amazed by this high scoring vocabulary that is extremely useful on both IELTS speaking and writing.

Do you know your English level? Knowledge is power, as they say, and knowing your English level is the first step to actually reach your goals. Take our free two-minute specialized quiz to discover where you're at now and get custom tips for how to reach the next level. Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score, answer eight questions, and get your results immediately. Go now to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.

Hey, Aubrey, are you a savvy traveler? I think I am. Yeah, I like to look for deals when booking flights and hotels. I think that considers that makes me a savvy traveler. What about you? For sure. I think most people listening are savvy travelers. If you like, if you're good at planning travel and you have traveled a lot, you're a savvy traveler. I think it comes with experience as well.

Yeah, for sure. I think the first couple times I traveled, I didn't know what I was doing. I made some mistakes. Oh, yeah, for sure. So guys, you know that traveling is definitely a hot IELTS topic. It could come up anywhere on the exam, right?

Yes, there's lots of speaking questions that are asking you about your travel preferences or to describe a recent trip, but also writing. You could write a letter in general training about travel or a task two essay. So today's vocabulary is extremely useful all over the exam. Yes, yes. All right, so let's get into it.

This vocabulary actually is coming from a New York Times article called Want to Score Cheap Travel This Year? Here's When to Buy. And we used this article in a recent episode.

Yes, it was 1471. So scroll up if you missed it. This was great practice for the IELTS reading exam. But this was a passage that had a lot of high scoring vocab for you to use on speaking and writing. A lot of vocab that would be difficult if this were in an IELTS reading passage or on a listening audio would make it really difficult to pick out the right answers. It would be so hard. I mean, even

We're teaching you a lot of vocabulary today, guys. And this all came from like easily the first third of the article, right? It was just a few paragraphs. There's so much great vocabulary in that article. We highly recommend that you read it. So let's get into the vocab. Aubrey, what is the first phrase?

Yeah. So first is out to mean in advance. So if you see or hear 30 days out, that means like 30 days before something else, before a trip maybe. And there's two ways we say that, you know, 30 days in advance or 30 days out. Saying out instead of in advance is, that's like two band point difference in vocabulary. The collocation of saying out instead of in advance. I've never heard a student say that.

That's true. And you can also say 30 days ahead, but I have heard students say that as well. I agree. So if you can, if you're talking about how far in advance something was, say the date, the number of days or the number of months, and then just the word out. Two years out means two years before something. Yeah. Or like ahead of time would also be a synonym, I believe.

And then this next phrase, you guys might have heard this one actually, but we still want to teach it just in case because it is a wonderful phrase. Off the beaten path or off the beaten track. I think I say track more often, but in the article it did say path. So what does that mean to go off the beaten path?

Yeah, this is especially when traveling a place that most people wouldn't know about or don't go to like tourists don't know about it. So you would never say like the Eiffel Tower in Paris is off the beaten path. No, that's on the beaten path. We don't say it that way. But yeah, this is somewhere that most people wouldn't go to.

And, you know, I'm certain that our listeners like to go off the beaten path when they travel. Our listeners are brave. They're risk takers, right? They want to challenge themselves in an English speaking university in a different country. They want to challenge themselves by moving to another country. So, guys, I'm sure that you can use this when you describe your travel experiences on IELTS.

And it's even more flexible than that because we use it not just about travel, but maybe about careers. If you're like, "My family expected me to be a doctor, but I decided to go off the beaten path and do something else." We also use it just to do anything unexpected, like a change or something out of the ordinary. It is a flexible idiom. I love that. And in Speaking Part 1, if you're describing your hometown, you could use this. Basically,

Basically, anytime you're describing a place or, as Aubrey said, making a non-traditional choice, you can use this idiom.

Yes. Awesome. All right. Our next word is caveat, which means like one bad thing about a good situation. I hear this a lot. I use it a lot, but it is pretty high level. It just sounds very polished and impressive, professional. Totally. Yeah. I use this word all the time. I don't know why, but it's become like one of my go-to words. It's because

catch there's another idiom right there's always a catch like um nothing is ever perfect basically there's always a caveat so it's like um maybe you're looking for a new job right and you think you've scored like the perfect job but there's one caveat you have to move to

Idaho or something like that. That's a big caveat. Or if you're asked about your favorite restaurant, be like, oh, this place has the best lobster bisque. But one caveat is it's 10 miles from my house. So anytime you're sharing about something you like or you do, you can add this and share one thing that's a little bit negative about it.

Yeah, you know what just occurred to me? This would be a great word to use in writing task two as well when you're talking about like advantages and disadvantages. So if your opinion is that this topic is generally advantageous, then the paragraph about what's not great, right, could be a paragraph about caveats.

right you can use that in task two yes absolutely and it's definitely formal enough impressive enough for a task to essay great idea yeah um and our next word guys savvy what such a fantastic adjective um we used that at the beginning of the show how would you define savvy

That means like smart and clever. This is spelled a little tricky if you're using it for writing with two Vs, S-A-V-V-Y, which is really rare in English. So definitely pay attention to the spelling if using it in an essay. That's a good tip. But since this word, it's high level, but the meaning is easy. It's just like clever, right? Because the

Because the meaning is easy, guys, you can definitely use this in so many places. Anytime you're describing yourself, describing other people, you can say that someone is savvy about something and then give an example about how they're so smart, right? Yes, and it can be used to describe companies and governments, you know, so then it could be useful in both part three and IELTS task two because you're sharing what they have done that is also smart, maybe a good policy you could call savvy.

Totally like in a problem solution essay, right? You could say one savvy solution would be yes, perfect.

All right, this next phrase is...

What a lovely phrase. I think it's easy to use and impressive. Tried and true. So this is an adjective phrase. How would you define this?

Yeah, like dependable, something that always works. And this can be used to describe like a method, policy, lots of different things can be tried and true means you have tried it, it has been tested and proven to be effective. So I am not a good cook. And...

But my son, he keeps telling me, he's like, no, you're a good cook. You're a good cook. And I'm like, that's because I only make the tried and true recipes, right? Like I just only make the ones that I know how to do. Right. I know I can do this. I know you're going to like it. We'll stick with that. And then I'm a good cook. Yeah.

So there you go. You can also use it. I'm not making a beef Wellington that I know is not going to turn out. No like chicken cordon bleu in this house. We're about like spaghetti and meatballs. But anyway, just to show you how flexible that phrase is, guys, right? So you could even use it in part one questions about cooking. There you go. This next word is very high level and I really like it. Leeway. I've never heard a student say that.

I don't think I have either. It is less common. It means like the amount of freedom to act or move that is available. So this could definitely be useful in IELTS speaking questions. Even if you're asked about like your job, for example, you could say, my boss gives me a lot of leeway with my schedule. It means sort of the same as flexibility. Totally.

Totally. Yeah, leeway is just like an amount of freedom that you have. So yeah, I think this is perfect for speaking part one questions about work because either you do have a lot of leeway as far as decision making as far as vacation, sick time, work schedule, or you don't have a lot of leeway, right? You have to adhere to strict expectations. So you could use it in the negative and say I don't have a lot of leeway.

or about your childhood, this would be great to say, "My parents gave me a lot of leeway. I didn't have a curfew. They trusted me." So, you're likely to be asked about your youth to force you to use the past tense. Totally. This would be a great word to use. I love it. Today's vocabulary is so useful. So useful.

Two more phrases, guys. Off-season. You guys might be able to guess what that means if you don't already know. So off-season, to describe travel, because that is our topic today, off-season would just be like any time that tourists don't normally go there.

Right, exactly. So this was tricky in the episode, if you missed it. One of the questions was asking if people should travel during the holidays. And the parallel expression in the article was, you know, don't or do travel on off-season times. And unless you know that means like not during holidays, then that would be tricky.

Yeah, totally. Savvy travelers always try to book off season, right? We know that's always the cheaper option. Okay, this last word, we saved the best for last, guys. This is such an impressive word, and it's fun to say, and you could use it in speaking and writing, perennial.

Perennial, that's such a lovely word. It just means always, like it's not a difficult word to use. And there's another parallel expression that's also very high scoring. What is that?

Yeah, perpetually. So synonyms are constantly, perpetually. That's funny. I said cinnamon. It's probably because I had cinnamon rolls this morning. They're still on the brain. I love cinnamon rolls. But yeah, these are super high scoring if you can say perennial or perpetually instead of always or constantly to push up that vocab score.

Think of how often, guys, you would use the word always in IELTS speaking or writing or to say all the time, right? Band five, all the time. Band nine, perennial. Like cinnamon rolls are a perennial favorite in my house. It just means like people always love cinnamon rolls.

Exactly. So perennial is the adjective, perennially is the adverb. I've heard this most with plants. My mom would always plant perennials, but it's less common to use this way as an adjective adverb. So definitely use it in your speaking, your writing. The examiner is going to be impressed by that. Super impressed.

All right, guys. Thanks for listening today. If you have an IELTS question for us, leave it in a review. Wherever you're listening now, guys, please remember to rate and review this podcast. And maybe we'll give you a shout out in a future show. Awesome. Thanks, Jessica. Such amazing vocab today. Perennially impressed with our episodes. All right. We'll see you next time. Bye. 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. How do you make an Airbnb a Vrbo? Picture a vacation rental with a host who's showing you every room like you've never seen a house before. Now get rid of them. There you go. No host ever. Now it's a Vrbo. Make it a Vrbo.