Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Learning new English words is easy. Remembering them when you speak is the hard part. In this lesson, I’ll teach you a simple 4-step method that turns “dead” vocabulary on the page into words you can actually use. The secret: treat words like tools. A single word by itself means almost nothing. But when you “anchor” it, it stays in your memory and becomes ready to use in real conversations. I’ll also share 3 study tips that speed everything up. Follow this method and you’ll finally move vocabulary from “I know it” to “I can use it.” engvid.com/vocabulary-use-words-like-tools
Keep improving your English:
Improve Your Vocabulary: 8 Words for Intermediate English Learners youtu.be/Aa7f_NdYNqs
Read More, Learn Faster youtu.be/W6Z94ffQx3s
In this lesson:
0:00 How to Remember Vocabulary: My Method
0:51 Words are tools.
1:53 Step 1: WORD
3:18 STEP 2: PHRASE
5:08 STEP 3: SENTENCES
6:12 STEP 4: SITUATIONS
7:54 Trick 1: English Only!
9:12 Trick 2: Give it meaning!
10:19 Trick 3: You have 24 hours!
11:41 Homework
Transcript:
Let's talk tools and words. I'm going to teach you today why you have a problem and it bothers you, but probably no one has talked about it. I'm going to change that. And what that problem is, is that you read words, you write words, you study really, really hard, but the moment an English person says these words or says some of the words or you hear them, they seem to, like, disappear, like, you know, rain from the sky just disappears. Gone. Gone. Why is that? Well, this lesson I'm going to teach you why that happens, and I'm going to show you how to change it so it doesn't happen to you. All right? And it has to do with tools. Using the tools, which are your words, using them properly so that you can get the best results and they become useful.
All right, so let's go to the board. I have four words here, see? Words are tools, and they are. Words are tools of communication. But a word by itself is meaningless; it means nothing. I'll give you an example. "Meal". The word "meal", it's food, right? When you put food together. But when I say the word "meal" to you, you're like, okay, "meal", it's a breakfast, lunch, dinner, what's it mean? Well, what happens if I changed it and I took that same word "meal" and I surrounded it, I used my tools, other words to help give it greater meaning? And if I said, "The meal you made last night was spectacular", all of a sudden my brain is exploding, I'm imagining wine, I'm imagining a nice piece of steak or chicken or what have you, right? With some rice or whatever, and it's just, oh, hmm, what was it? I'm curious, I'm drawn in, so I've taken this one word "meal" and elevated it. But if you notice what I did, I didn't just say "meal", I had to do a couple of things. Well, three things. And that's what this lesson is about.
The first thing we want to start with is words, vocabulary. You have a vocabulary word. And I'm going to start with the word "responsible", and we're going to work through with the word "responsible" until we can find a way that we can remember this word no matter what, okay?
So, let's start with the word "responsible". Do you know what it means? Okay, so, "responsible" means to trust in someone to do something, or if you're not thinking of that, it's the reason why something happened. This is responsible, and that's why this happened, okay? You know, a person responsible - sorry, a machine is responsible for breaking down so these problems happened or what have you, and "trust", he's responsible, I trust him or her, he or she, to do the job. Yeah? Okay, so, that's what it means. It's also an adjective, yeah? You can have "responsibility" which is a noun, but we're just sticking with the word "responsible", so I need to know it's an adjective, how does it work, I need to know what it means - to trust or the cause of something.
Now, that I've got that, it's great, but it's not going to stick in my head. It's going to fall when I hear people say it or when I try to speak it, because it's not anchored. It doesn't have anything, as we have here, a nail with hammer, nailing it so I can remember it, I can bring it back. So, how do we change that? Well, we can change it into a phrase. For those of you who don't know what a phrase is, it's when you have a sentence fragment, that means a part of a sentence, that can have either a verb or a noun, but not both. Okay? So, in this case, I'm going to choose "responsible for". Now, I've taken the word "responsible" from being something I trust or the cause, and I've given it a bit more of a meaning. It's like adding a little bit of salt and pepper to your meal, give it some flavour. It brightens the taste or brings out more of the taste, yeah? And we're doing it by doing this. When you're responsible for something, you are the one that has to do it. Remember? Cause and you trust them to do it. […]
Learning new English words is easy. Remembering them when you speak is the hard part. In this lesson, I’ll teach you a simple 4-step method that turns “dead” vocabulary on the page into words you can actually use. The secret: treat words like tools. A single word by itself means almost nothing. But when you “anchor” it, it stays in your memory and becomes ready to use in real conversations. I’ll also share 3 study tips that speed everything up. Follow this method and you’ll finally move vocabulary from “I know it” to “I can use it.” engvid.com/vocabulary-use-words-like-tools
Keep improving your English:
Improve Your Vocabulary: 8 Words for Intermediate English Learners youtu.be/Aa7f_NdYNqs
Read More, Learn Faster youtu.be/W6Z94ffQx3s
In this lesson:
0:00 How to Remember Vocabulary: My Method
0:51 Words are tools.
1:53 Step 1: WORD
3:18 STEP 2: PHRASE
5:08 STEP 3: SENTENCES
6:12 STEP 4: SITUATIONS
7:54 Trick 1: English Only!
9:12 Trick 2: Give it meaning!
10:19 Trick 3: You have 24 hours!
11:41 Homework
Transcript:
Let's talk tools and words. I'm going to teach you today why you have a problem and it bothers you, but probably no one has talked about it. I'm going to change that. And what that problem is, is that you read words, you write words, you study really, really hard, but the moment an English person says these words or says some of the words or you hear them, they seem to, like, disappear, like, you know, rain from the sky just disappears. Gone. Gone. Why is that? Well, this lesson I'm going to teach you why that happens, and I'm going to show you how to change it so it doesn't happen to you. All right? And it has to do with tools. Using the tools, which are your words, using them properly so that you can get the best results and they become useful.
All right, so let's go to the board. I have four words here, see? Words are tools, and they are. Words are tools of communication. But a word by itself is meaningless; it means nothing. I'll give you an example. "Meal". The word "meal", it's food, right? When you put food together. But when I say the word "meal" to you, you're like, okay, "meal", it's a breakfast, lunch, dinner, what's it mean? Well, what happens if I changed it and I took that same word "meal" and I surrounded it, I used my tools, other words to help give it greater meaning? And if I said, "The meal you made last night was spectacular", all of a sudden my brain is exploding, I'm imagining wine, I'm imagining a nice piece of steak or chicken or what have you, right? With some rice or whatever, and it's just, oh, hmm, what was it? I'm curious, I'm drawn in, so I've taken this one word "meal" and elevated it. But if you notice what I did, I didn't just say "meal", I had to do a couple of things. Well, three things. And that's what this lesson is about.
The first thing we want to start with is words, vocabulary. You have a vocabulary word. And I'm going to start with the word "responsible", and we're going to work through with the word "responsible" until we can find a way that we can remember this word no matter what, okay?
So, let's start with the word "responsible". Do you know what it means? Okay, so, "responsible" means to trust in someone to do something, or if you're not thinking of that, it's the reason why something happened. This is responsible, and that's why this happened, okay? You know, a person responsible - sorry, a machine is responsible for breaking down so these problems happened or what have you, and "trust", he's responsible, I trust him or her, he or she, to do the job. Yeah? Okay, so, that's what it means. It's also an adjective, yeah? You can have "responsibility" which is a noun, but we're just sticking with the word "responsible", so I need to know it's an adjective, how does it work, I need to know what it means - to trust or the cause of something.
Now, that I've got that, it's great, but it's not going to stick in my head. It's going to fall when I hear people say it or when I try to speak it, because it's not anchored. It doesn't have anything, as we have here, a nail with hammer, nailing it so I can remember it, I can bring it back. So, how do we change that? Well, we can change it into a phrase. For those of you who don't know what a phrase is, it's when you have a sentence fragment, that means a part of a sentence, that can have either a verb or a noun, but not both. Okay? So, in this case, I'm going to choose "responsible for". Now, I've taken the word "responsible" from being something I trust or the cause, and I've given it a bit more of a meaning. It's like adding a little bit of salt and pepper to your meal, give it some flavour. It brightens the taste or brings out more of the taste, yeah? And we're doing it by doing this. When you're responsible for something, you are the one that has to do it. Remember? Cause and you trust them to do it. […]
