Vocabulary or Grammar? Which One Should You Focus On? – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.which one is more important grammar or vocabulary many people would say vocabulary after all many people believe that by learning more words they will be able to speak English fluently while I believe that both vocabulary and grammar are equally important if I was forced to pick between one of them I would choose a situation in which I have very good grammar but limited vocabulary over having a wide range of vocabulary knowing many words but poor grammar in other words to me grammar should always come first followed by vocabulary as a close second in today's episode I'm going to tell you why I believe prioritizing grammar over vocabulary is much more beneficial to your English learning so let's get started hey there how's it going thiago here and welcome to another episode of the podcast how have you been hope you've been doing well hope you have been having a nice week so far and it's great to hang out with you once again in case you're new here this podcast is designed to help intermediate and advanced learners of English communicate with more confidence more accuracy more clarity and more awareness if this sounds like something you want for yourself and your English subscribe to the channel if you are listening on YouTube or if you are on Spotify or Apple Podcasts follow the show over there so you don't miss a single new episode before we get started with today's topic I have a very special important announcement to make i am super excited to announce that I have created a brand new program a speaking program that I believe will help you tremendously improve your confidence when speaking English and speaking English more fluently while having my guidance my personal feedback wouldn't it be awesome wouldn't it be nice for you to be able to speak English and have me listen to you and provide you feedback on your speaking so I have just put together a really cool program a speaking program which I call the speaking accelerator it's a very short program it lasts only three weeks check it out it's only three weeks but uh the bulk of the program is about me sending you weekly prompts you record your answers to those prompts via an auto message on Telegram we have a special group on Telegram for that and then I listen to your auto messages and give you personalized feedback on your English your pronunciation your grammar how well you answer the question or not wouldn't that be awesome and it's a very short program it's something that you can do in a very short amount of time and I believe that in just 3 weeks you're going to see significant improvement in your confidence when speaking English the program starts officially on July 7th and runs until July 25th it's literally three weeks during these three weeks we're going to be interacting with each other daily on Telegram i'll be sending you weekly prompts questions for you to record your answers to you send me your audio messages i listen to them and I send you another voice message giving you feedback isn't that awesome it's going to be three intense weeks of communicating on Telegram via auto messages all right so if you want to learn more about this program and how you can join and participate the link is here in the description of the video also in the pinned comment below if you are on YouTube and if you are listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts it's in the show notes i really recommend to check it out and uh enroll if you can because since this is the first group of this program you know I'm releasing this program now i only have a limited number of spots available actually to run this program and see I mean how effective it is with people but I really believe it's going to be really helpful to you if you want to improve your English speaking fluency and confidence while having my guidance and feedback so do check it out learn more about my speaking accelerator program is right here in the description of the video all right so let's talk a little bit about why I believe grammar should come first in your English learning journey followed by vocabulary as a close second before that though let me add a little caveat here just a little caveat the only scenario in which I would say that vocabulary is more important than grammar is for survival survival picture someone who knows absolutely zero English knows nothing of English now picture that person moving to an English-sp speakaking country for that person prioritizing vocabulary is the best way to go you know learning some key words that are used often in everyday conversation in that country coupled with maybe a few short basic sentences is the best way to go because for survival if you just know a few key words you can already communicate a lot let me demonstrate i could go something like this if I don't speak English hungry food eat you see and if I combine that with some gestures even better if you're watching me on video check it out food eat hungry you see I'm not using sentences because you know I have zero grammar skills or grammar knowledge here all right i'm just using individual words but you can understand my message can't you yeah where at least you can have an idea of what I'm trying to ask for another example tired sleep bed you see you understand what I'm trying to say so in that scenario yes I believe that vocabulary is actually useful to be prioritized for survival all right but what I'm talking about here is I'm talking about the process of English learning i'm talking to you i'm talking to you a learner a person who has already been learning studying English for a few months a few years who want to keep learning this language and I'm talking specifically to you the learner who is already at a intermediate or upper intermediate level and feel stuck like oh what do I do now to unstuck my English more vocabulary no more grammar so let me explain why so in this scenario of survival yes I can totally understand prioritizing vocabulary but let's be honest if you speak like that you're going to be speaking like a cave person right like a caveman or a cave woman hungry food eat tired sleep bed i mean you don't want to talk like that forever so you know for that scenario it is useful but now let me talk a little bit about why I believe as a learner you should pay more attention to grammar and you should actually prioritize grammar and add vocabulary on top of it all right so first of all you should view grammar as structures think of grammar as the structures of the language learning how to structure sentences uh that could be helpful because I know that when I say the word grammar many people already have a natural aversion to the word the word grammar comes with a bunch of negative feelings to many people so don't think of grammar think of the structures learning how to structure your sentences better think of it like this because you know at the end of the day that's what grammar is about it's about the rules to structure sentences accurately and correctly so learning grammar is simply about learning the structures of the language it's nothing more than that so keep that idea in your mind the next time you are studying grammar don't think oh man I'm studying grammar again no view it as okay I'm learning the structures of the language what is the structure I'm going to learn today what kind of sentence am I going to learn to produce today you see I think it's a much more productive way of looking at grammar which is true it's about learning how to create sentences after all most communication happens in sentences doesn't it not individual words if you go back to that scenario the survival scenario yes I mean with just words you can communicate but that's a very specific situation most communication most conversations among people happen through sentences i mean I'm talking to you right now via sentences yes I am using vocabulary on top of my sentences but there is structure in my speech that's how I can convey ideas to you all right so most communication happens in sentences not individual words so why wouldn't you want to learn the structures of English why wouldn't you want to learn how to properly write a sentence think about that for successful English learning I believe you should prioritize grammar and build vocabulary on top of the structure you're learning let me give you an example here a little contrasting example i have here a text in front of me uh on my script here to my side and uh I'm going to read this text to you i have two versions of this text version one and version two both texts are talking about the same thing it's the same idea but I want you to think which one is easier to understand which one sounds better to your ears ready so here's version one my profound appreciation for cinematic endeavors they frequently imbue with exhilaration and joyousness i witnessed remarkable one even in past the narrative revolved around impoverished individual becoming one among most affluent icons throughout annals observing this flick elucidated plethora insights regarding tenacity's vital significance the audacity to commence one's enterprise and the acquisition of wisdom from one's missteps if I could profer a cinematic suggestion unquestionably I would advocate for that specific one that's the first version did you understand what I was talking about was it clear now here's version two listen I like movies they are fun and exciting i saw a great one last night the story was about a poor man who became one of the richest businessmen in history watching this movie taught me many things about the importance of not giving up having the courage to start your business and learning from your mistakes if I could recommend a movie I would recommend this one both texts both versions are about the same thing but which one did you find easier to understand the second right the first version is super confusing isn't it i mean the vocabulary in the first version is really nice there are many smart advanced words here right look endeavors profound remarkable impoverished uh flick elucidate plethora all very nice advanced smart vocabulary the problem here is that all this fancy vocabulary all these fancy words they are assembled or organized in a way that makes it difficult to understand the message because the grammar is not there proper grammar proper structuring is not there it's just poor grammar with a lot of fancy words now if you look at the second version the vocabulary is pretty simple pretty limited even the structures themselves they are simple they are straightforward but there is grammar there is proper grammar being applied here so because of that the sentences while simple and short they are clear so the second version is simple clear concise straight to the point and accurate which results in the message being clearly understood you see so my point with this example is this remember this poor grammar can can hurt even the most advanced vocabulary if you remove grammatical accuracy from the equation you increase the risk of sounding unclear and leaving people confused so now let me give you some reasons why I believe you should prioritize more grammar in your studies remember that knowing a bunch of words is not enough you need to know how to use those words in a sentence as the previous example just illustrated let me offer an analogy here think of cooking imagine you want to cook a nice dish a delicious meal think of grammar as the recipe the set of instructions and step-by-step procedures you need to follow to cook that dish successfully now think of the vocabulary as the ingredients the ingredients are the words that you put on that dish that you put in your sentences all right so check this out without a good understanding of the recipe grammar right even if you have all of the best ingredients your dish might be a mess or not turn out as intended why you need ingredients simply having a lot of them doesn't guarantee a delicious meal if you don't know how to combine and cook them properly you see so just knowing a bunch of words and random expressions without knowing how to properly put them together won't be enough for you if you aspire to be a well-rounded advanced speaker user of English eventually you need to pay more attention to grammar you need to pay more attention to the structures of the language remember that grammar gives you a proper foundation as well first you learn how the language is structured that helps you produce correct sentences from the beginning from the get-go as you become more comfortable with the structures of the language you start adding more words to your repertoire it's like building the house first before putting in the furniture and decoration here's another analogy i mean it doesn't make much sense for you to think about buying the furniture and the decoration of your house if you don't even have the house built yet you don't know what the walls are going to look like you don't know the size of the rooms the exact size to you know plan the furniture the decoration that you that's going to go in there so it doesn't make any sense first you want to build the house you want to have the walls the ceiling the proper foundation once you have the house built then you can think about adding stuff to it to make it more beautiful more pleasant decoration posters flowers furniture the house itself is your grammar your grammar skills your grammar knowledge is the foundation without the foundation why would you want to add stuff to it when there's nothing there to add to they're gonna have a bunch of nice furniture but there's no wall there's no ceiling protecting them that's not how it works grammar also provides you with foundation for complexity all right a strong grammatical foundation is essential for building more complex sentence structures and expressing nuanced ideas which is crucial for reaching an advanced level i talk here on the channel i I'm talking directly to intermediate and upper intermediate learners of English people who are between B1 and B2 levels and who want to get out of the intermediate plateau who want to become solid C1 or even C2 level users of English like true advanced proficient users so in order to become more advanced as a user you need a strong grammatical foundation it also helps you with your accuracy and clarity obviously good grammar ensures that your message is clear and accurately understood preventing misunderstandings that can arise from grammatically incorrect sentences even if the vocabulary is present i mean one of the things a lot of you guys who watch me here on YouTube say in the comments is how easy you find to understand me how easy it is to listen to me for 30 40 50 minutes and you understand pretty much everything of what I say but here's a secret guys i paid attention to my grammar i studied grammar for a long time i have a strong grammatical foundation that allows me to communicate to structure my sentences in a way that not is not only accurate it's clear to you the listener the English I have today didn't happen by accident didn't happen just because I spent years consuming English listening to English a huge influence on the kind of English I have today is the fact that from the beginning from the get-go I devoted enough time and energy to learning grammar to studying English grammar learning about the verb tenses and then moving on to more complex structures so since I'm already hinting at this let me share very quickly here what I did when I started learning English 20 years ago yeah at 15 i started with the grammar i didn't start with vocabulary i started with grammar i took time the first thing I did the very first thing I did was I took time to learn the 12 main verb tenses there are 12 main verb tenses in English i took time to master all of them so what I would do is I would write a bunch of sentences focusing on getting the structure right my my focus back then wasn't really about learning new words it was about getting the structure right if I am practicing simple present I want to make sure that my simple present sentences are accurate in the affirmative uh version in the negative version in the interrogative version then my vocabulary was built on top of the structure as the complement or the object of the sentences let me give you here a short demonstration this is what I used to do when I started studying English okay so I would start with the very first basic verb tense the most basic of all simple present all right so first I would focus on writing down on my notebook simple present sentences in the affirmative in the negative and in the interrogative forms and I would focus on only one complement one object let's pick ice cream for example so this is what I would do when I started learning English i would get my notebook and go like this i like ice cream i don't like ice cream do I like ice cream you see I have here affirmative negative interrogative then the next step for me would be to change the subject same sentence but just changing the person I'm talking about oh you like ice cream you don't like ice cream do you like ice cream and then he likes ice cream he doesn't like ice cream does he like ice cream she likes ice cream she doesn't like ice cream does she like ice cream it likes ice cream think about maybe a a pet that you have a dog or a cat imagine your pet likes ice cream for some reason so it likes ice cream it doesn't like ice cream does he like ice cream and then we right the next pronoun we like ice cream we don't like ice cream do we like ice cream and then we have you the plural right you like ice cream you don't like ice cream do you like ice cream and finally they they like ice cream they don't like ice cream do they like ice cream you see I would write all these sentences down my notebook i don't know how many notebooks I had to buy back in the day because you know I would write a lot after that after changing the the pronouns the subject I would work on changing the complement the object and that is the vocabulary you see that's when vocabulary would come to play you see my focus originally was the structure getting the present simple sentences right only using ice cream as my object my compliment but after I got the structure right I would start adding different words okay I think I understood this idea of don't and doesn't and do and does it's clear so now let me start thinking of other things that I can talk about so if I'm talking about ice cream I can talk about pizza so let me change ice cream for pizza and then I would do the same thing i like pizza i don't like pizza do I like pizza you see all the way what else can I talk about burgers they like burgers they don't like burgers do they like burgers what else uh salad she likes salad she doesn't like salad does she like salad what else cake h they like cake they don't like cake do they like cake and sometimes there was something that was very specific that I wanted to to say imagine I wanted to say you know that kind of water that has gas you know the water that has gas in it yeah and then imagine I would go "Oh man what do you call that water that has gas in it i don't know." Then I would look it up in the dictionary and learn that piece of vocabulary oh right sparkly water okay hey now I learned a new piece of vocabulary sparkly water so let me add that to my structure that I'm focusing here right now focusing on here right now i like sparkly water i don't like sparkly water do I like sparkly water you see so I'm not saying that vocabulary is not important it's extremely important to me you know they go hand in hand grammar and vocabulary go hand in hand but the way I went about learning the language was actually by prioritizing the structure first you know the grammar and then adding to that structure the ingredients you know the furniture let's say so I started with ice cream and then I started to expand my vocabulary range about food so from ice cream it became pizza burgers salad cake sparkly water and I'm still focusing on simple present sentences you see so the vocabulary is there but it's built on top of a solid foundation the structure this is what I did and I did that process with all the main verb tenses in English all of them there are 12 all right just to I'm going to name them now yeah in case you don't know so simple present simple past simple future that's three then we have present continuous past continuous future continuous that's three more that's six and then we move on to the perfect tenses present perfect simple past perfect simple future perfect simple that's already nine and finally the continuous perfect right present perfect continuous past perfect continuous future perfect continuous i did that process with all the structures all the 12 main verb tenses now you might be listening to me right now and you might be thinking or saying to yourself "Oh man Chiago that's so boring." Well maybe it sounds boring to you but that was what helped me learn the more complex structures of the language later on what are the more complex structures of grammar passive voice reported speech conditionals mixing the tenses like you know mixing present perfect with past simple for example jabs and infinitives so think about it this way uh many intermediate learners and upper intermediate learners struggle with accuracy because of that because they didn't pay enough attention to grammar in their early years as learners they prioritize speaking and vocabulary and now they have a working English yeah that is fine they communicate but it's kind of broken here and there they're communicating in broken sentences or inaccurately you know the way to fix that is by being intentional about the foundation about the structures of the language if you struggle with simple tenses in English if you struggle with using past simple and past continuous properly future and present properly these are the basic tenses if you struggle with those how can you expect to master the more advanced complex structures that that are required for you to become a more advanced user of English how do you expect to use passive voice reported speech and conditionals properly if your foundation you know the basic tenses is not solid enough not strong enough so ask yourself is your foundation solid is my foundation solid you know maybe I need to go back to the grammar book and start fixing my foundation making it stronger so to help you with that you know in case you are still listening to me and you haven't bounced from the video yet because I know some people might just hear me talking about grammar that way and go like "Oh you know what this guy you know he he prioritizes grammar he loves grammar that's not for me bye." Okay that's fine but in case you are still listening to me and what I'm telling you right now what I'm saying makes sense to you let me give you an action plan here very quickly okay how to split your grammar studies there are three different versions here of how you can split your grammar studies all right version one you can start with the simple tenses first and then the continuous tenses later so you start like this in this order present simple past simple future simple then you move on to the continuous tenses present continuous past continuous future continuous now you have learned the six easiest tenses all right and with these six you can already communicate a lot of things all right now you're going to move on to the perfect tenses so simple and then continues later remember so present perfect simple past perfect simple future perfect simple spend time on those then you move on to present perfect continuous past perfect continuous future perfect continuous okay so that's version one okay you tackle the simple tenses first and then the continuous tenses later also you see there are 12 main verb tenses six of them are the easiest ones and six of them are harder because they are the perfect ones okay so start with the e the six easy ones first and then you move on to the perfect ones later because you know they can be confusing the perfect tenses i mean now here's version two version two is actually what I did when I started learning English when I started studying English I actually use version two so you learn the six easy tenses first and then the six perfect tenses later that's what I did so my order of studying went like this present simple present continuous past simple past continuous future simple future continuous you see I was alternating between simple and continuous but staying with the simple ones first then I would move on to the perfect ones oh present perfect simple present perfect continuous past perfect simple past perfect continuous future perfect simple future perfect continuous that's what I did but now there is a third version which is actually what I recommend you follow you know I followed version two because I didn't know any better i didn't have a teacher i didn't have a mentor a coach to help me with that back in the day i was 15 i was learning on my own that's what I did it worked for me but now with my experience of 20 years as a teacher let me give you the version that I recommend you follow and the this version is you focus on the most common tenses for everyday conversation first all right because there are specific tenses in English that are used the most in everyday conversation so focus on those first because by mastering those tenses first that's already going to help you a lot in your everyday communication then after that in order for you to move on to C1 C2 levels you want to study the more obscure more complex tenses so in order of importance okay pay attention you want to write this down okay in order of importance here's the list this these are the most common tenses for everyday conversation all right present simple present continuous present perfect simple present perfect continuous start there start with all the present tenses okay with all the present tenses funny enough you can communicate things in the present you can communicate things in the future and also things in the past all right maybe not accurately you know all the time but only the present tenses already give you a very strong foundation for everyday conversation everyday communication okay so let me repeat that present simple present continuous present perfect simple present perfect continuous focus on those after those you move on to the past so you're going to go with past simple and past continuous only past simple past continuous that's it all right then you move on to the future future simple future simple I mean will and going to future with will and going to or going to so future simple and future continuous all right that's it so in my experience these are the most common tenses for everyday conversation all right for speaking not 12 but eight focus on those eight in this order study those in this order after that okay of course you don't want to stop there because you know you want to be a well-rounded user of English right so you can study the more obscure tenses later these are the tenses that exist in the English language but they are not so commonly used in everyday conversation you might hear them from time to time or they might be more common in texts you know when you read books and stories or or articles right but for everyday conversation these are not so common past perfect past perfect continuous future perfect future perfect continuous all right but do learn those do study those eventually if you spend enough time with all these verb tenses and master them that will give you a such a solid foundation that for you to move on to more complex structures later will be much much easier and you will start speaking with more accuracy naturally yeah just by focusing on mastering these tenses here all right but of course you don't want to just focus on them and forget vocabulary building because remember in an ideal scenario vocabulary is as important as grammar so vocabulary is an ongoing process all right so let me end with this idea vocabulary building is an ongoing process that starts in day one so from day one you should be learning new words and this process of learning new words and expressions is you know indefinite all right now grammar studies they are not forever all right grammar studies represent only a temporary phase in your English learning journey i mean I don't study grammar nowadays guys i don't study grammar you know because I don't need to anymore all right now I focus on vocabulary i learn new words when I'm reading something when I'm watching something I learn a new expression you see the vocabulary building is always there is always going on but the grammar studies is just for a period of your life as an English learner it's going to be for maybe a few years maybe one two three years you're going to be more focused on getting the grammar down and the structures down but after that after you have solidified your grammar then just focus on building vocabulary you know speaking listening here are some final words i believe that grammar and vocabulary go hand in hand in language learning and are equally important grammar helps you structure your ideas effectively while vocabulary adds meaning and color to your message i believe the best approach is focusing on the structure first grammar while adding vocabulary on top of it after you've mastered your grammar you can just solely focus on expanding your vocabulary which is something I do to this day i hope you enjoyed this episode today i hope this episode made you think more lovingly about grammar about studying grammar and before I let you go it's time for the learner's corner for the learner's corner today I have here a really nice email from a viewer uh in Turkey right so let's see here what this viewer in Turkey has to say in the email hey Chagu i'm Curry from Istanbul Turkey i'm a strength and conditioning coach working with both the general population and athletes i'm also a master student in the department of movement and training sciences at Istanbul University Sarapasan i hope I'm pronouncing that correctly i've been learning English for a long time and at this point my English is at a certain level since I live in one of the biggest cities in the world and due to the nature of my profession I have the chance to actively practice English and use it in my work i work with some clients and athletes in English however I've never given up on my daily reading and listening habits i've been following you for a long time and regularly consume your content you've played a significant role in improving my English level you're one of the people who made me enjoy English listening practice and I want to especially thank you for that without going on too long I'd like to share a wonderful experience I recently had at the faculty of sport sciences at my university the sixth bianual European Association for the Philosophy of Sport conference was held with support from the European Association for the Philosophy of Sport and the British Philosophy of Sport Association academics and post-graduate students attended not only from Europe but also from many parts of the world i participated in the conference as both an attendee and a host since it was held in my university on the final day of the conference Professor Kyang Gao a sports philosophy professor from Shanghai East China University requested a meeting with the dean of our faculty since the setting was very crowded one of our faculty members asked me to act as a Turkish English interpreter between Professor Kyouang and our dean i was honestly very excited because I was going to be responsible for interpreting a high level academic discussion between professors including ideas for collaboration and potential interun university protocol agreements fortunately I successfully completed my duty during the 15 to 20 minute meeting without any problems although there were some small hiccups I was able to interpret the conversation smoothly more importantly after the first few minutes I felt a strong boost in my confidence and in that moment I truly felt like this is what I live for i was practically dancing between English and Turkish in the middle of highlevel academic discussions and exchange of ideas i felt really proud of myself and the people around me appreciated my effort as well it was truly an amazing experience for me and Chiago thank you man thank you for being an inspiration to me at the beginning of this journey you rock i'm attaching a photo below with Professor Kyang Gao and his masters and PhD students after the conference we also chatted about where they should visit and what they should eat in Istanbul i exchanged contact info with a few of them and we're still in touch online that's the kind of thing English can bring into your life who would have thought I'd have colleagues from China and build friendships with them in short the skills we gain in life are really just the sum of the small steps we take over time so if we are one step ahead of where we were yesterday we can do the things we want to do i hope this story of mine inspires everyone out there thanks for everything Chiago love you man who knows maybe one day we'll have a photo together too what do you say greetings and warm wishes from Turkey take care hey Corey really nice thank you so much for taking the time to uh share your experience share this anecdote of yours of you know being an interpreter in a university setting i mean it's amazing yeah it's incredible first of all I want to tell you that you write very well you know you have good vocabulary and that the way you structure your sentences is really you know nice yeah the way you put them together and uh I'm sure that you you did a good job as an interpreter there and so you know yes you should be proud of yourself for such an achievement and uh thank you so much for being a follower of my work for such a long time and I'm glad to know that my work has been helping you in many ways so yeah I mean um you know testimonials and stories of learners like you you know give you motivation to keep doing what I'm doing yeah and posting these videos here week after week because know it's a lot of work guys and uh it's great it's great to have that so thank you so much all right if you want to do it just like Corey you can send me an email by writing to me at [email protected] or you can also send me an auto message by going to speakpipe.com/englishwithchiago don't forget to learn more about my speaking accelerator program which starts on July 7th there are only a few spots available limited spots so learn more about the opportunity read the page and if it makes sense to you secure your enrollment secure your spot because I think you're going to have a ton of fun and it's going to be a great experience for you and your English speaking all right it's unlike anything you have ever seen i guarantee so do check it out thank you so much for hanging out with me today for listening to me talk about grammar and the importance of grammar a little bit today subscribe to the channel if you are here on YouTube follow the show if you are on Spotify or Apple Podcasts leave me a comment down below letting me know what you thought about today's episode and of course share this episode with a friend who's also learning English i'm Chago thank you so much for hanging out with me today i hope you have a great rest of your week and I'll be talking to you very soon in the upcoming episode bye-bye