Ways to improve IELTS vocab

Hey guys, I'm Ajeet. Today I am going to give you ielts vocab lesson.

So, let's begin with five verbs. The first one is: "estimate". So "to estimate" means to predict or guess, not merely guess though, to make an educated guess based on some kind of evidence. So, for example: "Police estimated that 20 people were killed." It's a little dark to say that, but if you read any newspaper article or if you are doing a reading section on a TOEFL or an IELTS, you might read something similar to this. So police estimated; they made a prediction. 

The next word is: "identify". "Identify" is just another way to say: "show" or: "to point out", if you want to use a phrasal verb. So: "Scientists have identified numerous species." They have basically shown, discovered, pointed out numerous species. And just a reminder: all of these are verbs which means you can use them in variety of tenses, all English tenses.

The next verb is: "interpret". "To interpret" means to give a personal analysis or a personal opinion on something. So you can interpret a text, you can interpret a film, you can interpret a person's words. The example we have here is: "His poems have been interpreted in many ways." So they have been analyzed, and people have developed their own opinions, many different types of opinions about his poems. 

The next verb is: "minimize". This is the opposite of: "maximize". When you think of "max", you think of the top. Right? When you think of "to minimize" something, you think to keep it at a low level. So for example: "They attempted to minimize confusion." Whether that's because they created a text and they didn't want people to be confused by the text, so they kept the language at a, you know, manageable level that everyone could understand. 

And finally: "occur", a very common verb. And you might be wondering: "Well, what does 'occur' mean?" It just means: "happen", it comes from an occurrence. "An occurrence" is an event, something which happens. So: "This strange event occurred in 1994." The strange event happened in 1994. 


 let's look at the other five verbs that I'm going to look at today. The next verb is: "obtain". Now, "to obtain" means to acquire or to get something. So for example: "Archaeologists obtained the lost artifact." They acquired it, they got it, essentially. 

The next verb is: "prohibit". This comes from "prohibition" which is the noun form. "To prohibit" is to not allow something or not give permission to do something. So, for example: "Protesters were prohibited from entering." Maybe from entering the building or something like this, so they were not allowed, they were not given permission, they were prohibited. 

The next is: "pursue". Basically, this is a very common verb which means to chase or to go after. So, for example: police pursue criminals. Or, as we have on the board: "He pursued a career in economics." So you can pursue a career, like chase after it, go after it.

The next verb is: "symbolise". "Symbolise", you might see the word: "symbol" in this. A symbol is a representation of something. So: "to symbolise" is to represent. For example: "In many cultures, the skull" - a human skull - "symbolizes death." It represents death. 

And finally, we have the verb: "transform" which just means to change into, it comes from "transformation", which is the noun form. So, for example: "Caterpillars transform into butterflies