Vocabulary: How to talk about ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES

In English, we often need to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of something. You will definitely need to do this at work, on tests such as the IELTS and TOEFL, and also in everyday conversation. In this lesson, you will learn words that have the same meaning as "advantage" and "disadvantage", such as "drawback", "downside", "positive aspect", "benefit", and many more. After watching, take our quiz to make sure you understood. There are many advantages to watching this video! Come and improve your vocabulary by learning these synonyms in a very short time.


TRANSCRIPT

Hi, there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you some new words. I'm going to teach you some words that mean "good" or "advantage" and some words that mean "bad" or "disadvantage". Now, these words are very, very important if you are planning on writing the TOEFL test, the IELTS test, if you plan to go to university or college, or just for general conversation. Okay? So it's very important you learn multiple ways to talk about advantages and disadvantages. Okay. So let's get started.

First of all, I would like to teach you some synonyms of the word "advantage". Okay? And maybe, we can work on your pronunciation. You can repeat after me as I say each word. So my first word here is "advantage", which most of you probably know. It means -- similar to "good". "An advantage of living in Toronto is you get to meet people from all over the word." Okay? So it's a good thing. Similarly, a "benefit" is another good thing. It has the same meaning as the word "advantage". "A benefit of living in Toronto is you get to eat food from all over the word." Another word we could say is "is positive aspect". "A positive aspect of living in Toronto is you get to visit the CN tower, which is a very interesting building." "A good point about living in Toronto is we have a great transportation system." For those of you who live in Toronto, you might think of that as a joke. Okay.

"An argument in favor of living in Toronto is the people here are very polite and friendly." Okay? So these are all considered good things about living in Toronto. We can use all of these words to describe the things we love about Toronto. Okay?

So I want you to take a moment to think about your city or your village or your town. What could you say that's about it about where you live? Can you think of an advantage, a benefit, a positive aspect, a good point, an argument in favor of where you live? Okay?

So now, let's look at some of the bad things, the disadvantages. Okay? So the first word we'll use is "disadvantage". Let's think about living in a city in general. "A disadvantage of living in a city is -- maybe it's very busy." Maybe it's very noisy. Okay? So these are problems with living in a city. "A drawback of living in a city" -- again, you could say it's crowded. There's too much pollution. These are drawbacks. Some people have an objection to living in a city. Maybe there's not enough green space; there's not enough environment living in a city. "A negative effect of living in a city is -- maybe you feel stressed out." Maybe you have a lot of stress because of all the noise. "A downside of living in a city is -- maybe, you know, you're not getting fresh air because of the pollution." "A frequent criticism of living in a city is, again -- maybe it takes a very long time to get anywhere if you live in a very big city." Maybe there's a bad transportation system. So this might be a frequent criticism. Now, for this word specifically, I really want to work on the pronunciation because of this "ism". I know a lot of students from Brazil, a lot of students from South America, Central America, and Europe pronounce this a little bit differently than we do in English. So we would say "criticism". Okay. Can you say that? "Criticism". Okay? So this actually almost becomes like "izum". Okay? So that would be a frequent criticism.

Finally, we can also talk about "an argument against". "An argument against living in the city is -- maybe you can't have farm animals." Maybe you love chickens and hens and pigs, but in the city, you can't have them. Okay? So these are all disadvantages of living in a city or disadvantage words. Whereas these are all advantage words.

Okay. So let's do a couple of practices with you. I want you to fill in this blank spot with one of these words. Okay? So let's start with positive. So I want you to say this out loud. So pick one of these. "Blank -- of living in a city is it's exciting." "A good point of living in a city is it's exciting." "A benefit of living in a city is it's exciting." Okay?

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