Political vocabulary and expressions in English

Learn vocabulary and phrases so that you can talk about politics and understand the news! I’ll teach you new words and expressions to talk about government, elections, and policy. Is the candidate for president in your country promising to cut the crime rate? Is your president proud of the economic boom in your country. Like the video to vote for me, Benjamin! Take the quiz on this lesson here: TRANSCRIPT Hi, there, guys. I thought I’d better dress up and put my glasses on today because I have decided to enter politics. Today’s class, we’re doing political collocations. “Collocations“ -- what a long, funny word. What does it mean? Well, “co“ generally means “with“, and “location“ is a place. So “with place“. Political word that go together. So “enter“, you often find with politics or center management or a new thing. Okay? “Enter politics.“ “Today, I decided to enter politics.“ Great? Got it? “To enter politics.“ Obviously, you can form this verb. “He entered politics when he was 17.“ So we can have the past, “he entered“. Or you can have the future, “He will“ -- you probably wouldn’t say “enter“, though. You’d probably say “get into“. “He will probably get into politics when he’s older.“ Okay? “He will“ -- blah, blah, blah. So “enter“, present and past, generally. Now, “to hold“ -- “hold“. “I’m holding a pen.“ You can also “hold“ a general election. It means organize, make sure there is a general election, okay? So David Cameron will hold a general election next year or the year after. I should know. I don’t. “To hold a general election.“ So often, we’re going to use that with the future tense, “will hold“. Or you could do it with the past tense. “A general election was held in 1992.“ So, “A general election was held.“ Okay? So you’ve got an irregular verb there. Now, “to stand for something“. If you want to become an important person, you need to stand for positions of authority and importance. “To stand for the presidency.“ Yeah, I’m standing here right now, but you can “stand“ for a position. So “to stand“ for the presidency, if you’re in North America. Or in the UK, we might say “stand for the position of prime minister“. But normally, you would get voted. People are going to say, “You, you, you.“ Okay? You don’t normally put yourself forward for the prime minister position. “To launch a campaign.“ I’m launching a rocket into space, okay? I’m beating the Russians. I’m beating the Americans. Benjamin, EngVid, launching a space rocket. Okay? But we can also use “launch“ with a “campaign“. Notice the funny spelling, the -aign, but it’s pronounced “cam-pain“. Okay? One of those words where the spelling doesn’t look like the sound of the word. “To launch a campaign“, a campaign. So I might put posters up all over London saying -- I wouldn’t do this, okay, because I’m not, you know, an idiot, but, “Vote for Boris Johnson.“ Okay? I put a campaign. “Everyone, do this. Do this.“ It’s a campaign. I want people in London to do this. A campaign. I want them to take action. I really wouldn’t do that. No. “To win an election“, okay? You “win“ or “lose“ an election. The labor party might win the next general election in the UK. That’s my little prediction. Have a little bet on me. “To win an election“, right? Okay? Win or lose it. You don’t -- in football, we talk about winning or losing or drawing. You don’t really draw an election, unless you’re David Cameron, in which case you sort of have a bit of a partnership with Nick Clegg. Okay. “To serve four years as“ -- of course, the number doesn’t have to be four. It could be seven. So you could say, “I served for several years on a committee.“ Okay? So this is just a number that you put in and then what it is that you did. So, “I served five years as a trivia quiz host in London.“ Okay? I’m serving. It’s an act of giving. I’m cutting up my meat for my dinner. But you can also “cut the crime rate“. Yeah? If you’re in an inner city ghetto, you need the crime rate to be cut so there are fewer muggings. Yeah? “Cut crime“ -- yeah, this is bad activity. “Rate“ -- how often it happens. If you cut it, it happens less. “To cut the crime rate.“ Now, I might want to leave politics. Yeah? We talk about “leaving“ -- exiting. You wouldn’t say, “I exit politics.“ “I leave politics to pursue“ -- that’s a lovely word. Let’s get that up on the board. “To pursue“ -- to do something else. Right? Good. Try and use this word. It’s one of my favourites.