IELTS Speaking: vocabulary review

Let's look at some of the useful vocabulary from the answers that I shared in last Friday's lesson:

• I can't see shopping malls disappearing*
  (I can't see... happening = I don't think... will happen)
• any time soon
• attract shoppers
• mainstream = popular / used or done by most people
• packed with people*
• hugely popular
• it offers more than just...
• and naturally they will
• browse the shops
• I'm pretty sure that...*
• no physical presence on the high street
• the way that things are going*

Note:
The phrases with a star (*) are great for the speaking test, but a little too informal for a written essay. Would you have known this?

Comments

[Wind]

No, I have never known that before. Hopefully in the next lessons, you can tell us more about how we know which phrase is formal or informal, and consequently, which one is better in terms of speaking or writing.
Thank you very much

[lara]

The entry for "pretty" in the Longman dictionary states:
"In written English, people usually avoid pretty and use fairly instead:
The consequences of this are fairly obvious."

The "S1" marker shows it is in the top one thousand words in spoken English; and the "W3" shows it in the top 3000 in writing.

Also:
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/packed-out

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/jam-packed

[arch1001face]

Hi,
'I can't see shopping malls disappearing'. I can see this type of sentence in some listening Cambridge books.
For example: I found computer modelling fascinating
Is this the same to the first sentence?

[lara]

arch1001face

"you should see the symptoms disappearing"

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1254&bih=952&ei=UXGhXd2CCMO1mgeh77eoDg&q=%22see+the+symptoms+disappearing%22&oq=%22see+the+symptoms+disappearing%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3...21083.21847..22278...0.0..0.185.668.0j4......0....1..gws-wiz.JwVY2ZW1V7M&ved=0ahUKEwid79DaipblAhXDmuYKHaH3DeUQ4dUDCAs&uact=5

Per British Council:
see hear listen to smell watch etc.

We saw everybody running away.
I could hear someone singing.

others:
catch find imagine leave prevent stop
I caught someone trying to break in to my house.
We couldn’t prevent them getting away.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/hear-see-etc-object-infinitive-or-ing