How to talk about ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES

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Hi, there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you some new words.

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I'm going to teach you some words that mean "good" or "advantage" and some words that

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mean "bad" or "disadvantage". Now, these words are very, very important if you are planning

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on writing the TOEFL test, the IELTS test, if you plan to go to university or college,

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or just for general conversation. Okay? So it's very important you learn multiple ways

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to talk about advantages and disadvantages. Okay. So let's get started.

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First of all, I would like to teach you some synonyms of the word "advantage". Okay? And

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maybe, we can work on your pronunciation. You can repeat after me as I say each word.

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So my first word here is "advantage", which most of you probably know. It means -- similar

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to "good". "An advantage of living in Toronto is you get to meet people from all over the

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word." Okay? So it's a good thing. Similarly, a "benefit" is another good thing. It has

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the same meaning as the word "advantage". "A benefit of living in Toronto is you get

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to eat food from all over the word." Another word we could say is "is positive aspect".

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"A positive aspect of living in Toronto is you get to visit the CN tower, which is a

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very interesting building." "A good point about living in Toronto is we have a great

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transportation system." For those of you who live in Toronto, you might think of that as

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a joke. Okay.

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"An argument in favor of living in Toronto is the people here are very polite and friendly."

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Okay? So these are all considered good things about living in Toronto. We can use all of

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these words to describe the things we love about Toronto. Okay?

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So I want you to take a moment to think about your city or your village or your town. What

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could you say that's about it about where you live? Can you think of an advantage, a

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benefit, a positive aspect, a good point, an argument in favor of where you live? Okay?

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So now, let's look at some of the bad things, the disadvantages. Okay? So the first word

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we'll use is "disadvantage". Let's think about living in a city in general. "A disadvantage

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of living in a city is -- maybe it's very busy." Maybe it's very noisy. Okay? So these

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are problems with living in a city. "A drawback of living in a city" -- again, you could say

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it's crowded. There's too much pollution. These are drawbacks. Some people have an objection

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to living in a city. Maybe there's not enough green space; there's not enough environment

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living in a city. "A negative effect of living in a city is -- maybe you feel stressed out."

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Maybe you have a lot of stress because of all the noise. "A downside of living in a

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city is -- maybe, you know, you're not getting fresh air because of the pollution." "A frequent

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criticism of living in a city is, again -- maybe it takes a very long time to get anywhere

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if you live in a very big city." Maybe there's a bad transportation system. So this might

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be a frequent criticism. Now, for this word specifically, I really want to work on the

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pronunciation because of this "ism". I know a lot of students from Brazil, a lot of students

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from South America, Central America, and Europe pronounce this a little bit differently than

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we do in English. So we would say "criticism". Okay. Can you say that? "Criticism". Okay?

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So this actually almost becomes like "izum". Okay? So that would be a frequent criticism.

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Finally, we can also talk about "an argument against". "An argument against living in the

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city is -- maybe you can't have farm animals." Maybe you love chickens and hens and pigs,

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but in the city, you can't have them. Okay? So these are all disadvantages of living in

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a city or disadvantage words. Whereas these are all advantage words.

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Okay. So let's do a couple of practices with you. I want you to fill in this blank spot

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with one of these words. Okay? So let's start with positive. So I want you to say this out

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loud. So pick one of these. "Blank -- of living in a city is it's exciting."

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"A good point of living in a city is it's exciting." "A benefit of living in a city is it's exciting."

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Okay?

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Now, I want you to do the same thing, but I want you to pick a negative word. Okay.

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So pick one of these. Okay. Let's try something different.

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"Blank -- of living in a city is it's crowded."

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"Blank -- of living in a city is it's crowded." So we can say,

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"A drawback of living in a city is it's crowded."

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So if you are planning on taking the TOEFL, IELTS, going to university or college, or

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just want to improve your general English, try to use some of these words in your everyday

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conversation. They're excellent for writing and especially to make your vocabulary -- to

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expand your vocabulary. Instead of always using the same words, it's a great idea to

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try to use some of these instead. Okay?

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So to practice these words, I welcome you to come and visit our website at www.engvid.com.

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All right? Until next time, take care.

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