IELTS Vocabulary: 'easy' words in 'less common' phrases

You might think that a word is 'easy' because you understand it. But do you really know all the uses of that word? There might be some 'less common' uses that would impress the examiner.

Take the word "interest" for example. When teaching a class of advanced-level students, I used the phrase "out of interest" (e.g. I decided to take the course out of interest in the subject*). My students admitted that they had never heard the phrase "out of interest" before.

*out of interest in the subject = because I'm interested in the subject

Can you think of any other examples of 'easy' words that are used in 'less common' phrases?

Comments

[Pachu]

Sir, but I know this word 'out of interest= interested in.

[Roxana]

Hi Simon and everyone,

Would you please clear up my confusion by answering the question below?

Is it better to use idiomatic expressions in either writing or speaking part, or we should just avoid using them?

[HYS]

I'm studying the topic of "Advertising & Advertisements" today from a book published by Cambridge University Press, and I've learnt so many great phrases that I wouldn't use before today.

1. Guerrilla marketing will "take over from" traditional advertising.

2.Body advertising is "an uncommon sight".

3.Attractive logos, witty slogans and beautifully designed ads are "a welcome addition to their(keen consumers') day.

[Li Nguye]

hi all,

Please, help me to check the sentence if possible.

I commonly use the following below:

I enjoy reading books because I'm interesting to fiction novels.

Now, I use the other sentence with new above knowledge:
I enjoy reading books out of interesting in fiction novels.

How about my sentence?

[Kata]

Li Nguye

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/just-out-of-interest-as-a-matter-of-interest

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=I%27m+interesting+to%2CI%27m+interesting+in%2CI%27m+interested+to%2CI%27m+interested+in%2Cin+fiction+novels%2Cin+fiction%2Cout+of+interesting+in+fiction%2Cout+of+interest+in+fiction%2Cout+of+interest+*%2Cout+of+interest+in+*&year_start=1960&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CI%20%27m%20interesting%20in%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CI%20%27m%20interested%20to%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CI%20%27m%20interested%20in%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cin%20fiction%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Cout%20of%20interest%20%2A%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20and%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20or%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20for%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20rate%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20to%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20but%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20on%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20rather%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20as%3B%2Cc0%3B.t2%3B%2Cout%20of%20interest%20in%20%2A%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20the%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20a%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20his%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20their%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20its%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20this%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20what%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20me%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bout%20of%20interest%20in%20her%3B%2Cc0

... because I'm interested in fiction.

"out of interest" is rarely followed by a prepositional phrase.