Did you ever notice your speech or writing has too many words like ‘think’, ‘good’ or ‘very’? You probably did, but some might find admitting this way too difficult. It’s hard to blame a person for using the words above – they are an integral part of any talk or text.
Learn this short list of synonyms for most used words to make your speech better. With almost no effort on your side you will get much better score for your Speaking and Writing.
Overused word Synonyms (f – formal, i – informal, blank if neutral)
Like Enjoy, be fond of (f), love, adore (f), be crazy about (i)
Have Possess (f), own
Think Believe, hold that (f), feel that
Good Great, excellent, spectacular (f), awesome (i),superb (f)
Very Quite (f)1, extremely (f), totally, really, absolutely (f)
Try Give a shot/give a go (i), attempt (f), endeavour (f)
See Watch, notice, look at (all are context-sensitive)
Go Head, set for, move, travel
Many Number of, plenty, large amount of
(Quite in AmE means “very”, in BrE – “somewhat, sort of”)
Just memorise this short list to saturate your speech with words that are less common but are fresh and more importantly, easily understood by everyone.
That said, there is nothing wrong about using the words in left column. It is that learners tend to forget a more appropriate synonym or variant of a word so they have to resort to yet another “good” or “like”. It often happens under stress one usually has during exams. To avoid such embarrassing situations try making some example sentences beforehand. This will help you to memorise words and set expressions more easily.
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