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hello everyone thank you for joining me

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again and welcome to any new viewers

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this is to the point English with Ben

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I'm Ben now in my opinion I think you're

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going to find this video really

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interesting and fascinating because

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we're going to be looking at something

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called tautology which you should avoid

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in your essays or any academic writing

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compositions in your Cambridge English

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exams or any English exams or even in

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real life so what is torgy well really

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it's just a fancy word for quite a

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simple concept and in order to explain

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it we're going to look at that sentence

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I just said again so I said in my

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opinion I think you're going to find

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this video really interesting and

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fascinating so that sentence has two

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examples of tautology so what do you

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think they are where are the two

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examples of torty in that sentence well

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if I told you that torgy is basically

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redundancy in linguistic expression so

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really just saying the same thing twice

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then perhaps now you can find the two

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examples of of tautology in that

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sentence right yeah the first one is

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where I start the sentence by saying in

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my opinion I think that's completely

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redundant I think there is unnecessary

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if it's in my opinion it's something I

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think I don't need to explicitly say it

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and if I think something then of course

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it's my opinion right so it's redundant

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to express it you're expressing the same

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idea twice using different words and the

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second example of torgy in that sentence

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is quite obvious right it's where I say

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really interesting and fascinating so

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they are synonyms if something is really

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interesting it's fascinating so I'm just

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repeating the same idea using different

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words now this is particularly relevant

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to the writing paper of the Cambridge

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English exams because apart from the

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fact that your time is limited and you

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you have a certain word length that you

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you should try to stick to so you you

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don't want to include any irrelevant or

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redundant words the examiners are

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looking out for repetition and this type

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of unnecessary use of vocabulary I think

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a lot of students think that the more

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vocabulary they use the more they write

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the the more they can impress the

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examiners but it doesn't work like that

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the examiners are looking for you to

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express your ideas in a concise way so

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just repeating ideas using different

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words is not going to necessarily get

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you more marks now you may be thinking

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that this is not a big problem right

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it's not a common mistake that we see a

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lot and you know maybe you think that

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you don't do this in your own writings

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but I'm going to share some examples of

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typical mistakes that I've seen when

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students have sent me their writings for

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correction so the first one nevertheless

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though it is necessary Etc so

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nevertheless and though are both linking

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words of contrast so putting BR them

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together in the same sentence is a type

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of tautology it's redundant to use both

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another example taking the aformentioned

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points previously discussed into

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consideration so you can see the

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redundancy there right the aformentioned

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points previously discussed if they are

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afor mentioned then they are by their

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nature previously discussed so it's

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completely unnecessary and incorrect

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again to repeat the same idea within the

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same sentence another common example is

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to sum up in a

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nutshell so this is in the conclusion

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perhaps of a less formal task because in

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a nutshell is is more more of an

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informal expression but to sum up and in

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a nutshell express the same idea right

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so put putting them in the same sentence

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is a form of topology and will lose you

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marks in a in an exam another example it

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is thought by people

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that it is thought by people so by

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people here is unnecessary it is thought

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we we're using the passive form here in

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order to not specifically reference the

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people the the agents who are doing the

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thinking so it kind of ruins that whole

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passive voice sentence by including by

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people and one more example and this

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perhaps could be from a a report or a

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proposal it is recommended that the

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survey is repeated again so the torgy

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here is repeated again right if

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something is repeated then it contained

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that idea of being again now it is

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possible to repeat something again if

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it's already been repeated once and then

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you repeat it again but in this context

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really suggesting that the survey was

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done once and it needs to be repeated

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once not again so of course it always

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depends on the context so all of those

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examples are typical in the essays or

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any other writing tasks in the Cambridge

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English exams but I'm going to share

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some more examples where we see

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tautology in more General situations and

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these are actually quite common but

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again they're technically redundancies

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we don't need to use both words so let's

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have a look at the first example an

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unexpected surprise so again you can see

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right a surprise by definition is

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unexpected so you don't need to specify

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that it's an unexpected surprise an

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unintentional mistake mistakes are

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unintentional that's part of the

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definition of the word mistake they're

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unintentional so we don't need to

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specify it and to go down south or to go

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up

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north south is considered down right and

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North is considered up again many people

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say this many people say to go down

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south or to go up North but technically

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it's toogy and it's not necessary to

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specify both it's one or the other to go

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up to go down to go North to go south

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but altogether it's redundant and we

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often see examples of tautology when

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we're using abbreviations so we when we

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use letters to represent words because

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we may not know or we may forget what

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the last letter of the abbreviation is

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representing so for example when we say

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an ATM machine we're really saying

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machine twice because ATM stands for

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automated tele machine so it's like

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saying an automated tele machine machine

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also with my PIN number I've I've

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forgotten my PIN number pin is personal

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identification number so it's like

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saying I've forgotten my personal

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identification number number now I can't

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finish this video without pointing out

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that sometimes we can use topology

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intentionally for impact for added

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impact in usually more literary contexts

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or more colloquial contexts as I said in

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academic writing like essays or reports

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or proposals I don't recommend you use

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it in this way but let's look at some

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examples where toogy is used in

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intentionally so I saw it with my own

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eyes I saw it with my own eyes that's

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quite a common expression and it's it's

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redundant right of course you saw it

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with your own eyes what else are you

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going to see it with you can't see it

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with your ears or your nose it must have

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been with your own eyes not not your

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friend's eyes of course but we're using

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toogy here to really emphasize you know

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I promise it's true I saw it with my own

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eyes I can I can guarantee what I'm

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saying happened because I saw it it's

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not just that I saw it I saw it with my

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own eyes another typical phrase which is

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technically a redundancy but it's quite

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common I am my Father's son I am my

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Father's son of course I'm my Father's

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son I can only be my Father's son or

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daughter of course but as a man I am my

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Father's son but again we use that to

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emphasize that you know I have a lot of

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sim similarities to my father I take

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after my father so usually when you do

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something that your father would do then

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you're really emphasizing oh look I'm my

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Father's son I'm very similar to my

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father of course you could be your

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mother's son or your mother's daughter

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your father's daughter Etc another quite

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common expression boys will be boys boys

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will be boys so again it's emphasizing

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boys will do the things that boys do

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it's that's just typical of boys okay I

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hope that helps you with your writing

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compositions I know a lot of you

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struggle with the writing part of the

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exams uh don't forget I have my online

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preparation courses which uh which will

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help you even more because I look at

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every single part of the exam uh sharing

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my my tips and advice on strategy and

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approach and we look at sample papers uh

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that's for the B2 first C1 Advanced and

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C2 proficiency Cambridge English exams

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okay thank you for joining me again and

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I'll see you very soon for another

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video