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How to Sound Clever in English

September 6, 2017 , by Dr Julian Northbrook

Unless there’s a good reason to use it….

….confabulating with pompous lexis and jargon does little to elucidate your verbalisations. On the contrary, my little homosapius rex, utilising such oral ejectamenta simply serves to obfuscate your communications.

There! I said it!

And it’s true.

Watch this video to find out why:




  • What kind of words should you be using to sound clever?
  • What is the #1 requirement for clever sounding language?

But this isn’t just my opinion

Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor at Princeton University, ran a series of experiments. He wanted to know which were considered more intelligent: Simple essays, or essays that used complicated vocabulary.

In every case, the simple essays were considered more intelligent.

In fact, the more complicated the vocabulary an essay had, the lower it was rated.

Simply put…

The essays that were written in clear, easy to understand language were, well, clear and easy to understand. The key ideas and message contained in the essays weren’t hidden behind a wall of incomprehensible crap.

Want to sound clever when you speak English?

Three things have to be true —

The language you use needs to be clear and understandable. Your message needs to be well thought out and intelligent. And the way you deliver the message needs to be appropriate to the person you’re talking about.

I call this the “LKC Triangle” …

… and you’ll learn all about it in my book, Master English FAST — An Uncommon Guide to Speaking Extraordinary English.

In this hunk of papery goodness, l show you how to learn the language you need and use it effectively to communicate your ideas in a way that’s appropriate to the people you’re talking too.

[Julian]

P.S. Of all the big clever words I used in that video, one of them I actually just made up. Can you guess which one?

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