Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Understandable English
Podcast. I'm Oliver, and today we are
going to be talking about words that make you sound smarter.
OK, this sounds a little bit strange or a different kind of
strange topic for the podcast today, but what I am going to be
doing is reading or looking at an article from Prepley which is
based on a study of words that make you sound smarter.
This study study is some research.
It is an experiment or a trial or an academic paper which is
looking at results. It is testing something and
analyzing or seeing the results from it.
So that is how I would explain a study or a scientific study, and
this study was carried out in America to see what words that
people used to sound smart and what words that people think
make others sound more intelligent or smarter.
I thought this might be interesting because perhaps you
would want to use some of these words or understand them.
So let's take a look. First, the article talks about
how using some of these advanced words can show others that you
are quite intelligent or smart, or it can also kind of give the
impression that you are trying very hard to appear smart, so to
make people think that you're smart even if you aren't.
And it can be viewed negatively as well.
From the study carried out, they find that almost three out of
five people used complex, so complicated or difficult
vocabulary to try to appear smarter.
That's very interesting. And almost 60% of people have
used a word to sound more intelligent or smarter, even if
they didn't know what the word meant.
That's crazy. But there was another question
in this study and they asked people that if someone uses
complex so more difficult or complicated vocabulary or words,
does it make them seem smarter to you?
And almost 80% of people said yes, that they do think that
someone is more intelligent or smarter if they use complex
vocabulary. So let's take a look at the top
five words from the survey of which people use to sound
smarter from this research of speech.
OK, so we'll look at 5. I will read each one and then
explain what it means and we will start for #5 and work our
way up to #1 which is the most popular.
OK, Are you ready? Let's go #5 is adulation.
Adulation. It will be in the subtitles on
this podcast and if you're watching on YouTube, you can see
the correct spelling. So adulation and what this
means. The exact definition is
excessive admiration or praise. So when someone is like really a
big fan, they are admiring and loving what you do or who you
are. For example, a rock star or an
actor may dislike adulation from their fans because the fans care
or love so much the rock star or the actor or the star.
It's too much praise, too much attention and love from those
fans. So that's what adulation is.
It's like intense or too much admiration or praise.
OK #4 The 4th most commonly used complicated word to sound smart
or intelligent is anomaly. Anomaly and anomaly from the
official definition is something that deviates so is different
from what is standard, normal or expected.
For example, he was an anomaly in the group because he was the
only one that had blue eyes. Everyone else had brown eyes.
He had blue eyes, so he was the anomaly.
OK, number free is the word brevity, brevity.
And Simply put, to say something or write something with brevity
is to not use too many words and to be very exact or precise with
your use of words. So you're being very straight to
the point and not over explaining or over using words.
And #2 is accolade accolade. An accolade is an award or maybe
a prestige or a privilege which is given to someone to
acknowledge or recognize something that they have done or
achieved. So you can think of it really in
general, in most cases as an award or a prestige.
So that is accolade. For example, he has won a number
of accolades for his work, so a number of awards.
And finally, the number one most used more complicated vocabulary
or word to sound more smart is articulate.
Articulate. So this is actually a great word
in my opinion. I think it's a very good
description word and it is an adjective to sort of show the
ability that someone speaks fluently and clearly, like very
well. So this speaker is articulate,
they speak fluently and very well, very clear, easy to
understand, perhaps a great communicator.
OK, so that was the top five words that people use to sound
smarter. These were difficult, so let me
know if you will try to use them or maybe you just want to
understand them. But always remember,
communicating in English is not about using fancy words or
complicated vocabulary. It's about understanding each
other and speaking in a way that is natural and comfortable for
ourselves. If we try to speak in an
overcomplicated way in situations or social positions
where we don't have to, it will sound quite strange.
You know, perhaps when we are doing academic English or
business English, using more complicated words is fine, but
if we are just talking with friends or having a casual
conversation in a shop, it's a little bit strange to use words
that people might not even understand.
So do keep that in mind as you study English.
Don't overcomplicated what? Oh, don't overcomplicate what
you are trying to say. Say it clearly, directly, and in
a way that is natural for you and to others.
I hope this was interesting in some way.
If you are new, make sure to check out my YouTube channel in
the description below. I post real life vlogs in
English on that Channel. They are easy English vlogs
where I speak just like here in a clear and easy way to
understand. So please check that out.
And if you love this podcast and want to support it, please
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content every week. Thank you very much for
listening and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.