hi I'm Lisa let's find out if your English is truly Advanced I will give you a little vocabulary test to find out educated native speakers of English use these words and do you know them do you use them if you know 10 out of 12 of these words congratulations your English is truly Advanced I will show you a word on the screen and I will give you time to think about the meaning of the word and then I will teach you how to pronounce it perfectly and then I will give you the definition of the
word and then I will give you some sample sentences and after that you will hear some native speakers using the word in context and if a word is new to you I suggest that you pause the video and practice using it by making your own sentences that's such an important part of practice you're much more likely to remember the words if you use them in sentences and if you say them out loud okay let's get started let's look at the first word do you know the meaning of this word this one is easy to pronounce
Bleak Bleak Bleak means lacking in warmth or lacking in kindness or not hopeful also depressing or desolate for example you can say the landscape was Bleak and Barren the weather was Bleak and cold and you can also say the future seemed Bleak after the company announced layoffs or the medical prognosis was Bleak let's listen to how some other people used it the classic book Lord of the Flies which paints a pretty bleak picture of human nature where the economy looked pretty bleak for me it's not very positive it's it's quite Bleak nothing gets done in
Washington for very selfish and political reasons in my opinion let's look at the next word do you know what this word means let's pronounce it correctly first daunting daunting that Au is pronounced like this a a in British English this vowel sound is a little bit different the lips are more rounded and it sounds like this o but in American English it's a big vowel a dating if something is daunting it seems difficult to deal with it's overwhelming it's intimidating it makes you feel a little frightened or worried about your ability to do it you're
not looking forward to doing it for example we can say starting a new job can be daunting the task ahead seems daunting the Mountain's sheer size was daunting to the climbers let's listen to how some other people used it it's a daunting thing to start a book look starting a whole new career of course it's gonna feel daunting and now that you know the word daunting you probably know the meaning of this word what do you think it means undaunted undaunted undaunted is word number 191 in my online course 400 Advanced words you must know
for fluent English in that course I teach you the most important words that my Advanced students still need to learn they're fluent in English but they're still lacking that vocabulary when they're reading newspapers or they're having conversations about deeper subjects my students sometimes struggle to express themselves the same way that they can express themselves in their native language and that's why I created this course the course also talks a lot about English pronunciation rules and the American accent the course includes 7 hours of video content Plus downloadable audio of the entire 7 hours plus quizzes
to test your knowledge and conversation practice exercises and all 7 hours are downloadable in audio format so you can listen even when you're not online go to Accurate english.com if you are undaunted you're not intimidated and you're not discouraged by difficulty or by danger or by disappointment for example you can say despite the risks he was undaunted and he proceeded with the plan the team was undaunted by the opponent it's not a problem for me I remain undaunted it's not daunting I'm undaunted what does this word mean do you know it let's pronounce it correctly
first unwitting unwitting be careful about that letter I it's a neutral sound it's not e it's I wh wh and then we have that Double T between two vowel sounds so in American English that t changes we don't say witting we say witting witting unwitting unwitting means not aware of the full facts or not done on purpose unintentional or unplanned for example we can say he was an unwitting participant in the scam and that means he wasn't aware of the scam he didn't know anything about it or we can say his comment was unwittingly hurtful
in this case we used it as an adverb unwittingly it was unwittingly hurtful it was not intentional or we can say she unwittingly threw away the winning lottery ticket she did it by mistake do you know the meaning of this Advanced English word what do you think it means let's pray pronounce it correctly first egregious egregious we reduce the last syllable so the io you is reduced we say is is we don't say egregio we say egregious just egregious egregious means outstandingly bad shocking an egregious mistake or an egregious failure or an egregious problem is
extremely bad and noticeable the egregious error cost the company millions of dollars he was expelled from the school because of his egregious Behavior the report highlighted several egregious violations his egregious disregard for the safety put everyone at risk let's listen to some native speakers using it when no one has confronted that it's egregious and see it as an egregious Act of theft of the state stealing their land and redistributing it again just unacceptable and egregious and it shouldn't have happened this example is egregious I mean this is a terrible example do you know the meaning
of this Advanced English word what does it mean let's pronounce it correctly first sanctimonious sanctimonious we stress the first syllable if someone is sanctimonious they behave as if they're morally better than other people or they're morally Superior to other people and usually because they do something or they say something in a way that's annoying for example we can say his sanctimonious attitude made him unpopular I'm getting tired of my friends sanctimonious lectures about Healthy Living do you know any sanctimonious people there are a lot of them out there let's listen to how some other people
used it sanctimonious about it the sanctimony alone is enough to drive you mad I think women really respond to other women when we speak the truth we are not sanctimonious yeah I'm talking to you you arrogant sanctimonious condescending low life and now use the word by making your own sentence do you know the meaning of this Advanced word let's pronounce it correctly first hapless hapless the vowel sound a is a big sound a and we stress the first syllable hapless hapless hapless means not lucky experiencing extremely bad luck someone unlucky and deserving of pity the
hapless traveler lost his passport the hapless team lost every game this season do you know the meaning of this word it's pronounced TR I'd like to teach you a little pronunciation a rule let's listen to the difference between the vowel sounds of these two words TR tried TR tried what's the difference well technically they're the same vowel it's the vowel sound I however the I of trite is shorter because T is a voiceless consonant and tried the vowel is longer because D is a voiced consonant we use our vocal chords D versus TTT we don't
use our vocal cords that's called a voiceless consonant the vowel sound before a voiceless consonant is generally shorter listen again TR tried TR tried and here are a few more words with that same pattern right ride light lied white wide so let's say that word again TR something that is trite is overused it lacks originality or freshness it's not new and maybe it's boring it's not original for example we say a trite comment or a trite idea or a trite expression we can say that speech was full of trite Expressions his ideas were dismissed as
trite and unoriginal you should avoid trite phrases in your writing or we can say I know it's sounds trit but we're lucky to have our health let's listen to how some other people used it and this is going to sound so trit and I apologize in advance we're a you know a global world you know it's it's you know an a trit phrase but it's true I mean these things sound trite but they are deep evolutionary truths do you know the meaning of this Advanced word let's pronounce it correctly first ubiquitous ubiquitous we stress the
second syllable B and then the Q U becomes a qu b b ubiquitous ubiquitous reduce that final syllable don't pronounce the O and the U don't say o it's us us repeat after me ubiquitous ubiquitous means present everywhere seeming to be everywhere for example we can say McDonald's and Starbucks are Ubi these days you see them everywhere are they ubiquitous in your city as well smartphones have become ubiquitous in today's society the influence of social media is ubiquitous volcanoes are ubiquitous throughout the solar system in an age when information is ubiquitous but wisdom is rare
do you know the meaning of this word let's pronounce it correctly first we have three letters a a we stress the first syllable and we say a a however second a and the third a get reduced they become the schwas sound they become uh uh so we say it like this adment adamant adamant and that D is like a fast D we don't say adamant we say Ad add for example adct or product Canada this often happens when the D is between two vowel sounds it sounds like this ad adamant if you are adamant you
refuse to be persuaded or to change your mind you're determined not to change your opinion or a decision that you have made for example we can say he was adamant about not going to the party he absolutely didn't want to go he was adamant about it I'm adamant about it I will not change my opinion I will not change my mind or you can use it as an adverb adamantly adamantly his parents were adamantly opposed to the marriage he adamantly denied that he was guilty he was adamant about his innocence and now you use the
word by making your own sentences do you know the meaning of this word let's pronounce it correctly first callous we stress the first syllable and we reduce the second syllable we say it like this callous callous make sure you always reduce the o u s endings in adjectives for example generous we don't say generose we say generous nervous famous delicious if your native language is Spanish or Italian be careful about the pronunciation changes in your native language the O is not reduced it's fully pronounced for example famous in Italian that o is pronounced fully or
in Spanish same thing same word or curious of course they're spelled differently and they're pronounced a little bit differently but the tendency is to pronounce it similarly to your native language and let's look at the meaning of callous if someone is callous they're insensitive they don't care that other people are suffering or they're very cruel and they show no concern concern for other people and their feelings we can say his callous remarks hurt her feelings or he has a callous attitude toward the poor toward poor people do you know the meaning of this word let's
pronounce it correctly distraught distraught make that vowel sound big it's an a sound especially in American English open your mouth a distraught and the TR R is pronounced like this is TR this TR this for example try travel trick we don't say we say TR distraught distraught distraught means extremely worried nervous or upset we can say she was very distraught over the loss of her pet he appeared distraught after hearing the bad news the child was distraught after getting lost in the store let's say that word again distraught distraught and I was so distraught and
desperate and so full of grief as parents we were very very distraught how did you do on the test if you only didn't know one or two words congratulations your English is excellent and if a lot of these words were new to you I suggest you watch this video again take notes and make sure that you practice saying these words by making your own sentences and keep expanding your English vocabulary every time you see a new word write it down in your notebook keep a list and then review that list from time to time practice
using the words and pretty soon your English will be at a much higher level thanks for watching and keep practicing your English take your English to the final level of fluency with my online courses the American accent course the 4 100 Advanced words you must know for fluent English course and the phrasal verbs for fluent English course go to Accurate english.com
