Improve your Vocabulary: 8 verbs to talk about movement

You probably know the words "walk" and "run", but do you know "shuffle", "stroll", or "tiptoe"? In this lesson, you'll learn eight words native English speakers use to talk about moving. Having a broad vocabulary will help you understand more English, and will make your speech more fluent. In this video, you'll hear explanations and common examples of when we use these words. Whether your goal is to get a higher score on IELTS or TOEFL, to improve your high school or university writing, or you just want to be a more descriptive speaker -- watch this lesson, then take the quiz at: http://www.engvid.com/8-verbs-to-talk-about-movement/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. Do you want to be able to speak and write in a more dynamic way in English? Do you want to be able to enjoy literature, movies, and television in English? Well, the key to all of that is to expand your vocabulary. Now, of course you know that and I'm sure you've been trying to do that. And I'm going to show you one way to do it, and it's by focusing on a particular theme. And the theme of this lesson is movement, so I'm going to show you and introduce you to eight different words that are connected with movement, moving in different ways.

So if I were to ask you what vocabulary you know that is related to people moving, what would you say? Think for a second. Maybe you can think that people... What do people do? People walk, people run, but do you know a lot of other words around that? Well, I think in a few minutes you will know. Okay? So let's look at some of this vocabulary which will make it more interesting for you to express what's happening around you. Okay? Let's get started.

So, the first word is "crawled": "The baby crawled along the floor." So, what does it mean to crawl? "To crawl" means to move on your hands and knees like a baby does before it learns how to walk. "The baby crawled along the floor." Okay? Good.

Next one: "The young child toddled into the kitchen." What does it mean to toddle? Like this. You know when children have just learned how to walk? They can't sort of walk too straight, so they move like this. So this movement is called "toddling". And in fact, a child who is about... I think up to about one and a half year or so is called a "toddler". Okay? Because it toddles. He or she toddles. So: "The young child toddled into the kitchen."

Next: "The old man shuffled along." So, "to shuffle" means to move without moving or lifting your feet very much. So think of an old man with a walker, walking along the corridor and he's not really able to move his feet very much or very high, so he's shuffling along. Okay? "The old man shuffled along." Good.

Next one: "The injured player limped off the football field." So, he's injured, he hurt his leg, he can't walk properly, so he limped off the football field. So, you limp when you have hurt some part of your body, one of your legs or your feet, or something like that and you can't walk properly, then you are limping. Okay?

So, now you've learned four words already. "Crawled" on your hands and knees, "toddled" like a young child, "shuffled" like an old man, and "limped" like somebody who is injured. Okay?

Next: "The nervous father paced back and forth." You know sometimes when you're scared, or nervous, or afraid of something, you can't sit still, you feel very restless, so you walk back and forth? That's what it means to pace. To move in a nervous way. All right? That's pacing.

Then we have the next one: "The young couple strolled in the park." Okay? So they're holding hands, it's a beautiful day, and they're walking along, and they're strolling in the park. They're walking in a very relaxed, happy way, very calm way. They are strolling. Okay? "The young couple strolled in the park." All right.

Next one: "The businessman hurried to the airport." Okay? He hurried. "To hurry" means to walk or move fast.

The next one and the last one that we have here today is: "The teenager tiptoed into the house." Okay? "To tiptoe" means to walk quietly on your toes, because maybe the teenager didn't want his parents to know that he was coming home that late, so he tiptoed into the house. All right? So that means to like walk on your toes to be very quiet.

So, you also learned these last four. "To pace" means to walk nervously, "to stroll" means to walk slowly and in a relaxed way, "to hurry" of course means to rush, and "to tiptoe" means to walk on your toes in a very quiet way. So, now we're going to check how well you've expanded your vocabulary with these eight new words.

So, let's start. So, now we're going to express the words in the present tense. Okay? You choose the words. Help me along here. So, what's the word if I want to say that somebody's moving fast? To move fast like the businessperson is to "hurry". Right? Very good.

To move on your hands and knees. The word starts with "c". What's the word? To "crawl". Okay? Good.